Continued darkness

Karachi suffered (yet) another power collapse this past Friday, leaving the city plunged in darkness. This is not the first time this has happened this year and is unlikely to be the last. The major issues in Pakistan’s transmission grid remain unresolved and there seems to be no plan to solve them as a new government takes the reins. The former government solved much of the issues pertaining to power generation capacity. But it was unable to deal with any of the deeper issues pertaining to the distribution grid and circular debt in the power system. Despite billions of rupees put into the power sector, citizens are right to feel that little has changed in terms of their suffering. Money is spent, but with the wrong priorities and without understanding how a transmission grid works in a structural sense. Only recently power officials talked about maintaining a north-south balance in power generation, which was not thought through when new power plants were being installed in the last government. This is a fairly easy issue to fix at the stage when power plants are being installed, but almost impossible to fix once the power capacity has been installed.

The outage in Karachi, which spanned around six hours, is an indicator of how bad the situation really is. K-Electric blamed it on extra high tension wires tripping, but it is time we are presented solutions to these solvable problems. The absence of a plan to solve the issues in the power sector is what should really worry us since it is obvious that the piecemeal approach to power-sector management continues. Plans to privatise the power sector fall within the same piecemeal paradigm. That would entail the government deciding that providing electricity is no longer its prerogative and that it would rather operate as a regulator in the sector. On paper, this is a good move since the inability to solve the power crisis has contributed to the fall of two elected governments, but this is not how the public views the power sector. Electricity is very much seen as a utility the state is supposed to provide. The new PTI government till now appears to be committed to privatising power in the same piecemeal approach. It should consider whether the approach would work both technically and politically. The public is looking to the government to take charge of the power sector and deliver them regular electricity supplies. Much will also depend on how it manages circular debt, which has crossed Rs1.1 trillion. Sitting in darkness on Friday, the citizens of Karachi could see little hope out of the current crisis.