Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) Managing Director Tahir Basharat Cheema has said that Pakistan will get out of the power shortage problem in next year, and added that expensive methodologies had been used in haste to get rid of the power deficit issue. He was speaking on "Efficient energy use in turbulent time" at Lahore management summit, 2009 here on Saturday. As many as 10,293 MW electricity from all sources would be added into the system by the end of December 2012, he said. Giving details of the plan in his presentation, Cheema said that 3692 MW would be added by the end of 2009; 1806 MW in 2010; 3604 MW in 2011; and 1191 MW electricity would be added into system by the end of December 2012.

Cheema also said that the Discos would receive 400 MW electricity from captive power plants with a view to utilising surplus/redundant capacity of captive power plants. "For the first time after 17 years, power plant is being installed in the public sector, which would help reduce power deficit," he said. The 1000 MW Neelam-Jhelum project, he said, was being constructed on run of river, which would after five years cost only 37-paisa per unit of electricity, while work on Bhasha Dam would start in February-March 2010 for which bidding process would soon start. Cheema said Pakistan had 435 MW surplus electricity in 2001 that turned into shortage of 86 MW in 2002.

However, again the country had surplus electricity of 236 MW and 197 MW in 2003 and 2004 respectively, he added. "Afterward Pakistan is facing acute shortage of power, as a shortfall of 1247 MW was recorded in 2005; 2546 MW in 2006; and 4956 MW in 2007. The power shortage appeared due to less supply of water from dams, while cut in gas supply aggravated the power shortage problem as most of the power plants have been designed to produce electricity by using gas," he said. According to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) reports, Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company (Hesco) is ahead of all other distribution companies in line losses, which are 36 percent followed by Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (Pesco) with 33 percent, while the Multan Electricity Supply Company (Mepco) is facing 12.5 percent line losses. Only the Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (IESCO) was most efficient with comparatively less loss of 7.9 percent, he said.

The NWFP and Sindh provinces constituted 50 percent line losses, while Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) faced 38 percent losses as electricity was being stolen through 650,000 "Kundas," he said. However, overall line losses had been reduced from 27.3 percent in 1999 to 20.3 percent in 2009, he said. Cheema said that despite economic meltdown, the non-productive growth of electricity consumption had been recorded at 8.53 percent because of excessive use of air-conditioners, refrigerators, microwaves, fans and washing machines. As many as 50 million electric appliances had been added to the system, pushing up the electricity demand, he added.

He further said that the present situation was arisen due to various reasons like financial crunch, non-receipt of power bills from the Fata, and circular debt. However, different measures were being taken to get rid of all the issues and the situation would start improving from next year, he said. Earlier speaking on the occasion, the NutShell Forum Chief Executive Officer said that world poverty, environmental degradation and civil strife had all increased. "In this volatile scenario, the corporate sector's role in countering anti-progress and prosperity forces had become vital and certainly more demanding. As a good corporate citizen leading companies of the country need to lead by example and share their leanings with other on how best to manage their businesses in such turbulent times.

"This is not a matter of choice, but the need of the hour," he said. He also announced that Lahore and Islamabad office would be functional from January 2010. The Bank Alfalah Executive Committee Co-Chairman read out a well thought paper on the topic of "Managing in turbulent times-the way forward," while Vice Chancellor of Beaconhouse National University Sartaj Aziz, TiE President Monis Rahman; Managing Director of Siemens Pakistan Engineering Company Limited Sohail Wajahat H. Siddiqui; Managing Director of Teradata Pakistan Khuram Rahat; Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SAMAA TV Amir Jahangir; and Programme Advisor of VINNOVA-Stanford Research Centre of Innovation Journalism, Stanford University, Humayun Bashir; Country General Manager of IBM Pakistan Dr Aamir Matin; Country General Manager of CISCO Pakistan; Country Director of Nokia Siemens Network Saad M. Waraich also spoke on the occasion and shared their views and experiences on the issue.