Load shedding is a major issue experienced by the general population of Pakistan. The extreme load shedding is a nuisance for the citizens. It causes an interruption in all circles of life. It does not just hinder the development and improvement of the nation; it is a continuing issue which has not been controlled by any of the nation’s past or present politicians. Once in a while, we see the government officials making false statements about this issue. By their statements, they always promise people that the issue of load shedding will soon be overcome. However, no changes have been witnessed in past few years by the people. Despite what might be expected, the issue is deteriorating with each passing day.

Being an economic reform platform, RAFTAAR (Research and Advocacy for the Advancement of Allied Reforms) presented the causes of power shortage. Along with highlighting this issue, they also presented effective solutions to overcome this issue. Solutions provided by RAFTAAR may require some government support. Meanwhile, the main cause of power shortage is the heedless use of electricity.

According to RAFTAAR, it is assessed that about 25% of the energy is consumed by family unit machines. The consumption of the energy mainly depends upon the product quality or the way the appliance is being used.

In research made by RAFTAAR, it was stated that about 17% of the energy can be saved. Due to vitality protection and proficiency measures, the ratio of energy consumption can be minimized.

In a statistic presented by Asian Development Bank, it was presented that about one-fourth of the energy being utilized by home appliances gets wasted. The reason behind this wastage of energy is the use of old appliances because old appliances require more energy to work properly.

Students are one of those people who are most affected by the power shortage issues. Due to excessive hours of power shortage, their study routine gets disturbed. The issue turns out to be more terrible amid the long stretches of summers.

Due to extreme load shedding the industrial sector of Pakistan has also endured a great loss. Their productivity failed due to excessive hours of power shortage. As all large industries depend on heavy machinery run by electricity, so due to breakage in power, production is reduced. As machinery gets stopped, workers sit free for long hours. To cope with this problem companies usually use generators to run machinery. However, introducing generators expands the total cost of production.

To overcome the power shortage issue people have installed UPS in their houses. In commercial zones, organisations introduce generators to cope with load shedding. The consolidated limit of the generators introduced in the nation is more than the national power supply, which is 17,000 Megawatts.

According to RAFTAAR, the issue with the expanding number of generators and UPS being installed in organisations and at homes is that the power supplied by these machines is inefficient as compared to that, provided through the national grid.

Another solution to overcome power shortage is to produce electricity through renewable energy products. As per RAFTAAR, the country had the potential to produce about 120,000 Megawatts of wind energy.

CADET IRFAN LUHUR,

Karachi.