The crippling shortage of petrol and the countrywide blackouts have posed a grotesque picture of the way in which the energy sector of the country is being managed. The recent collapse of the power grid in the wee hours on Sunday exacerbated the situation as a problem occurred far in Baluchistan directly impacted on the routine life in other parts of the country. This unexpected crisis in the energy sector makes it clear that the mismanagement is a common business. Also managing only the conventional ways of energy sector is not a wise decision as a country with immense natural resources should not be confined only to the non-renewable sources of energy.
The supply of electricity and power doesn’t seem to go in parallel with the demand created by the growing population coupled with expansion of industries and technology. Taking into consideration all this, structural reforms are mandatory for getting maximum benefit from the available resources using the technology and science. We need to work on renewable and alternate energy resources, as Pakistan has immense potential to create energy from wind and solar sources.
If the government cannot take measures to work on similar resources, it should ask private companies to work with them. As in 2013, the Fauji Fertilizer Company pioneered the work on wind energy in Jhimpir Sindh by setting up a 50 MW Wind Power Project to provide energy to the power grid but, it could not work when oil mafia created hindrances due to vested interests.
ASIM ANWAR MUGHAL,
Rawalpindi, January 29.