Removing power distribution snags

The Asian Development Bank will provide funding of $150 million to Pakistan for power distribution enhancement project-1, to be implemented by Pepco to enable it to address the capacity shortfalls that currently result in frequent system outages and power supply interruptions.
According to a Recorder Report, the three-pronged ADB strategy envisages enhanced circuit and transformer capacity to meet the projected load growth, and revamp the distribution network. The strategy is designed to help remove systemic flaws that have reduced power distribution efficiency in the country. ADB is, meanwhile, also considering a proposal for another $810 million loan for power distribution enhancement facility in the country.
The programme will be meant to increase the efficiency of the overall distribution network, and will provide adequate and uninterrupted power supply to a larger number of industrial, commercial and domestic consumers, through funding of investment needs of each of the eight distribution companies (Discos) in the country.
According to an ADB report, consultants and firms will be selected and engaged for specific assignments in accordance with the bank's operating procedures, while procurement will be done in accordance with ADB's Procurement Guidelines 2007. A study carried out by ADB has determined that the country has a large untapped energy efficiency market. It has also identified several energy efficiency improvement opportunities in gas distribution that can be profitably tapped.
However, Pakistan lacks a comprehensive energy efficiency development roadmap and investment programme. Experience has shown that effective implementation and incorporation of energy efficiency into the policy mainstream requires concerted, long-term action and commitment, which we have failed to ensure.
In its report, ADB has emphasised the need for reform in energy pricing, utility rate-setting and maintenance of equipment standards. It says that certification, testing regime alternative and renewable energy programme, easy access to energy efficiency information, financing as well as products and services by all categories and levels of energy market players and the end users should be ensured.
Pakistan's domestic sector currently uses some 45 percent of the power supply. The ADB update has suggested that introduction of 15 million high-quality compact fluorescent lamps into Pakistan's domestic market would save the consumers $78 million over the lifetime of those bulbs. The money thus saved could be more productively used in the economy. The ADB report has further suggested that the cost of additional new generation capacity would be some $1.15 billion.
Our present inefficient power distribution network is an outcome of consistent delays in completion of transmission facilities. The length of transmission lines and the load carried at relatively low voltage levels too have contributed to a considerable extent, to the high system losses in the country, while overloading of the system often results in frequent breakdowns. It will be recalled that implementation of transmission schemes has suffered from the very beginning.
For instance, during the 1947-55 period, the First Five-Year Plan had noted: "Very little progress was made on schemes for the transmission and distribution of supplies. These were estimated to cost Rs 60 million, of which only Rs 21 million were spent by March 1955." The progress of transmission system during the First (1955-60) and the Second (1960-65) plan periods remained satisfactory in as much as the transmission facilities more or less matched the expansion in the installed capacity.
The total length of transmission and distribution lines (11KV and above) increased from 2,245 km in 1955 to 7,080 km in 1960 and to 21,722 km in 1965. And almost all the transmission schemes were implemented without significant delays. However, the situation started deteriorating from the Third Plan period when delays in implementation of the transmission programme deprived the country of the benefits, which could have been obtained through expansion in the installed capacity.
This pattern has more or less been followed since then, with the failure to synchronise the extension in transmission facilities with the expansion in installed capacity still dogging the system. Secondly, the distribution system has remained burdened with rampant power theft, and other types of line losses.
As installation of static capacitors can substantially ease these problems, these devices should be installed under a phased programme. Secondly, general lack of co-ordination among various energy-related departments and agencies has worsened the problem of power distribution, despite the fact that the Fourth Plan had laid special emphasis on bringing about organisational improvements to overcome these problems.
There is an urgent need to bring about structural and organisational improvements in the country's power distribution system, in the interest of greater efficiency, which is the need of the hour. Lastly, $150 million credit facility, which ADB is planning to advance to the government, should be utilised to the optimum level to ensure maximum improvement in the ageing power distribution network.