admin on 2022-09-22
With every tick of a clock, the world’s natural resources are depleting to a greater extent, and Pakistan is no less. The world’s basic need of producing energy is fulfilled by burning coal, natural gases, water, nuclear energy, fossil fuels and petroleum extracts. All of which are non-renewable resources. Hence, the word energy crisis itself refers to the scarcity of natural and non-renewable resources. There will soon be a time when the whole world would reach “the peak” i.e. a maximum rate of extraction of resources, and afterwards, it will eventually decline.
Pakistan is a third world country is categorized as an under-developed state in the energy sector, not because it has scarce natural resources but majorly due to inadequate planning, management and supervision. Hence, the major issue is the insufficient energy generation, which cannot balance the demand-supply chain, besides having enough natural resources. To travel the gap between these demands and the supply chain the government has no practical solutions but to manage it through “load-shedding”, which further extensively impacts the society and overall operations of the country, resulting in poor economic growth.
Pakistan is highly dependent on its non-renewable resources like coal, petroleum, gas and majorly the energy is generated through hydro and thermal powers. The thermal power plants are contributing to illuminate 50% of the Pakistan, Kot Adhu i.e. biggest power plant has the production capacity of 1600MW, then comes BIN Qasim plant, Hubco, plant at Jamshoro and Larkana. Moreover, energy generated from thermal power plants includes Tarbela, Ghazi, Brotha, Mangla, Neelum, and Warsac dam. Some of the major projects are still under planning and construction. Nuclear power plants are globally prohibited to be constructed due to security permission taking procedure but Pakistan has two major plants, i.e. Chashma, and Power complex Karachi. Moreover, wind power plants at Jhimper and Thatha have the capacity to produce 150MW energy. Solar is the cheapest source of generating energy, Pakistan has only one solar power production i.e. Quaid-e-Azam solar park with a production capacity of 1000MW.
An essential point to ponder upon is that if the megawatt values given are correct then why does Pakistan face load shedding, it must be enough to balance the demand and supply chain. The answer to it is that the number of megawatts given by the officials in the production capacities of the respective power plants and not the actual amount of energy being produced. The country has the resources, installed working power plants but where it lacks is the poor distribution, power infrastructure, and theft and under-recovery bills, poor real production factor, ever-increasing energy demand and extreme reliance on non-renewable energy resources. Moreover, poor policymaking, lack of technical staff in decision making, fuel shortage and return on investments. The Lack of funds from the government, constantly increasing population and development of new housing societies (which require uninterrupted supply), and inefficient utilization of nuclear energy. Being the sixth-ranked atomic power in the world, it still has only one nuclear power plant. The thesis help have the best-researched content that explains how changes have been in Pakistan’s energy sector.
The upcoming consequences of the energy crisis could result in a humanitarian crisis, loss to the agricultural and industrial sector, causing unemployment issues and poverty, resulting in affecting the social and psychological well-being of the nation. Moreover, the crisis can also leave an impact on the decrease of tourism. It can be rectifying if steps are taken in the right direction as soon as possible i.e. maximizing the production output of power plants with proper fuel supply, maximum usage of non-renewable resources like Solar energy, Tidal energy and biomass can be preferred. Establishing new research centres in which appropriate technical facilities must be provided by the government to explore newer ways of dealing with the energy crisis.