Importance, Production and Consumption of Different Sources of Energy in Pakistan

Energy serves as a key element for economic development. There are four types of energy resources:

1. Electricity

Electricity is an important source of energy that meets industrial and domestic needs. Electricity generation (percentage) from different sources can be viewed in the following table:

The government is trying hard to improve the electricity situation in Pakistan. The glory of the industry has started to recover again.

At present, the power sector is facing the following problems:

• Electricity is not being generated as per the production capacity of the installed power plants. Much of the generated electricity is being wasted due to outdated, faulty and old transmission systems. Hydro electricity is dependent on water which increases and decreases due to shortage of water in dams. As a result, dams are generating far less hydropower than their capacity due to severe water shortages. Expensive electricity is being produced due to the high cost of furnace oil. In the past decade due to heavy investment in the country, the number of industrial units increased significantly but power generation could not be increased in comparison. Over time, the use of electricity in society is increasing more rapidly, but in comparison, the production of electricity is not increasing at the same rate.
• Government buys electricity from Independent Power Producers IPP's, which is more expensive than hydropower. Government has to bear more costs. Government has given the importance to this issue, it has shown intention to negotiate with these Independent Power Producers IPP's, which would yield positive results.
• Line Losses, infrastructure defects and theft of electricity also cause a lot of power loss.

Suggestions to Solve Electricity Problem

Along with hydropower, other sources especially coal should also be used to generate electricity, as we have about 185 billion tons of coal. According to some experts, up to 50,000 megawatts of electricity can be generated annually from these reserves. It can meet our industrial and domestic needs for the next many years. In addition, we can earn a lot of foreign exchange by exporting surplus electricity to neighbouring countries.

Apart from coal, wind and solar energy are also being generated. Government is also fully active in generating electricity from these sources. In the current era, there is a need to increase the capacity of these sources of electricity.