Pakistan is facing a serious power crisis nowadays. The deficit in supply of electricity during the peak periods is estimated to be 4,500MW to 5,500 MW. Naturally we are facing several hours of load-shedding nationwide on a daily basis. The crisis has been created by the laxity of many successive governments which committed the blunder of delaying new power projects including a number of dams. Electricity in Pakistan is now being supplied mainly through the conventional thermal plants that run on oil or natural gas. These thermal plants account for almost 66 % of the total energy requirements of Pakistan. Hydro-electric plants fulfill only about 32% of our requirements and remaining supplies are provided by the few nuclear power stations that we have. To make up the present gap between electricity demand and supply, the present government has proposed setting up Rental Power Plants as a temporary solution. The Rental Power Plants are even more expensive than the ordinary thermal power plants as they consume more fuel than the IPP units we have. Some say the electricity made by them would raise the per unit price from 9 rupees we have at present to as much as 13 rupees. Keeping in view the conditions already imposed by the IMF for raise in electricity tariffs, the public is probably faced with the prospect of paying many times over what it pays for at present for consuming the same number of units. Moreover, the contracts of rental plants are for 3-5 years only. After this period, the rental companies would dismantle their power plants from here and take them to some other unfortunate country of the region. The implementation of Rental Power Plants would be a calamity of unbearable severity for the common man. Even at the reduced levels, the over all increase in tariff is likely to be 24 percent. In addition to that, about 30 percent increase in electricity rates would be implemented any way as a requirement under the IMF loan agreement. The governments viewpoint is that the 'average tariff for IPPs is 12.5 cents per kilowatt hour while that for RPPs is 13.5 cents per unit. Hence, according to the calculations being presented by the government, the tariff would rise by only six percent. Since the plants can be set up in only about 6 to 8 months, the governments approach is that a thermal power plant (that requires five years to set up) is a more expensive option. They say the country has no other option but to go for Rental Power Plants. It further says that 14 percent mobilization advance forwarded to the RPPs would eventually be deducted from the tariff payments. The Rental Power plants may be useful for setting up hospitals in emergency conditions, or large-scale national or international events or a world-class conference or a big sporting event but for day to day electricity needs of a country, they are highly uneconomical option bordering on luxury. If the government could avoid buying power from these rental power companies, it could actually purchase new power plants for the price of electricity we would pay in a couple of years. Public money should not be wasted for the sake of brokers commission and kickbacks of the agents. A viewpoint being expressed rather more forcefully these days is that we should instead go for modern two-stroke, slow-speed diesel generators having very high fuel efficiency that are available in the world market. The chief characteristic of these plants is that they can be operated on any kind of hydro carbons like natural gas, fuel oil or diesel. These are available in different sizes of up to 70 MW. These generating sets include building and transmission lines etc. The average age of a redesigned power plant of this type may be 20-25 years. The government could buy and install within a period of two years as many units of 70 MW diesel generating sets. We could have the 4000 MW capacity that way. In the meantime other resources may also be used to cope with the situation. If furnace oil is used instead of the costly diesel, these plants can generate electricity at a much cheaper rate because of their high efficiency. -MUHAMMAD DAHEEM, Lahore, May 18.