According to a report, country’s current total installed power generation capacity is 39,145 MW (including K-Electric). Out of this, the national grid (i.e. NTDC) system has 35,924 MW installed capacity but its power evacuation capability is limited up to 26,887 MW, due to a variety of factors including constraints in transmission and distribution network. Power demand during this summer is projected to be 27,261 MW. Thus, there is clear shortage of 374 MW in the system, besides the planned and forced outages during the year. Therefore, utility companies have to resort to significant power shortages, announced or otherwise, during the period June-August 2020. The country may continue to experience loadshedding in the coming years too, since the ongoing upgradation and expansion of the NTDC system will take time.
Optimal conservation of electricity in all sectors of economy could play a significant role to stabilise power supplies countrywide. There exists large potential for conservation of electricity, which has not been exploited effectively so far. The studies conducted on power conservation suggest an average potential for twenty percent energy conservation in all the consumers’ groups. Total electricity billed and consumed at national level was 93,887 GWh as on June 30, 2019 and just one percent would mean more than 938 GWh or 938,000,000 kWh units of electricity available additionally in the national grid on yearly basis. In financial terms, one percent works out Rs13,586 million as total amount billed in the year 2018-19 was Rs1,358,609 million.
The Demand-Supply Management (DSM) applied to electricity system is of critical importance in reducing overall load on national grid and thus easing out long-hours electricity shortages and outages. The key elements of the DSM, an internationally accepted measure to bridge the demand-supply gap, include implementation of electricity conservation programmes, launching a media campaign for prudent use of electricity, standardisation of all electrical and electronic appliances and application of energy management systems. Comprehensive conservation programmes are implemented through integrated policy measures, to rationalise use of electricity by increasing power efficiency, reducing electricity waste and optimising resource allocation.
The DSM is more effective either with a small number of large energy consumers like industrial sector or among many smaller energy consumers like household or residential group. Trend of electricity consumption by various economic groups show that share of domestic/household in electricity consumption in DISCO-licensed areas has been increasing exponentially over the years, whereas share of industrial sector, in contrast, has drastically reduced. Therefore, the DSM techniques need to be focused on household group, in the first instance, for attaining targeted results.
Major areas of electricity conservation in a household are lighting, domestic appliances, heating & cooling equipment, computers, and electric motors for water pumping, etc. When not in use, standby power of all electrical and electronic appliances should be switched-off to avoid waste of power in the household. Vampire Energy, also known as Phantom Power, is the no-load power waste which uses 10 percent to 15 percent electricity of a home.
Selection of energy-efficient domestic appliances is also of great importance as well as their proper regular maintenance. There are cost-effective technologies that help prevent energy waste, such as passive infrared technology and control system. In this case, the sensor-based logic control software manages lighting system and heating/cooling equipment to go in energy saving mode, if installed in a residential or a commercial building for increased efficiency.
Sadly, the government has not shown political will and commitment towards achieving energy savings. The National Energy Efficiency & Conservation Act 2016 is in place, but it has not been implemented in letter and spirit.
The National Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority (NEECA), which was formerly National Energy Conservation Centre (ENERCON), is “mandated for initiating, catalyzing and coordinating all energy conservation activities in different sectors of economy”. It is however ironic that the first and last meeting of its Board was held in August 2018. This is a sad reflection on the state of affairs of the NEECA that remained headless for many years.
In 2006, the National Energy Efficiency Conservation Policy was announced, followed by a Framework for implementation of Energy Efficiency Policy. But nothing happened. After ten years, in 2016, comprehensive sectoral energy conservation measures were determined through a report on the Guidelines and Implementation Actions for short-term, medium-term and long-term periods. The targets achieved however are dismal, to say the least. Interestingly, a number of programmes are being implemented with technical and financial assistance of international agencies like the Global Environment Facility (UN), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), World Bank, and others.
The most common type of energy conservation solution implemented on a large scale is LED lighting under the programme “Transition to Energy Efficient Lighting in Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Outdoor Sectors”. Initiative to divert the appliances market towards energy efficient solutions was taken under the Energy Efficiency Standards and Energy Labelling Schemes. Reportedly, standardisation and labelling of only sixteen electric fan makes, out of about fifty, has been done so far. Energy audit of only 30 public sector buildings has been carried out, but that too without further follow-up. It is observed that commendable work was done in the past by the erstwhile ENERCON in implementing such programmes in non-electricity areas i.e. transport sector and domestic gas geysers.
Subsequent to the 18th Amendment in the Constitution, the provincial governments are the designated or implementation agencies for the NEECA in respective domains, which somehow do not accord any importance to the subject. For example, the Punjab Energy Efficiency & Conservation Agency has not a single engineer or technical professional among its 5-member management team. On the other hand, other provinces have assigned these responsibilities to the respective Energy Departments. Obviously, the results of energy conservation are far from satisfactory.
The writer is retired chairman of the State Engineering Corporation