Load Shedding in Pakistan

Electricity is in short supply in Pakistan, and as a result electric load shedding, break downs,
power outages, fluctuations, blackouts etc are a common feature in the country. Whether it is
summer or winter, load shedding is there. Some times it is scheduled, while or other occasions it
is totally unscheduled. The letter is the worst because it causes untold problems and hardships to
the electricity dependent community. It can be confidently said that the electric supply has never
been reliable at any time in Pakistan.

There are many factors behind electric load shedding in Pakistan. These factors include shortage
in river waters, over population, new connections, electric supply to villages, low generation of
electricity, fewer dams, power theft, line losses etc. Then load shedding is the result of
corruption, inefficiency, mismanagement and defective planning in WAPDA besides incomplete
projects like Kala Bagh Dam, misuse of available resources, no generation from atomic and solar
energy, lack of consensus and the apathy of the government contribute to load shedding.

Load shedding is a great curse. It brings untold misery to people belonging to all walks of life
weather they are students, patients, businessman, industrialists, farmers, laborers, mechanics,
house wives etc. It brings all economic, Agricultural and industrial progress to a standstill. The
fluctuation plays havoc with the electric equipments like refrigerators, VCRs, Televisions, and
Computers etc. The foreign investors shun investing money in different fields due to load
shedding starts a long episode of helplessness and frustration.

Pakistan can not make progress in any field in the presence of load shedding. Therefore
government should take all possible measures to end load shedding from the country. First of all
it should remove corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement from WAPDA. New mega dams
should be constructed with out further delay. The present available resources should be
developed immediately. Power should be generated from solar and nuclear energy. Power theft
should be should be stopped forthwith. On the other hand people should make wise and proper
use of electricity. They should turn to using energy saving device. No doubt such steps can help
a great deal in ending load shedding from the country.

Electricity load-shedding in Pakistan

Written By: Tahir Jamil on March 2, 2010
Electricity load shedding in Pakistan has increased manifold. Minister of water and power Raja Pervaiz
Ashraf assured that electricity load shedding would be done according to time schedule. He assured that
electricity load shedding will finish by the end of the year 2009 but instead it is doubled what it was in
the past year 2009. It is big failure of the government of Pakistan. No country can make progress
without electricity. Recent government measures of holiday on Saturday and other saving methods have
reduced load shedding but not significantly. Here I want to reveal one big waste of electricity by
WAPDA, LESCO and other cities electricity board employees. One low grade LESCO employee told me
that he is getting 2,100 units free electricity per month. He told that senior officers are getting 7,000
units and more free electricity per month. So, these employees are getting free electricity equal to their
salaries. All this free electricity is being wasted on numerous air conditioners or selling to other rich
people. Holiday on Saturday is loss for backward Pakistani nation since already government office
procedures are dead slow.
Protests are taking place around the country. People of advanced countries cannot imagine to live in
such circumstances for a single day. I have never seen such a intense electricity load-shedding during my
whole life. Minister of water and power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf failed to fulfill his promises. Electricity load-
shedding is one of the biggest issue in Pakistan including poverty and unemployment. Government
should take drastic measure to finish this electricity load-shedding. Pakistani nation is unhappy that
government and opposition is busy in other legislative issues instead of resolving these primary issues. I
challenge that I can resolve electricity load-shedding issue in one year if I become minister or high
official of ministry of power.
On February 06, 2010 there was eight hours of continuous load shedding. Such shutdown takes place
one day every week on the pretext of maintenance. Local LESCO employees told that this shut down
takes place from local Grid station. SDO and XEN never attend their mobiles. There numbers are
provided on electricity bills as a joke. Similarly other responsible authorities concerned with load-
shedding are not attending their phones. I talked to PS of LESCO chief executive and suggested him to
suspend such staff who are not fulfilling their duties.
There is another very unjust aspect of electricity load shedding. There is no or less electricity load
shedding in officer’s colonies or in rich posh areas. Always equal treatment is suggested by all national
and international organizations. There must be equal time of electricity load shedding for every part of
Lahore. Further electricity load shedding is being used as a weapon in order to obstruct people from
work. This type of electricity load shedding happens any time without any time table. Political parties
have joined hand for forming coalition government but people are facing inexpressible difficulties. Now
political parties should work together for the resolution of important issues like electricity load-shedding
and people’s poverty.

Load Shedding In Pakistan

Electricity load shedding in Pakistan has increased manifold. Minister of water and power Raja Pervaiz
Ashraf assured that electricity load shedding would be done according to time schedule. He assured that
electricity load shedding will finish by the end of the year 2009 but instead it is doubled what it was in
the past year 2009. It is big failure of the government of Pakistan. No country can make progress
without electricity. Recent government measures of holiday on Saturday and other saving methods have
reduced load shedding but not significantly. Here I want to reveal one big waste of electricity by
WAPDA, LESCO and other cities electricity board employees. One low grade LESCO employee told me
that he is getting 2,100 units free electricity per month. He told that senior officers are getting 7,000
units and more free electricity per month. So, these employees are getting free electricity equal to their
salaries. All this free electricity is being wasted on numerous air conditioners or selling to other rich
people. Holiday on Saturday is loss for backward Pakistani nation since already government office
procedures are dead slow.
Protests are taking place around the country. People of advanced countries cannot imagine to live in
such circumstances for a single day. I have never seen such a intense electricity load-shedding during my
whole life. Minister of water and power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf failed to fulfill his promises. Electricity load-
shedding is one of the biggest issue in Pakistan including poverty and unemployment. Government
should take drastic measure to finish this electricity load-shedding. Pakistani nation is unhappy that
government and opposition is busy in other legislative issues instead of resolving these primary issues. I
challenge that I can resolve electricity load-shedding issue in one year if I become minister or high
official of ministry of power.
On February 06, 2010 there was eight hours of continuous load shedding. Such shutdown takes...

Simple Way to Reduce Load-Shedding

By Salman Mugsi • May 12th, 2008 •

Long power cuts have sucked the life out of Pakistanis. In the scorching heat, it’s getting
harder to breath and still the frightening hot and brutal months of June, July and August
are yet to come and Pakistanis are already trembling in the dark.

All that talk about going solar is very promising, but we have to be realistic as Pakistani
government hasn’t shown any interest in the alternate energy options and they are busy in
the power games and fighting the US war on terror or getting some more billions to carry
on with their luxuries. They are arranging for some rent-a-megawatt things which would
temporarily solve a minor part of crisis, and that’s it.

Government could take some simple steps to alleviate the miseries of the nation. It could
order by force that all the markets must be closed at 6 pm in the evening. All the small and
medium sized markets. It should order that all the offices, industries and factories must
also be closed at 4 pm with two holidays a week, and in the morning, one working hour
could be added to make up for any lost working hours.

Government could cut down the electricity consumption in the offices of Prime Minister,
chief ministers and the ministers of center and provinces and also at the homes and offices
of top bureaucrats. I don’t have the muscle to say anything to say in regard of cutting
power at the President House and other “special” places.

These possible steps, which only need political will and courage, could ease load-shedding
to a considerable amount.

Food Crisis in Pakistan

By Dr. Hassan Isfahani • Apr 21st, 2008

The calls for “Atta” from all quarters of the society are rising to a chorus. Due to the food
shortage in Pakistan, the new government of Pakistan Democratic Alliance is all set to become a
glutton for punishment and humiliation in very near future. Though it would be unfair to blame
them for the looming food crisis in the country, but an empty stomach doesn’t understand logic
or argument.
One may ridicule United States in many regards, but when it comes to statistics the auxiliary
offshoots of this world body often prove right. United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has
predicted that Pakistan is in the grave danger of becoming an acutely food insecure country in
the very near future and according to other sources it is expected that food riots would break in
the streets.

WFP country director Wolfgang Berbinger has told media that currently 60 million food insecure
people are present in the country, the increase of 35 per cent in wheat prices and more for some
other food items, did not match the increase in wage rate that was 18 per cent as compared to last
year. According to the WFP stats, 38 per cent of Pakistanis are food insecure, and that basically
means that they are not able to afford poverty line intake of 2,350 kcal per day. WFP also reveal
that approximately 12.5 of wheat is wasted on way from field to the consumer whereas vegetable
loss is 30 per cent.

The food insecurity is in every district of Pakistan. In the most populated province of Pakistan, in
Punjab, out of 34 district only 9 are almost food secure. In NWFP, out of 16 districts, only five
are food secure. In Sindh, out of 15 districts, only 9 are food secure. In Balochistan, out of 25
districts only 4 are food secure.

These statistics are alarming and demand immediate attention from the high-ups. The restoration
of judiciary and the matter of war on terror are extremely important, but prolonged hunger can
turn any nation into angry animals frantically searching for food to appease their natural instinct.

So it is the need of hour that government should start working on war footings about extending
the crop maximization plans to balance food price inflation and improvement in storage and
harvesting-thrashing to control wastage of food. Government needs to understand that easy and
cheap food availability, access and deliverance to everyone at everyplace is the key to their
survival.

oad Shedding For Utilities

By: Edward Herniak
Home | Business

The electricity that people use is generally produced and supplied by companies. Load shedding
results when people are demanding more electricity than a company has to give. To resolve the
situation, that company may have to deny certain users electricity at certain times. This prevents
blackouts from occurring which causes instability in a country and is not good for the economy.

Many people take electricity for granted. This is often because people think electricity is
unlimited. In many parts of the world, especially in developing countries, this is not true.
Providing electricity involves converting some type of resource into energy that can be used to
produce the needed electricity. For example, coal or hydropower may be used. Companies
involved in this process usually have a limited capacity, meaning they can only produce so
much. There are also instances when the resources used to produce the electrical power are
limited or unavailable.

Load shedding occurs when consumers demand levels of supply that exceed their providers
capacities. When these types of threats are looming, people are often warned to conserve
electricity and limit their consumption. This strategy often proves ineffective, so the providers
must resort to more drastic measures. However, there are solutions available that will do load
shedding by interfacing with small demand controllers in thousands of locations. When a
demand peak is coming, the utility can quickly respond by invoking the demand controllers to
shed unnecessary loads. For example, it can turn of an air conditioner, or a pump or a portion of
the lighting load. If the utility does demand control for small equipment over thousands of
locations, it can reduce the overall energy usage substantially.

However, sometimes the government does not want to spend money on these type of systems
and a blackout occurs. A blackout is usually an uncontrolled power outage. If excessive demands
are left unresolved, this will be the result. Blackouts, however, can be problematic. Since
consumers have no indication of when a blackout will occur, they can be unduly inconvenienced.
For providers, blackouts can result in damaged networks.

Load shedding is a controlled alternative response to excessive demand. To ease the burden on
themselves and their consumers, providers may begin to ration electricity. Instead of allowing a
blackout to occur, which could cause many people to be without power for an unknown amount
of time, providers may shut down the flow themselves.

This is usually part of a plan. The providers decide how to best distribute the electricity so the
burden of the shortage can be spread across their networks. Load shedding often involves
schedules that determine which areas will be denied power and at what times it will happen.

Load shedding is referred to as rolling blackouts for this reason. First, the flow of electricity is
cut in one area for a predetermined amount of time. Then, supplies are reconnected in that area
and disconnected elsewhere. In many cases people in the affected areas, especially the businesses
such as supermarkets that are dependent on power, are notified in advance.

Positivities of Load Shedding in Pakistan

Oct 7th, 2010 by MusawarA

This article will let you understand the positivity of electricity Load shedding in Pakistan.

Life is not a bed of roses. Every day brings out a new challenge to our life. Now a days we
Pakistan facing the svere load shedding of electricity from 8 hours to 18 hours in cities and
villages in different parts of Pakistan. Every one thinks that we are compelled to face such
situations. There can be many reasons to it, techinical or non-technical, but in this article we will
see the other side of the picture.

Everything in the world is not useless. It has its pros and cons. It depends on us that how we take
it into ours. Load shedding has affected the business and life in Pakistan, but that has some
positive impact on our society as well. some of the points are listed bellow. Please try to
encourage them in your surroundings.

 It saves money which we have to pay in the form of electricity bills.

 It saves us from the strenous microwave or ultra voilet rays which emits from different
appliances.
 It takes our life into safe mode.
 It cut down the generation gap and bring social activity among young and old people.
 It helps people to discuss matters with each other.
 It helps people to brainstorm different ideas to work on.
 It helps people to plan for your tomoroow's work.
 It gives us time to talk and play with our children.
 It gives us chance to tell and explain the old gadgets to the children which they read in
thier text books but are unable to understand.
 It helps people to have physical activity.
 It normalize your body temperature due to swetting an activity.
 It helps heart patients to avoid watching heart burning news channels.
 It helps people to think for alternate earning ways.
 It helps us to avoid watching conflict arising political issues.
 It helps us to maintaine our health by not watching television for the longer time.
 It helps the people to observe nature in day light or in night, especially stars and moon
sky.

Please comment if you come out with any other positive point. This will help us to improve the
society of Pakistan

Deliberate power shortfall in Pakistan

By Abdullah Muntazir

Pakistan is facing electricity crisis these days. In the name of ‘load management’ Pakistan
Electric Power Company deprives Pakistani public from electricity for 8 to 12 hours daily. No
one knows what the exact reason behind electricity shortfall is as PEPCO is not sharing the
cause, it only tells us the effect. When I tried to dig out the truth I came to know that electricity
shortfall claims are false and there are huge contradictions between PEPCO’s claims and its own
facts and figures. These contradictions led me to the conclusion that in fact there is no
justification of ‘load shedding’. If for the sake of argument one believes in PEPCO’s claim of
shortfall then too, load shedding should not exceed from four hours a day.

To prove PEPCO’s claims as wrong I used its own facts and figures obtained from its
website.

PEPCO says that the total installed capacity of power generation in Pakistan is 17206 MW. As
its usually not possible to get output according to installed capacity so lets assume that power is
generated 2000 MW less than the installed capacity. It means there 15200 MW of electricity
should be produced every day. Now let’s check the demand in the country. As per PEPCO;s own
claims demand of electricity during last ten days of May, 2009 was 15250 MW. No calculator is
needed to know that only 50 MW fells short in this case. But PEPCO claims a shortfall of 2500
MW. How is it possible? Can anybody ask Mr. Pervaiz Ashraf, the minister for water and power
in federal cabinet? 2500 MW shortfall means power is produced 4500 MW less than installed
capacity. This huge gap can not be justified by any means. Either it’s a failure of ministry of
water and power to get power generation plants operated at optimum level or there is a
deliberation in creating such a huge gap between installed capacity and actual production for
some hidden reasons.

Now lets assume for a while that the claim of 2500 MW shortfall is true. What should
happen then? 2500 MW is only 16 percent of demand which is 15250 MW. How much load
shedding is justified in managing 16 percent deficit? For me there is no reason to exceed load
shedding from 4 hours. It is enough to cover the shortfall with 4 hours of load shedding without
any discrimination between cities and villages. Can Mr. Raja Pervaiz Ashraf tell the nation why
he is causing this mess?

Interestingly PEPCO’s fall claims can be counter checked with its previous year’s claims.
Previous year claimed shortfall was almost double to this years ‘claimed’ shortfall but the
duration of load shedding is same as it was in previous year. Isn’t it a humongous contradiction
between PEPCO’s claims? Can anyone ask PEPCO and ministry of water and power to elaborate
that why same time of load shedding is used to manage half of the previous year’s shortfall?

Now you may think why PEPCO and Ministry of Water and Power is deliberately
creating load shedding while there is no need and justification to do so. For me there are two
reasons. First is related to commission from new Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
Contracts with new IPPs are underway these days. According to Raja Pervaiz Ashraf capacity of
power generation will be increased up to 3000 MW by December this year. To increase power
generation Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and his ministry is inducting more IPPs. He and his ministry
needs justification for new contracts and it can be justified only by creating a deliberate power
shortfall in the country. And do you think these IPPs will get contracts without any commission?
If one can earn some ‘pennies’ through awarding new contracts to IPPs then why should not he
earn some more ‘pennies’ from existing IPPs? This is economics’ basic rule that shortage in
supply increases price. Public needs electricity and Ministry of Water and Power through
PEPCO wants to push the public to the point where it say ‘we need electricity at any cost’. Mr.
Raja successfully pushed the nation to this point. Now electricity prices are supposed to be
increased by 17 percent in the budget. IPPs will definitely get benefit by this unjustified increase
in tariff and it will be appropriate for them to pay ‘thanks’ to Mr. Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and his
colleagues.

One comment: PEPCO claimed on 1st June 1, 2009 that it has ended load shedding
temporarily. Can anyone ask Raja and its PEPCO how it was possible to get 2500 MW
electricity within one day? Was it in Raja’s pocket and he threw it to the nation for few days?
These are the days when electricity demand is at its peak. At the same time hydel power
generation is also at its peak and it will remain same until September. What will be the
justification if Raja starts load shedding again?

The write is a Lahore based analyst and security expert

Posted by Honest Opinion at 1:41 PM