ISLAMABAD: A new research suggests that households in Pakistan waste 25 per cent of electricity due to inefficient appliances, contributing to the energy-crisis in Pakistan.
A study conducted by Research and Advocacy for the Advancement of Allied Reforms (Raftaar) states that the dominant narrative on the energy crisis is that nothing can be done about electricity shortages unless the government installs more capacity, a process that takes time – projected at the earliest to be 2018.
The research, titled Energy Conservation: Avoid Wastages, Prevent Shortages, demonstrates the immediate effects that conservation and efficiency can bring to the long-standing issue of load-shedding in Pakistan, something that is not given highlighted enough when discussing solutions.
How to reduce load-shedding
A total of 17 per cent of energy currently being used in Pakistan can be saved through energy conservation and efficiency measures. That’s a reduction of two hours of load-shedding, daily.
A 2008 Asian Development Bank analysis of efficiency of various household items and appliances showed an efficiency gap of 26 per cent, with refrigerators being the most inefficient (with an efficiency gap of 54 per cent). This statistic implies that more than one-quarter of electricity used by households is ‘wasted’.
Our usage of older appliances is wasting electricity which is already in short supply. Energy efficient fans can reduce the total quantum of load shedding by 39 per cent at existing consumption if all fans are replaced. Similarly, energy-efficient lighting can reduce load shedding by 47 per cent if all lights are replaced. This means that if we shifted to energy efficient lighting and fans, we could reduce load-shedding by 86 per cent.
UPS, generators do more harm than good
There are more UPS’ in Pakistan than there are people in Balochistan. According to an estimate by the Federal Environment Protection Agency, about 60 per cent of Pakistani households have some form of a UPS (about 18 million) to provide electricity backup for selected appliances.
The problem with this is that they are inefficient compared to the national grid, which means this stopgap solution is wasteful and they add more pressure to increase load-shedding duration. Conservation and energy efficiency do the opposite. It is estimated that we spend Rs30 billion ($300 million) on UPS/battery chargers alone.
Electricity shortage has lowered economic growth by 2%
The national cost of load shedding, inclusive of both direct and indirect costs, is estimated at Rs1.4 trillion ($14 billion) – the costs incurred over the past decade could have paid to put an additional 20,000 megawatts to the grid.
Independent research by Pasha et al (2013) estimates the cost of power outages at seven per cent of GDP and determines that electricity shortage has lowered economic growth in Pakistan by almost two per cent. On the aggregate, power shortages were found responsible for a loss of about 21 per cent in the output of the manufacturing sector.
This is particularly alarming given that at the current rate of population growth and with 64 per cent of the population under the age of 30, Pakistan needs to add nearly two million new jobs each year to address the employment needs of fresh entrants in the labour market.
Renewable energy is the way forward
There is 120,000 megawatts of potential for wind energy in Pakistan, half of it existing in one contiguous belt of coastline in Sindh.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) presents a great opportunity to collaborate with China on renewable energy. China is now a world leader in the total wind and solar installed renewable energy at about 140,000 megawatts or 140 gigawatts. At present, an addition of 200 megawatts of wind power and 1000 megawatts of solar energy are planned projects within CPEC.