In the early days of electricity, a small farmer from Tennessee, United States, got up during a local church service, making this prayer: “The greatest thing on earth is to have the love of God in your heart, and the next greatest thing is to have electricity in your house.” And who could acknowledge the need for this blessing more than Pakistanis, who are facing a critical power famine which is adversely affecting the socioeconomic life of the nation.
In a recent statement, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif bade people to be patient, emphasizing that it will take years before Pakistan could overcome the electricity shortage. According to him, we are producing half of our present capacity, which will be double by the decade’s end. It is interesting that our leaders, previous and incumbent, place emphasis on enhancing the power generation capacity, when the real problem lies on the other side of the grid.
At the moment, we have enough generating capacity to meet our energy needs. What plagues our power sector are non-technical losses or NTL, as they are called, referring to losses incurred from theft and non-payment of bills. It’s simple; consumers are consuming energy but they are not paying for it. Because of poor recovery, power producers don’t get fuel on time, forcing some of them to cut down on generation, shrinking the pool of electricity in the national grid, causing power shortages. The deficit, created by poor recoveries, is either filled by government from its own pocket or by increasing the power tariff, in a bid to squeeze the last penny out of those who actually pay their utility bills.
To improve recovery of electricity dues, the government has staged a few showdowns, cracking down on power theft, but its main thrust has been on strengthening the supply side. Perhaps there is a reason for this, as investment in power plants allows government officials to get big kickbacks, an incentive that is absent from improving the demand side. We may achieve the generation capacity of 25000 MW or 50000 MW, but it would amount to little, if one third or more of electricity is lost from the national grid, in the form of non-technical losses.
Electricity theft is not unique to Pakistan. Many developing countries face similar issues, and some of them have dealt with it successfully. India boasts some success in this regard. In one case, a New Delhi based utility company reduced the power losses from 50 to 18 percent. Even Karachi Electric’s turnaround is an impressive example. The key to successful prevention of NTL is the privatization of power utilities, and employment of advanced metering instruments-AMIs, something which we can employ to tackle the problem of theft.
Today smart technologies are embracing the markets. Many of these gadgets have the capability to share data and carry out essential tasks autonomously. Such advancements have also been achieved in electricity metering, in the form of smart meters. According to the energy experts, smart meters are effective means to curb electricity theft. These meters are linked to the utilities through a wireless or optic fibre connection, updating the parent company with the data on the electricity consumption, eliminating the need for manual meter reading. These meters are also equipped with anti-tampering features, allowing the utility to know immediately, if someone tries to tamper with the device.
Furthermore, these devices can provide valuable feedback to consumers, informing them of their power usage patterns, allowing them to cut back electricity consumption at peak hours. As these devices are expensive and the entire distribution cannot be shifted to smart metering immediately, this option is most suitable to monitor the biggest consumers. Energy experts agree that most theft occurs at the feeders, feeding the heavy users of electricity. Biggest consumers whether industrial, domestic or governmental are usually main absconders, and smart meters should be installed at such sites.
Technology offers a great opportunity to solve many of our daily problems but it has its limitations. In many countries smart meters failed because utility officials were too corrupt. The status quo has resisted reforms in Pakistan. Why should WAPDA and its utility companies spend billions in curbing theft and improving recoveries which would undermine their interests. After all, the theft of any utility is not possible without the collusion of officials.
As long as recovery is in the hands of state subsidiaries, WAPDA will keep on having arrears in the billions. No utility service can run while consumers owe it billions in arrears. In addition to inaugurating new power projects, the government should make plans to outsource distribution and collection, authorizing privatized utilities to sever the connections of any absconders be they public or private, and incentivising investments so that new technologies can be employed.

 The writer is a freelance columnist and has worked as a broadcast journalist.

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