Pakistan power crisis; people urge govt to work on Iran energy deal

According to National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC), the demand of electricity has reached 16,300 MW whereas the production remains 10,100 MW as a result of which the shortfall has reached up to 6,200 MW.

Iran has already shown its interest in providing 3,000 megawatts of electricity to tackle the persistent power outages in Pakistan. On the other hand, the gas pipeline for the Iran-Pakistan (IP) project has already been laid on the Iranian side of the border.

Iran says being neighbor and close friend of Pakistan, it can easily help the country to overcome its energy woes.

Pakistan people and different parties demand the government to pay serious attention to its delayed energy agreements with Iran regarding gas and electricity, as they are the cheapest and most feasible ways to cope with the energy crisis of the country instead of importing expensive gas from some Persian Gulf countries or dreaming about importing gas and electricity from Central Asia.

The 20th meeting of Joint Economic Commission (JEC) of Iran and Pakistan is being held in Tehran today and some officials of Pakistan energy, power and oil sector are attending the meeting.

Due to extremely low water level in big dams, hydropower production is at 1,400 MW instead of 5,500 MW. This has taken the entire burden of electricity production on independent power producers (IPPs) and thermal power plants.

The growing gap between demand and supply of energy in Pakistan has led to longer hours of load shedding during the hot season.

Urban areas are witnessing 4-6 hours of power cut whereas rural areas are undergoing eight to 12 hours of load shedding.

People are forced to use alternate systems to overcome these problems like generators, solar systems and UPS which are quite expensive and not everyone can afford them. In some areas people are using hand fans to get some comfort from the power problem.

The hot weather is expected to continue in Pakistan making the lives of the people more difficult. Two years back almost 2,000 people died in Karachi and some other areas in Pakistan's Sindh province due to hot weather.

The holy month of Ramadan is also approaching and the people are worried on the long hours of load shedding in the holy month.

It is expected that the coming days will continue to undergo prolonged power outages in rural and urban areas.

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