Pakistan’s government, struggling to fulfil election promises to end daily power cuts, is shifting from big generation projects to less splashy reforms including new transmission systems, privatisation and better management. Since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came to office in 2013, his government announced a string of big-ticket power plants that have failed to live up to their fanfare billing. A 6,000 megawatt (MW) coal powered park has been quietly put on the back burner. A planned 1,000 MW solar park only has an installed capacity of 100 MW so far, and the Nandipur plant of 425 MW closed days after the prime minister inaugurated it over management and pricing disputes. It recently reopened.Pakistan produces about 16,000 MW and faces a shortfall of around 6,000 MW, although supply and demand fluctuate, the planning ministry said. “They kept hyping generation too much, creating unrealistic deadlines that end in disappointment,” said Werner Liepach, Pakistan head of the Asian Development Bank, the biggest external investor in Pakistan’s power sector. Now, experts say, officials are quietly acknowledging that extra generation alone won’t solve power woes, and are beginning to tackle deep-rooted problems like mismanagement, ancient transmission systems and slow privatisation. Power generation and power transmission is a simultaneous and mutually sustaining process; lag in one area will necessarily hurt the other. With our pronounced oblivion of critically managing the energy crisis, our one-legged race of concentrating only on adding power generation has added to our woes of inflation, unemployment and public anger. Wisdom has finally dawned on the government, which has realised that exclusive slogans of power generation without solving the problem of power transmission simultaneously will not win them the needed votes in the 2018 election. Electricity generation remains to this day a problem that could cause political instability because of a crippled economy. Solving the power crisis cannot exclusively stem from purely political considerations without the inclusion of technical expertise; according to the lead energy specialist for Pakistan at the World Bank, Richard Spencer: “Sharif inherited a power system on the brink of collapse. He revived it, but now faces a tough political decision to improve it.” It is necessary to garner a resolve that aims to move beyond the darkness of today to brighten a tomorrow. The power crisis has affected almost all segments of society and every sector of our economy. Pakistan produces 16,000 MW of electricity and experiences a gulf of 6,000 MW.
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