Experts for challenging hydropower companies' monopoly

KARACHI - The monopoly of hydropower companies should now be challenged as the demand of Pakistan cannot be met by this mean only, said the energy experts while talking to The Nation on Sunday.
According to an estimate, the demand for global energy services to support economic growth has grown by 50 per cent since 1980 and is expected to grow by another 50 per cent by 2030, and it is estimated by the IEA that investments of US$20 trillion for energy supply will be needed to meet the global demand through 2030.
The hydro power plants are the chief power generating means in Pakistan, and it is to be noted here that the water related issues are always being the key factor of dispute between Pakistan and India.
This has also largely affected the power generation sector in the country, thus this situation demands the government to seek other means of energy production including the construction of dams on immediate basis, they demanded.
It should be noted that the electricity generation in Pakistan depends heavily on the availability of furnace oil, and since Pakistan is already spending hugely on the import of furnace oil, the increased electricity generation would further increase the import bill.
In Financial Year 2008, Pakistan imported furnace oil worth US$2 billion, which was around 1.3 per cent of the GDP, stated the annual report of State Bank of Pakistan.
Though, the government has initiated a number of power projects to bridge the demand-supply gap and a number of power producing plants will be completed by the end of 2009, yet remedial measures are the need of time.
They said that it was good that the government was setting up 14 rental power plants (RPPs) to meet short-term and emergency power requirements of the country within 4 to 6 months based on available technology, but it was feared that the masses of the country would be burdened by the costly power from those rental powers plants.
It is pertinent to mention that the concept of RPPs was introduced in Pakistan in 2007 while RPPs have already been commissioned in US, UK, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Turkey, UAE and Saudi Arabia. Compared with the IPPs, the rental power generation costs range between 12-13 cents per kwh compared with IPPs cost of 12 cents per kwh on average.
The above mentioned energy need suggests that to double the rate of energy efficiency improvement, the investment of US$3.2 trillion will be required worldwide (the G8 countries alone will invest around US$2.3 trillion).
The existence of a vast energy saving potential in Pakistan is mainly due to available weaknesses in the distribution system as well as lack of awareness of energy conservation measures, while like other South Asian countries, transmission and distribution losses are quite large in Pakistan especially compared with the other countries of Asia.
According to a report by Enercon, the energy consumption in Pakistan can be reduced by 25 per cent on average in various sectors of the economy through efficient utilisation.
In Pakistan the home building sector is quite fragmented that makes concerted industry-led initiatives for promoting energy efficiency, which may include innovating energy-saving designs, products, and construction techniques, highly unlikely.
Pakistan has to promote energy efficiency by establishing national goals like China that has set compulsory targets to achieve energy-efficiency, and according to the national 11th five-year plan for the period of 2006-2010 they would reduce energy intensity by 20 per cent.
In 2005, Pakistan announced its first-ever energy conservation policy that spelled out broad guidelines to enhance end-use efficiency in various sectors of economy, while initiatives include formulating legislation, developing codes and standards, creating public awareness, and capacity building.
A major initiative in the policy was to introduce and facilitate energy audits at industrial level, and energy audits of a number of textile, leather, sugar and steel re-rolling units are being conducted in the country.
Specifically, National Productivity Organisation (NPO), with the coordination of APTMA, conducted energy audits in a number of textile firms that highlighted the energy saving potential in the industry as well as measures that should be taken to reduce energy consumption in these firms. The same organisation had also conducted energy audits in steel re-rolling firms.
Moreover, the government has already been pursuing day light savings to utilise maximum day light as possible for economic activities, but a proper assessment should be done and made public as to how much energy is being saved through day light in Pakistan, the experts said.
In order to lessen the cost of electricity usage, the use of energy saving bulbs and lamps is now gaining popularity and domestic production as well as import of energy savers has grown tremendously in recent years.
The import of energy savers in FY2009 grew at a remarkable rate of 120 per cent over 20 per cent average growth in the preceding two years.
However, the industrial sector should promote nationwide small-scale technology programmes in industrial sub-sectors, particularly in the small and medium scale industrial units to demonstrate the efficiency of energy conservation like waste heat recovery, combustion control system energy efficient motors, power factor improvement and others.
In addition, the agriculture sector needs to promote energy efficient agriculture tractor engines, tube wells, and water pumping stations.