Meeting the energy challenge

According to a recent report, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Chairman Lieutenant General Saeed-uz-Zafar (Retd) advised the industrial sector to generate electricity from its own resources in order to help meet the challenge of energy shortage in the country.
Although he did not float this idea in a formal way, it will certainly make sense to the owners of industrial units capable of working on it in self-interest. Speaking at a seminar on "Energy Crisis: Challenges and Future Strategies," organised by an energy related publication, the Nepra chief said that those responding positively to his proposal would be allowed to sell the energy they created or to use it for their own needs to reduce the burden on the national grid. On the face of it, the idea may sound like a far cry from the formidable energy famine haunting the country at present.
Viewing the increasingly frightening power crisis in the overall perspective, only a multi-directional strategy can help achieve what looks like an impossible task. First and foremost, it may be noted that hydel power, ideal for a country like Pakistan, unfortunately, passed us by, or was thoughtlessly neglected. As for the fossil based energy, it failed to attract due attention for reasons that need no repetition too.
That those who mattered in making such decisions, relied too much and too long on oil and gas, can only be lamented, to say the least. Now, in so far as the quest for an unfailing strategy for the present and the unfolding future is concerned, it cannot but be a mixed bag of opportunities and failures, thereby signalling a predicament similar to the one resulting from the blind reliance on Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
This is not to say that nothing has been done during recent years to handle the deteriorating situation on the energy front. Emphasis was laid on the use of huge untapped coal resources, particularly, in the vast areas of the Thar desert in Sindh province. Reference, in this regard, may also be made to the focus on alternative sources of energy, encompassing a number of options, including wind and solar energy. With the putting in place of the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), one had expected speedy progress. However, the situation on the ground still points the other way.
All in all, it has proved more of a hectic effort than a hope inspiring exercise. This should become all the more evident from the recent launch of the hastily conceived nation-wide energy conservation campaign which, inadvertently though, contributed more to accentuate rather than assuage the plight of energy consumers. In this perspective, Nepra chief's concern about massive use of oil and gas for power generation should be quite understandable, thereby urging the government to do the needful before it gets too late.
It may be recalled that power sector has sucked over Rs 500 billion in the last eight years from the federal budget. But, there is still no light at the end of the tunnel. Both Wapda and the privatised KESC continue to get the blame. Non-revision of tariff due to political considerations and failure of resource-short managements to bring efficiency and reduce losses and wastage, continue to be our Achilles' heel. A great majority of consumers may be willing to pay a little extra if they are ensured uninterrupted and stable supply of electricity.