How to ensure uninterrupted power supply?

Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi, while attending a briefing on Hesco's performance, has said that ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply to consumers is the primary responsibility of the officials concerned. He has also stressed the need for completing all power projects within the timeframe set for each.
But if there is an acute shortage of power in the country, how can the officials ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity? What the minister said at the briefing is essentially a reiteration of what the government high-ups have been saying all these years. In February this year, Jatoi had claimed on the floor of the National Assembly that there was 874 megawatts of surplus power available in the country, and that the only problem was an overloaded distribution network, because of which excess power could not be transferred to the system.
The country is meanwhile being subjected to yet another spell of loadshedding, with all its adverse impact on industrial productivity. The current power squeeze in Pakistan is essentially a ricochet effect of policy failure, though lax implementation too has played a contributory role.
There is no dearth of power generating resources in Pakistan as it possesses a capacity to produce 40,000 megawatts of hydropower alone, and is endowed with vast high-quality coal reserves that can meet our energy requirements for over a century. The country's current installed power generating capacity is 19,522 megawatts, with Wapda contributing 11,327 megawatts, KESC 1,756 megawatts, PAEC 462 megawatts, and IPPs 5,977 megawatts. Plans are also afoot to tap coal, wind and solar power energy to counterbalance the power shortfall. But things have mostly stayed at the planning stage. (According to one estimate, the current energy deficit in Pakistan stands at 1,300 megawatts).
Based on its present generation capacity, the country's hydel-thermal mix is 34:66, which is almost the reverse of an ideal hydel-thermal mix of 70:30, for overall economic development of Pakistan. In the presence of this top-sidedness, the country's power shortages are being largely met through thermal power rather than the cheaper hydel alternative. Over-reliance on the thermal option to weather the crisis has also caused a drastic increase in power tariff. Incidentally, 43 percent of Pakistan's current account deficit is said to be due to the impact of increase in oil prices in the international market.
The price spiral has created serious difficulties for Pakistan, as its oil import bill has shot up to $5-6 billion while its trade deficit has reportedly crossed the $12 billion mark. According to available data, Pakistan's present energy mix has the highest share of 50 percent for gas, 30 percent for oil, 5.5 percent for coal, 12.7 percent for hydel power, and 0.8 percent for nuclear energy, while energy from renewable sources stands at almost zero percent.
The Planning Commission has already warned that unless the country's power generating capacity is substantially increased, it will not be possible for us to sustain the high economic growth rates set by the government in the long run.
Secondly, the fast-growth trajectory set by the government has prompted an increase of over six percent in our energy demand per annum. (Wapda's decision in 2006 to rent a "low efficiency" gas-run 150 megawatt power plant at a high monthly rent of $3.156 million with the approval of the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet, at a tariff of 3.133 cents/kwh for three years, was reflective of how desperate the situation was).
As we have maintained in this space earlier as well, there are no shortcuts to industrial and agricultural development of a country. It requires strong political commitment and painstaking formulation of policies and their faithful implementation. We in Pakistan are actually paying the price of adhocism, which successive governments have practised over the decades. The bureaucracy too has indeed played a prominent role in all of this, but the main responsibility lies with the policymakers.
Jatoi has exhorted the officers to ensure uninterrupted supply of power to every nook and corner of the country. How will they do this when there is a progressive shortfall of power supply? At best they can improve maintenance of the infrastructure, but it is essentially for the decision-makers to improve the whole system.