Swimming against the tide

By the looks of it, power outages are here to stay. Except for some localized rioting, the masses have even stopped protesting against load shedding which is only a sign of their losing hope in the government’s ability to do anything about it in the foreseeable future. Daylight saving hours, rescheduled market timings, staggered holidays, energy-savers, etc may have provided some fuel to the rhetoric of the leadership, but practically nothing has so far been done to inspire much confidence in the public about the power situation. For a government that has strangely failed to ensure that at least streetlights are switched off during daytime, effective conservation can only be a dream. It’s a nightmare for consumers though because the demand-supply gap, as mentioned by Prime Minister Gilani in the National Assembly, has now increased to 4,500MW. The baffling part is the government’s continued preference, like its predecessors, for conventional approaches. It is like swimming against the global tide of exploring alternative means of energy. In the wake of worsening crises, others have only expedited such efforts. But we have refused to make the shift even where possible. Water reservoirs and coal projects stand enmeshed in layers of confusion, mistrust and logistics. Likewise, there is nothing that stops us from going — rushing, in fact — for wind power, solar energy, bio-diesel and such other technologies. By opting for them, especially bio-diesel, the government can not only generate sufficient power but can cut the oil import bill, which will give it some much-needed fiscal space as well.

The Alternative Energy Development Board has not been doing too bad a job in locating potential investors but the pricing mechanism of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority does not appear to be in sync with reality. Nepra’s accountant-like approach is perhaps unable to factor in the benefits that will accrue in the long run even if investors today are granted some insignificant leverage. The buck, however, does not and should not stop at Nepra. The vision has to come from the leadership. A few words from the prime minister in this regard on the floor of the house, for instance, could have assured the nation that the government was moving in the right direction. But he chose not to utter them and that has added to the bleakness of the situation.

Posted on: 26-June-2008

Share: