According to a news report, the government of Pakistan plans to distribute 10 million low-consumption light bulbs to reduce the load on national grids. Pakistan is currently producing around two-thirds of its power demand, with an overwhelming deficit of around 3,000-4,000 Megawatts. Domestic and industrial consumers have been hit hard by continual power cuts.
The state-run National Energy Conservation Centre (ENERCON) on Monday tasked the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) with arranging the delivery of energy-saving bulbs across the country, the daily newspaper Dawn reported this Tuesday.
PEPCO will assess the capacity of local manufacturers to fill the huge order, and in case of shortfall, it will approach the authorities to import the bulbs.
Pakistan's new coalition government that swore in last month had announced a 100-day relief package with an improvement in energy situation high on the agenda.
The bulbs commonly used in rural Pakistan are of 60 - 100 Watts rating. In cities, 40 Watt tubelights are utilized mostly but the trend towards 20 - 40 Watts energy saver bulbs is increasing. Average operating life of a standard light bulb is far less as compared to the energy saver bulbs though the capital cost is currently over 6-7 times lower. The new move by the government may decrease the impact of the crisis a bit but not solve it. A lot more needs to be done in terms of energy generation from renewable sources if Pakistan aims at getting out of the current crisis.
1 comment:
The beauty of the Energy Saver plan is in the minute details of the project. First off, I would like to correct the perception that the impact of the energy savers will only be "a bit". Rough calculations are called for. If we assume that the 10 million energy savers are distributed effectively, which means that the bulbs ought to be sold off to only consumers who bring a working class regular bulb to the service centres of the utilities. This would ensure that the a energy saver (which consumes 20W) will replace a regular bulb (which consumes 80W). This will entail a saving of 60W each bulb. At the macro level this will entail is a reclaimed capacity of (600MW = 60W*10,000,000). This is potentially 20% of the loadshedding that can be reduced. That is quite significant considering the costs enailed.
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