Power sector: priority not desperation

Some may find it ironic the fact that Pakistan People’s Party is protesting against federal government on load shedding, in more or less similar fashion to what it faced from the current rulers during its tenure. Load shedding was arguably the chief reason why the PPP government performed how it did in the 2013 elections.

Often blamed for doing little to nothing in order to combat the power crisis, the then government did gain ample press and slack on the infamous rental power plants. What followed in the courts and the ADB evaluation report on RPPs is well-documented. Fast forward to 2017, and load shedding appears to be just shy of taking the centre stage. Had it not been for other ‘leaks’, the leakages in power sector would surely have attracted more attention.

Be that as it may, the situation is far from satisfactory, despite visible improvements in comparison to the previous tenure. The performance gets more media and critics’ attention, because the incumbents had based their election campaign on a load shedding free country. Repeated deadlines for eradicating load shedding by the ministers, both federal and provincial, have not helped either. Recall that the former Prime Minister faced quite some humiliation for giving a deadline and missing it.

So what does this all translate into? Well the faces and tones of the government people may tell, it is not panic time yet, the decisions backdoor may suggest otherwise. The Prime Minister is reportedly not happy with the progress on the power front, and has hinted brining in mobile and rental power plants, in addition to reviving old IPPs and captive power plants. Ironic how the government finds itself looking for an option, that it had mocked almost on a daily basis earlier.

On the business end of things, the decision or even the intention tells the ‘fast-track’ power projects may not be all that fast paced after all. The government seems bent on reducing as much as load shedding in the 2017 summers, through whatever possible means. While, the intent should not be doubted, such steps of desperation are usually associated with the last summers of any government. And if the PM does not intend to resign, he still has another summer to face next year, which promises to be much better than 2017.

The reports on load shedding are also misleading, and even the CM Punjab has reportedly rubbished them as underreporting power outages. This column has long been raising the voice over discontinuation of daily power generation and shortfall data since last year. Multiple requests have been made to the relevant ministries, to no avail. This is what happens, when there is no data for critics and researchers to study. People speculate, and this could have grave consequences.

The cost of adding these emergency megawatts on rental and mobile basis should not lose sight. The situation also reminds that merely adding megawatts would not solve the problem, as it was never the only problem. While some improvements have been recorded in discos’ performances, that of the transmission system is found wanting. There is also a need of better demand and supply forecast mechanism, than the one currently in place. Stop-gap measures would otherwise be a recurrence.