The larger metro areas, which had been seeing an elevated amount of electricity loadshedding, seem to be getting some relief on that front. Recent statements by both the prime minister and the federal energy minister promised as much by around this date.
Though this is a good development, it would serve us well to figure out how, exactly, the government is managing this load. Are any industrial or agricultural sectors facing more loadshedding, so as to shield these cities from it? Have we run the numbers, then, on how much it will cost, in terms of agricultural and industrial productivity and other costs, to pass on this relief to a specific demographic of the citizens?
Yes, a specific demographic, because the above debate isn’t about weighing the tradeoff between businesses and homes, but businesses and homes in a particular location. The Pakistani news media’s three-city model gives a disproportionately higher voice to the citizens of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. Additional media might lend some voice to other large cities, but second and third-tier towns are largely unrepresented, what to speak of the rural areas. It is the aforementioned three cities that are being catered to a lot of the times, so the bad press is kept at bay.
Truth be told, there is always a significant amount of loadshedding in April. By this time of the year, demand has spiked, but the flow of the rivers, and the consequential generation of the hydel power plants, isn’t enough to keep pace. That is a consequence of the curious mix of hydel and thermal energy of our power profile. This does not mean to imply in the slightest that we need to incorporate more of thermal, just that the governments need to make their purchases in time, as opposed to (allegedly) the previous dispensation. And also, that we need to look seriously into other forms of renewable energy as well. The economics of solar energy, for instance, have gone beyond wonky environmental circles, and landed squarely in the province of ‘just makes sense.’
