Out of all the problems we faceas a country, Energy seems to be the one that annoys us all the most. It’s notthat other issues are not important or are somehow less annoying; it is justthat every single person in Pakistan uses energy in one form or another andhence is directly affected by it at a very personal level. So last week when Iwas invited as an expert delegate to the PML N’s energy conference I waspleasantly surprised that our political parties had finally started showingsigns of maturity and started talking issues. 
The conference itself was anunusually serious affair where actual experts sat through a grueling 6 hourdiscussion session on the draft PML N Energy Plan. It was for the first time Ihave seen an actual alternative workable policy being presented and discussedby a political party with stakeholders such as academia, power producers andenergy experts. All in all it was a great platform and serious discussion tookplace that can potentially lead to a solid energy strategy. I was later toldthat PTI was holding an energy conference of its own and would be presentingtheir draft plan as well. I am yet to see the detailed PTI draft plan, but the vision document they have floated is pretty weak given their big talk and prep.
Let me start off by saying that,it is nice to see our political parties finally getting their acts together andactually presenting policies instead of talking about presenting policies. Eventhough I would have personally preferred the perspective economic plans to beput forward first but a start on an issue like energy strategy seems to bepretty good too. This is a national issue and we need all the alternativepolicies we can get to finally craft a solid national policy and in that regardpolitical parties putting forward their workable strategies is something thepeople have longed for. And in that spirit, I would liketo present a few ideas that can help with our energy crisis. I presented someof these ideas at the PML N conference while some are new. I do hope that PTI,PPP or any other political party working on a future energy strategy take thesein to account as they have already been thrashed out and discussed in detail byexperts.
- ReplacingThermal Power Fuel: Pakistanproduces about 81% of its electricity through Oil and Gas which costs us aboutUSD 9.4 Billion. To put it in other terms, that is about 53% of our totalexports and is the biggest cost on our import bill. Now given that our relianceon thermal power is so large, we cannot just simply dismantle it and magicallymove to hydro power. But what we can do is change the fuel used to gain thermalpower. Instead of using Oil and Gas, both of which are getting more expensiveand have volatile international prices, we can move to using coal. But not theThar Coal, I will explain why later, but imported Coal. If we were to importclean coal and use that as a fuel instead of Oil and Gas, it would cost us lessand the price of coal is more stable than that of Oil and Gas in theinternational market. This can bring some sort of price stability in ourelectricity prices that keep changing due to changes in international market prices.
- Movingpast the myth of Thar Coal: Yes there iscoal in Thar. But assuming that it can be used immediately or it will solve allour energy problems is a myth propagated by a few people and political partiesfor their personal gains. Experts agree that Thar Coal is highly unstable andeven gasification of it is not without risks. The problem is because it is sounstable, it is very difficult to transport from location A to B. So the onlyoption left is Gasification on location, which again requires heavy investmentand even then might have practical difficulties due to the unstable nature ofthe coal deposits. So instead of wasting time and effort on this, for now weshould be focusing on importing coal to at least start replacing the everincreasing oil and gas bill.
- ImprovedEnergy Mix: Energy Mixrefers to what sources of energy do we utilize in Pakistan to fulfill ouroverall energy needs. I need to give credit to the PML N on this one as theyare the first ones to talk of the holistic energy mix and not just the CNG orthe Electricity crisis. The fact is all our energy is interdependent. I havepreviously advocated that we need to move off CNG as we simply do not haveenough of it to supply the commercial, industrial and home users. It is nowtime that any future energy strategy Pakistan is supposed to have comes with aproper energy mix to solve our issues. As mentioned earlier, we need to moveoff Oil and Gas for Power generation. We need more Hydel Plants and RenewableEnergy projects. In the next 5 years we need to aim at getting 5% of our totalpower supply from Renewable sources. In addition to that we need to use theNuclear Power we are so proud of to supply electricity. Right now we are atabout 3% power generation from nuclear sources, which have to go up to at least5%. So an overall improved energy mix is what can solve our issues in the longrun.
- Standalone Power Projects: This is asuggestion that I gave at the conference and I am advocating it now again.About 40% of Pakistan is off the National Grid. That means they effectively getto no electricity. Now thing is the way our grid operates, it is alreadysuffering from heavy line losses and other technical issues. So it is extremelyhard and very expensive to get 40% of Pakistan on to the National Grid. Butthere are solutions to this. We can work on and finance independent stand alonepower projects that can function in areas where there no national grid. Thisway the local communities and businessmen can set up their own energy solutionswithout taking prior permission from NationalElectric Power Regulatory Authority like they have to now. That wouldmean they can set up small scale Solar Panels and Plants in their communitiesand sell that electricity locally. In addition to that small wind farms can beused in such area given they are close to a wind corridor. The bottom line is,in areas that do not come under the National Grid, let people do what they canto supply themselves with electricity without any government involvement.
- Dismantlethe National Grid: This is asuggestion I have already presented to the PML N and I am putting out there forevery other party as well. The National Grid needs to be dismantled andprovincialised. I say this due to a few reasons. Under the 18thamendment, the profits of power generations to go the province that isproducing the power, so its profits according to source for power generations.That means, if electricity is being produced at Tarbela, royalties of that arebeing paid to KP Government by all other provinces. But what happens is theysell it to the National Grid and then the National Grid sells it down to theDistrict Electrical Supply Companies, who further sell the power to theconsumers. This way if there is a shortfall, National Grid chooses theelectricity supply patterns and hence decides which areas suffer outages themost. What I am saying is this, if we dismantle the National Grid and changethe electricity supply in to an open market, where Provincial Grids can buyenergy directly from source it would improve the power supply and would be morefinancially beneficial for the power producing province. This way the provincesthat have the most issues with electricity supply can simply outbid the othersto get enough for their local demand. This would not be privatization butprovincialization and this would encourage provincial governments to startdoing more for their people instead of relying on the Federal Government. Thiscan eventually lead to provinces working harder to upgrade their grids andreduce their line losses as their people would know exactly who to blame if thepower goes out. I think it is time we started thinking on these lines giventhat the 18th amendment has already passed and provincial autonomyis our future.
I do hope that our politicalparties come with their own alternative strategies while taking these points into account. Because this is a national issue and on this all solutions shouldbe explored by everyone involved.
Syndicated from: Seedhi Baat