fawwaxs
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As if it were not enough that Pakistanis have to deal with a deepening power crisis with each passing season, it now appears that they have to grapple with mysterious discrepancies in the data proffered by the various players in the power sector.
Amazingly, Pepco, Wapda and distribution companies are now sparring over how much electricity is being supplied throughout the country. How is this even possible? Pepco, which was created to manage the transition of Wapda from a bureaucratic structure to a corporate, commercially viable and productive entity, is now openly being accused of playing politics and fudging numbers to downplay the extent of the power crisis. It seems that the vehicle created to stem the rot in the power sector has itself been infected.
While the key players bicker among themselves and shift the blame on to one another, there is a simple underlying reality at the moment: the installed thermal-generation capacity of the country is enough to meet the mid-March national demand for electricity. However, with the circular debt problem still plaguing the sector, many power units are idling or operating at below capacity as power-generating companies lack the money to purchase more fuel.
Who is to blame for this state of affairs? Theres plenty of blame to go around, but at the end of the day theres only one player that can crack a system-wide problem: the government. Had the government shown some creativity or the willingness to knock heads together, the circular debt issue would not have been so pressing. Having said that, it appears that the other players are finding it convenient to blame everything on circular debt now. When a power-generating unit of KESC went offline this week, the company was quick to blame circular debt, though it appears a maintenance issue could in fact be the reason for the shutdown. How many megawatts are offline nationally because of poor maintenance or bad management as opposed to circular debt is not known.
There is another facet to the power crisis that often gets overlooked. Roughly speaking, for every 500MW of electricity shortfall in the country, an hour of loadshedding has to take place. But the distribution of the shortfall is not even: rural areas suffer many more hours of power cuts than do urban areas. To the extent that urban areas require more electricity for industrial and other productive purposes, this is understandable. However, urban consumers, especially domestic and commercial consumers, are disproportionately favoured over rural consumers. In this power game, as it is with others, it appears the rural population is very much of secondary importance.
DAWN.COM | Editorial | Power crisis
Amazingly, Pepco, Wapda and distribution companies are now sparring over how much electricity is being supplied throughout the country. How is this even possible? Pepco, which was created to manage the transition of Wapda from a bureaucratic structure to a corporate, commercially viable and productive entity, is now openly being accused of playing politics and fudging numbers to downplay the extent of the power crisis. It seems that the vehicle created to stem the rot in the power sector has itself been infected.
While the key players bicker among themselves and shift the blame on to one another, there is a simple underlying reality at the moment: the installed thermal-generation capacity of the country is enough to meet the mid-March national demand for electricity. However, with the circular debt problem still plaguing the sector, many power units are idling or operating at below capacity as power-generating companies lack the money to purchase more fuel.
Who is to blame for this state of affairs? Theres plenty of blame to go around, but at the end of the day theres only one player that can crack a system-wide problem: the government. Had the government shown some creativity or the willingness to knock heads together, the circular debt issue would not have been so pressing. Having said that, it appears that the other players are finding it convenient to blame everything on circular debt now. When a power-generating unit of KESC went offline this week, the company was quick to blame circular debt, though it appears a maintenance issue could in fact be the reason for the shutdown. How many megawatts are offline nationally because of poor maintenance or bad management as opposed to circular debt is not known.
There is another facet to the power crisis that often gets overlooked. Roughly speaking, for every 500MW of electricity shortfall in the country, an hour of loadshedding has to take place. But the distribution of the shortfall is not even: rural areas suffer many more hours of power cuts than do urban areas. To the extent that urban areas require more electricity for industrial and other productive purposes, this is understandable. However, urban consumers, especially domestic and commercial consumers, are disproportionately favoured over rural consumers. In this power game, as it is with others, it appears the rural population is very much of secondary importance.
DAWN.COM | Editorial | Power crisis
