THE ENERGY CRISIS OF PAKISTAN AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

Abstract

It was expected that in 2018 Pakistan would be a load-shedding-free country as ongoing projects like Sahiwal Coal Power Plant (1,350MW), Port Qasim Power Plant (1,320MW), two nuclear power plants (650MW), Neel um Jhelum (950MW) and Tarbella 4 Extension (1,500MW) were expected to be completed in the mid of 2018. But the fact is that even in the urban Pakistan there is a 6-8 hours of load-shedding as a result of 5,000-7,000MW of shortfall, more than Rs1, 000 billion of circular debt and almost 30% transmission and distribution losses. Under current circumstances the energy sector of the country sector is in panic. Quantitative and Qualitative research methods were adopted to handle the issue. The National Transmission and Despatch Company and K-Electric Limited (KEL) data mentions that within the next three years by the year 2020, the power generation capacity of the country is expected to be 34,785MW that is about 3,000MW more than the estimated demand. But as the total population of Pakistan is 207.77 million and is growing at an alarming rate while during 2018 large scale manufacturing sector showed a growth of 6.24% which is highest during last 11 years as a result the demand for electricity is on the rise. On other hand, it has been forecasted by The International Energy Agency that by 2025 the power need of the country would exceed than 49,000MW. We can expect future of Pakistan would be load be a load-shedding-free as the government of Pakistan is seriously working to resolve this issue as early as possible