We number 33 on the list of countries that produces electricity. That means we produce 90.8 billion kWh (2007 est.) every year. Yet we have power shortages…
And this is our mix of power sources.
http://www.pc.gov.pk/hot%20links/Energy%20Plan/pkMix.pdf
So my confusion is where is the damn power disappearing too? We produce a huge damn amount. Being number 33 on that list is no bloody small feat. Iran is number 20 and it can export the excess electricity it has.
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It goes to Power Stealing and Line Losses!
Bills are paid mainly in big cities, most of the country is enjoying free energy!
Install new under ground / concealed power lines, connection, new monitoring system, new distribution system, new electric meters at consumers, introduce power-factor reduction system, do all these you will know we still produce a surplus electricity! no need to invest in new power plant if the distribution system is same!
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Pakistan produces enough power for its people, but the problem lies in the distribution of power i.e. power theft.... undeclared Air Conditioners installed by people...
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I have seen that in Pindi, Lahore even in Islamabad. But the question is why isn't the government doing something to address the problem. If the network leads to lose of electricity then update it. Use better wires and more solid system of delivery.
It goes to Power Stealing and Line Losses!
Bills are paid mainly in big cities, most of the country is enjoying free energy!
Install new under ground / concealed power lines, connection, new monitoring system, new distribution system, new electric meters at consumers, introduce power-factor reduction system, do all these you will know we still produce a surplus electricity! no need to invest in new power plant if the distribution system is same!
Pakistan produces enough power for its people, but the problem lies in the distribution of power i.e. power theft.... undeclared Air Conditioners installed by people...
You guys said it!
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Go to any KESC, WAPDA electricity office and observe yourself, you will find your answer!
The managers, engineers are close minded people living in stone age and never updated themselve with the current inventions and innovations! 99% of upper level people in these departments comes through 'parchi' ... they don't know what is problem and how to handle!
The whole system is 60plus years old, and no one ever tried to adopt the new technologies!
Western countries spends huge money just on the cable joints, but in our country a labor will tie the cable using just the pliers! That makes difference! connection are lose causes sparking resulting burning of energy which is waste! Think if you have millions of joints like this in your transmission lines, what you will get at the end? obviosuly you draw more amount of energy from the transformer which has its own limit and at one point the transformer will be blasted! ... we see this all the time that transformers are blasting, however they do fix it but they never worked to find the cause of its burning! This is just one example!
Pakistan we have serious problem, get rid of parchi people and bring back brain!
valid points by everyone
lets see what Raja Rental can do about it when he takes up office 
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? is a very experienced electrical engineer, so he has some really valid points
I have been a close observer and also somewhat involved in the KESC and WAPDA networks and distribution systems back in the 90's, manufacturing distribution and Power transformers for both systems. On some occasions we observed some really ridiculous practices which shows the level of competence of both these companies. KESC was slightly better off, technically, but now it too has left WAPDA far behind in inefficiency.
Pakistan has the capacity to produce more than it needs, if it can control the distribution and line losses, and recover money from all who owe to the tune of millions and billions. Couple of days ago i read that the reason for power outages in karachi is that KESC has no money to buy oil for its power plants ..... I mean WTF ???
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? and mirch have covered the technical issues.
c
others have noted theft, thats a huge issue, and its not just electricity.
CM, read up on water shortage reasons as well and you will want to hit your or someone else's head o the wall. Not only are idiots creating shortages by stealing water, but the over irrigation with this muftay ka paani is destroying their agricultural lands.
It goes to Power Stealing and Line Losses!
Bills are paid mainly in big cities, most of the country is enjoying free energy!
Install new under ground / concealed power lines, connection, new monitoring system, new distribution system, new electric meters at consumers, introduce power-factor reduction system, do all these you will know we still produce a surplus electricity! no need to invest in new power plant if the distribution system is same!
Power theft cannot be fixed as long as we have our Mum Dad aka Pak government who is incharge of supplying electricity to the homes.
Just like you don't pay for the dinner at your mum's house, so too you won't feel like paying for the light bulb that comes on thanks to the biggest mum sitting in Islamabad.
It is time to privitize the darned electricity supply companies.
Let me give you an example from another "utility" aka cell phones.
Ever heard anyone stealing form the cell phone companies. Heck no!
In Pakistan mostly the cell phones are pre-paid.
99% people pay their bills "before hand" for the use of cell phone. Once you run out of your minutes, you run over to the kiosk, or borrow or buy from someone the minutes needed for your sweet sweet batain.
Same way we must allow private companies to supply the electricity and maintain the lines.
People have to prepay their months' bill and if on their meter they see the balance going down to 100 rs, they have to reload their meter using their cell phones or credit card.
All the technology is there in Pak, we just need the will to clean up our mess.
Allow multiple companies to supply service to your home. They will compete and the rates will come down, just like the cell phones per minute rates have come down.
Even if the rates don't come down right away, these companies will do their level best to make sure the supply is on for the "PAYING" customers.
Iran’s ratio of Power generated to population is 5 times higher than Pakistan.
Iran generates 192 billion kWh, with a population of 74 million. That’s about 2595 kWh per person per year.
Pakistan generate 90.8 billion kWh with apopulation of 160 million. That’s only 537 kWh per person per year.
In order to catch up to Iran’s level, we would need to generate 415 billion kWh per year… that’s around 5 times more electricity than we generate right now.
Iran's ratio of Power generated to population is 5 times higher than Pakistan.
Iran generates 192 billion kWh, with a population of 74 million. That's about 2595 kWh per person per year.
Pakistan generate 90.8 billion kWh with a population of 160 million. That's only 537 kWh per person per year.
In order to catch up to Iran's level, we would need to generate 415 billion kWh per year... that's around 5 times more electricity than we generate right now.
Very good points mS.
The number for Pak will be even lower if account for the population increase since it was last estimated to be 160 m.
Another important point is that many estimates for Pakistan's electricity fail to see the difference between:
1 - Installed capacity
2 - Average output accounting for seasonal variations in the flow of water etc.
3- Pakistan's electricity plants on Tarbela and Mangla are primarily for water supply and not for electricity generation. Thus in the months we need to store water, there is very little electricity coming out of those two BIIIIIG plants.
Bottom line is that we have to generate 30,000 MW to 100,000 MW more power to have industrial output and public lifestyle of developed countries.
Problem seems to be infrastructure related…
Here is a good article on the issue in Dawn: DAWN.COM | Editorial | The power crisis
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I want to know ... why not privatize WAPDA?
If stopping the stealing alone can gain us some breathing room for improvements, why not let foreign companies come in and create this competition for the benefit of Pakistani consumers?
We should also consider tremendous amount of electrity demand that is increasing at a vicious rate. We are producing babies at a pace that would make rabits ashamed.. population is increasing at a fastest rate in the world for last several years.. we have overtaken many countries including Bangladesh..
There has bveen a explosion of consumer goods... few years back most of the urban households had only one AC or car along with electronic equipment.. now there are 4-5 ACs and 2-3 cars.. we might be producing lot of electricity but our cosumption has increasd manyfold.. shortage of waster in dams is also contributing to shortage of electricity..
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Question: How 'easy' or 'difficult' will it be to make the average Pakistani person stop stealing electricity? It's easy to lay all the blame on the Govt, but doesn't some responsibility lay on the individual citizens who have no issues stealing?
Question: How 'easy' or 'difficult' will it be to make the average Pakistani person stop stealing electricity? It's easy to lay all the blame on the Govt, but doesn't some responsibility lay on the individual citizens who have no issues stealing?
Nothing is easy.
However it is not impossible either.
Many steal something because "they can".
Most of the "stealing" occurs in the third world, because the utilities are owned by the government.
And the government is never worried about profit loss. Government is the big Momma or the big Daddy who provides for the kiddos aka masses.
The day government gets out of the active management of utility supply, and hands it over to "for-profit" companies, then you will see that stealing will go down drastically. It may not end, but it would go down drastically.
As I said in an earlier post,
Very very very few people steal form "Pakistani cell phone companies". Instead most of the Pakistanis "prepay" their usage for the cell phone.
Similarly, if people know that power company will only supply if they prepay, and then keep an eye on their usage,
you will see that theft of electricity will be down as well.
Now who doesn't want the electric supply companies to be privatized?
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Does any one recall exactly which year the 'samjhota express train services' were started between the two countries?
July 1976 Samjhauta Express - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia :chai:
the ratio of electricity steeling is highest in the world with 30/40 % in cities and in far away lands for example: fata, Baluchistan, interior sindh, south punjab is close to 80%..
that’s where it goes… and being on no 33 doesn’t matter, our population circle is huge !