Engineer Ahmad Hasan, Vice President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) while addressing a seminar on energy efficiency and conservation organized by the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore at FCCI, here on Tuesday has said cheap and abundant electricity is required to enable Pakistan to compete with economic rivals to recapture the lost international markets.
He said that industrial sector of Pakistan made tremendous progress immediately after the construction of Mangla, Tarbella and other hydel power stations during the decade of 1960s. As a result of this cheap electricity and rapid industrial growth, our exports also jumped speedily and the textile sector of Faisalabad flourished at a much faster pace. However, during the last two decades the shortage coupled with costly electricity, the GDP recorded a negative growth of 2 percent.
He further said that in America 60 percent cheap electricity is produced with coal while in Pakistan its ratio is just 0.4 percent and we are forced to use this costly electricity. He also mentioned the wastage of electricity at industrial, commercial and domestic level and said that in current national scenario, we cannot afford any more wastage of energy which is going to become scarce in view of coming hot season.
He said that we could reduce 47 percent of existing loadshedding only by using these energy efficient electricity appliances. He said that hot summer in just to start and with the onset of hot season the gap between demand and supply of electricity will further widen.
He said that we can save 39 percent electricity by switching over to the use of energy efficient fans and air conditioners. However, in this regard we have to sensitise masses to play their role in saving much needed energy. Dr Tahir Izhar, Head of Electrical Engineering Department, UET told that total demand of Pakistan has been estimated around 24000MW. But we are getting 18000MW of electricity from the total installed capacity of 22000MW.
Thus there is a visible shortage of 6000MW. He told that the present government is fully concentrating not only on power generation but on the production of cheap and affordable electricity. He said that due to various projects launched by this government another 10000MW of electricity is expected to be injected in national grid by 2018.
He also mentioned CPEC and told that under this mega project China will spend US 35 billion dollar on electricity projects. Government is also focusing on mega transmission lines and hopefully our production capacity will jump to 53000MW of electricity by the year 2028, he added. Dr Tahir said that despite of these new projects we must make concerted efforts for the efficient use of electricity.
Mohammad Ali, foreign consultant also addressed the seminar and stressed the need for regular energy audit particularly by our industrial sector. He claimed that we could save 6 to 7 percent of electricity only by promoting prudent use of electricity. A documentary on energy efficiency and conservation was also screened while SVP Rana Sikandar Azam also attended the seminar for some time and appreciated efforts of Vice President Engineer Ahmad Hasan for organizing this important and productive seminar.