LAHORE - Lack of planning, illogical use of available resources and corruption have brought the energy crisis to a critical stage. The government still doesnt have any mechanism to control this ongoing crisis as the circular debt is constantly going to upward. Energy sector experts said that the efficient and cost effective power plants will not be able to buy fuel, as most of them are again waiting for Pepco to pay their overdue amount. They said that at the end of Dec when major power production will be done through furnace oil and gas based plants, the government has not even raised demand of supplying uninterrupted gas to the plants which could bring down average power producing cost. A cursory look at current power production detail shows that despite wasting huge resources on its inefficient power plants, the government remained heavily dependent on IPPs today as they produced 5297 MWs, fulfilling more than half of the demand. This dependence is expected to increase as government will be looking towards these power producers during next 2-3 months when hydel capacity reduces. On the other hand, government continues to ignore gas based IPPs including Saphire, Orient, Halmore, Saif and SABA, the power generating capacity of which stood at nil as on 14th December 2011, although they could provide cheaper electricity if utilized properly. Govts favorite infamous rental power plants which include Reshma, Karkey, Gulf and Naudero plants are producing only 270 MWs in total which is only 5% of the amount IPPs are producing. Hydel power plants are producing 3463 MWs in total, out of which highest electricity generating plants are Tarbela, Ghazi Barota and Mangla, producing 1556, 920 and 826 MWs respectively, whereas other plants such as Chashma, Warsak, S.Hydel and Khan Khwar are generating 103, 50, 40 and 8 MWs only using Hydel resources. Sources said that total output from Gencos was1466 MWs, production coming into system from IPPs was 5297 MWs while hydel sources have started to reduce power supply and this morning a total of 3463 MWs were obtained from that source, making a total of 10,496 MWs coming into national grid from all sources.Currently, the fuel mix for power sector constitutes of only 30% hydel whereas 70% electricity is produced through the thermal system, which should be the opposite in actual to keep the cost at low levels. The cost of hydel electricity is almost Rs1/kwh, on the other hand gas fuel cost is Rs4/Kwh, furnace oil fuel cost is about Rs12/kwh and the diesel based cost is around Rs16/kwh. Energy experts said that inefficient planning and wasteful distribution of funds could be gauged from the fact that after doling out billion of rupees on rental power plants, this morning the total power generated from rental sector was Reshma 0 MW; Karkey 186 MW; Gulf 62 MW; and Naudero 22 MW. Despite heavily relying on IPPs, the Pepco doesnt enjoy very cordial relation with them, as most of them are at loggerhead with the utility due to ever increasing overdue amount.