Pakistan is the best place to learn “ how not to improve a power system”. For the last three decades , the power sector has nose dived crippled with turbulations starting from load shedding , mismanagement , incompetance , bad governance , lack of good coordination and corruption , to quote a few of the negatives present in the most important sector of the government i.e. the power sector which has been entrusted with synchronized development of country’s generation , transmission and distribution of power with reliability , security and affordability while maitaining quality of service to the tax payers consumers .
The latest reports indicate that the national power system is in shambles . Overpayments have been reportedly made to the tunes of billions of Rupees and Dollors to IPPs .
The government blames the IPPs to get overpayments fraudulently . The question arises who verified their claims or bills and who authorised the wrong payments . Were people responsible were sent home or shown the door ? The malpractices have been.happening for the last three decades and went unchecked according to some contents of unpublished government report on IPPs. Then there are problems of high T & D losses , huge receivables and recoveries , ever increasing circular debt, power thefts , corruption , mismanagement and incompetance , lack of coordination in the power ministry organisations with ineffective unified central control among the various generation , transmission and distribution companies and poor planning and absence of a clear , correct and transparent road map for the present and the future to get rid of the bog we are in. Load shedding was overcome through IPPs , however , although their overall utility is being questioned. It must be understood that load shedding causes greater harm to the national economy. At the moment , there is a surplus power , but load shedding continues in some areas lasting upto 12 hours a day ! There are no chances of electricity becoming cheaper and affordable as a result of multitude and unresolved perpetual problems in the power sector. Under the present state of affairs , it will be foolish to expect improvement in the power sector. We need to set our basics right . We should forget about re-writing or modifying the old IPPs sovereign international contracts . We are bound to operate under their terms and clauses . Any legal or arbitration attempt to get favours will fail .
Over the time , we have messed up the problems so much , that these are ount of control of our present masters and we need to find an out of box solution. Instead of continuous dismal performance of the power sector , it is advisable to hand over its control to the Japanese or Chinese governments to put it on the right path. Any further experimentation or piecemeal solutions will further aggravate the power sector technically and financially . If unchecked , pakistam’s economy will evaporate .
Engr Riaz Bhutta
Lahore
