Daylight energy saving from May 1

LAHORE - Clocks across the country will be moved one hour ahead from May 1 with a view to avail an extra
hour of daylight in order to conserve around 250 megawatts of energy, it was learnt.
Official sources in Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) told The Nation that they had sent the proposals
to the Ministry of Water and Power in December last, including forwarding of the Pakistan Standard Time (PST)
by one hour, staggering of commercial holidays and market closure at sunset.
We have suggested to the government to announce the adjustment of timing from April, but that was not done
due to better weather conditions and now the Ministry has planned to go ahead with this at midnight between
Apr 30 and May 1, the sources revealed.
However, they said that the government had refused to implement other proposals for energy conservation, such
as closure of shops at sunset for political reasons.
They said the government would turn clocks one hour ahead on May 1 to avail an extra hour of daylight to
conserve energy as the country was going through a severe power shortage. They said at that time there would
be a shortfall of around 3,000 megawatts and the citizens would be suffering loadshedding of over eight hours in
hot summer, thus time adjustment would conserve power by around 250 megawatts.
They said as households consume most of the electricity, the government would launch an aggressive
awareness campaign about daylight energy conservation. They said through the time adjustment people would
change their sleeping habits and lifestyle, so electricity use by households would decrease manifolds during
these six months.
It is to be mentioned here that the government had turned clocks ahead by an hour on June 1 last year in view to
conserving energy, but the Pepco had failed to save electricity during that period according to its projected
target. The Pepco had reportedly set a target of saving 500MW electricity daily at the time of introducing daylight
saving system, but it had fallen far short of the set target, as could save only 250MW electricity per day after the
decision.
Last year the government had also ordered commercial centres and shops to close after 7pm, but did not
enforce the orders.
From Apr 30 the people before going to bed all across the country, would have to make sure that they had set
their clocks one hour head. They would also have to update their personal computers (PCs) since this is a new
thing.
They said the observance of daylight saving is more common in countries lying in the higher altitudes of the
Northern Hemisphere. Pakistan after a successful experience is trying it again to save energy at a time when the
nation would be facing around 3,000 megawatts and consequently a loadshedding of up to eight hours would be
imposed.
Last year the federal governments decision had received mixed reaction. The housewives were much perturbed
by the alien Daylight Saving System, but this move received appreciation from the elderly men, especially the
faithful.
One has come across several people who were furious on the government last year plan to move the clock
forward.
The very next day after the clock was moved forward on June 1, the citizens complained about how the changing
of time had completely made a mess of everything in their household. They said everything was going wrong
because they had not exactly forwarded their clocks forward.
A citizen from Muslim Town observed that saving the daylight time could prove to be helpful for energy
conservation. He said energy conservation was a reality that should be adapted at the earliest, adding, most of
the government institutions put ahead their clocks by an hour, but the airlines and railways while changing their
timetable, had forgotten telling their passengers about the new schedule.