Reducing line losses

Line losses can be reduced, but does the will exist?

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed the authorities to formulate a comprehensive strategy to stabilise electricity tariffs, with a focus on providing relief to domestic and industrial customers. That is a tough ask in this era of Middle East conflict, as while the bureaucratic solution would be simply to raise tariffs through the Fuel Adjustment Charge mechanism, Mr Sharif knows that it would be politically impossible. If line losses could be controlled, with the present 16.5 percent brought down to the five percent prevailing in the developed world, it would make a major difference. It would mean that the cost of losses, presently passed on to the consumer, would go down, as WAPDA would no longer have to generate those extra units. This would allow a substantial reduction in the base tariff, which would mean that the fuel adjustment charge could follow the price of oil and gas. 

Another very perceptive suggestion made by Mr Sharif was for there to be a switch to renewable energy projects, which have the advantage of not requiring the import of fuel to generate power. However, the problem with hydel is that it is of long gestation. Solar power has two disadvantages: it requires a site to place the solar panels, and the panels have to be imported. Also, until a solid storage solution reaches the market, solar power is not available at night. Line losses are supposed to be caused by a combination of aging infrastructure and distribution company inefficiency, which is another phrase for theft. Too much of the income of WAPDA staff comes from that theft for it to be given up easily. Unless the political will is found to stop that theft, lien losses cannot be reduced, and paying customers will continue to suffer. For this reason, Mr Sharif’s directive is like playing a flute in front of a buffalo, as the Urdu proverb goes.

It is not the first time that the DISCOs have been told to reduce their line losses. The National Electric Power Authority has threatened action, but has never refrained from giving the DISCOs the tariff increases they demand. However, now it has become politically necessary. Mr Sharif knows only too well how dangerous the tariffs are, and must reduce them. There is no way of doing so now except to eliminate line losses. By stopping the power theft causing them to be so high.