LAHORE: Massive use of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) in commercial shops and domestic households has unnecessarily added to the demand of electricity in the country, said power sector circles.
They have pointed out that wiring for UPS has become a permanent feature of electrical wiring during house construction and accordingly minimum loads are adjusted as per battery backup.
They said the best way to manage is through voltage management and the consumers should be told to abstain from using appliances which have high energy requirements during certain key hours.
Renowned power sector expert Tahir Basharat Cheema pointed out that passing the electricity generation cost to consumers has become a humungous challenge for the government while maximum use of UPS in commercial and domestic sectors has added fuel to the fire that has led to many socio-economic problems in the society.
While recalling the measures to reduce electricity deficits in the past, he said, a strategy was chalked out to reduce deficit by taking three major actions, including reduction in transmission and distribution losses, Improvement in the thermal efficiency and increase in tariff structure.
Also, he said, a comprehensive conservation plan was laid out to manage the load, restrict the use of air conditioners in public offices, higher duty on higher capacity UPS and generators used for domestic and commercial purposes, restriction on use of street lights and neon signs and a policy of substituting to solar solutions and use of electric saving bulbs. Similarly, he said, bio-fuels were introduced in remote areas where direct electricity connection is unfeasible.
Diversion of gas to the power generation, encouragement to wind power generation, coal gasification and setting up of power plants based on gas in industrial estates to avoid/reduce T&D losses were a few more measures to deal with the situation. Muhammad Khalid, another one, said the UPS are highly energy inefficient, same like the gas turbines.
While suggesting the solution, they said renewable energy is a long-term solution besides constantly adjusting for short- and medium-term solutions.
However, some others believe that the biggest issue in the energy sector has been multiple pricing for household and various other consumers. There should be one price just as gasoline and then adjustments should be made through targeted subsidy to consumers on the basis of prescribed criteria regarding affordability and competitiveness of exports, as the case may be. Same holds true for the Fertilizer sector, they added.
On the supply side, they said, energy mix with major portion of renewable and nuclear power is a solution to provide affordable and sustainable electrical energy.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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