Severe Power Crisis In Pakistan

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What has happened?

Pakistan continues to reel under a severe electricity crisis with both urban and rural areas across the country facing excruciatingly extended power outages.
The load-shedding, which has hit both citizens and the industry, has forced PM Shehbaz Sharif’s government to announce an urgent plan to conserve energy.

On June 6, Pakistan government announced that it has decided to reduce scheduled power cuts to 3.5 hours daily, adding that by June 30 this will be brought down to 2 hours daily.
The country is currently producing 22,000 MW of power against a requirement of 26,000 MW.
While this comes out to a 4,000 MW shortfall, some media reports from Pakistan have pegged the shortfall at around 7,800 MW.
According to a June 7 report in the Daily Times, Karachi at that time was experiencing outages going up to 15 hours, while Lahore was without power for nearly 12 hours.

Most power plants in Pakistan are run on imported fuel.
This makes the country increasingly vulnerable to global supply shocks.
The global energy crunch, which is being fueled by the Ukraine invasion and also the post-pandemic demand surge, has seen Pakistan’s energy import costs almost double over the past few months.
While rising fuel prices and strengthening dollar have made power generation a costly affair for Pakistan, distribution companies have been blamed for failing to cut line-losses.
Prime Minister Sharif said on Tuesday that Pakistan does not have enough money to buy oil and gas.
The power crisis has come at a time when Pakistan is in dire need of external finances with its foreign reserves falling below $10 billion.
That’s roughly a 50% drop from August and enough to pay for less than two months of imports, a Bloomberg report said.

To battle one of its worst energy crisis, the government, after an emergency meeting on Wednesday, announced measures to bridge the demand-supply gap.
As part of the plan, markets across the country will shut down at 8.30 pm.
It has been decided to ban wedding functions after 10 pm in Islamabad, with reports indicating that police have been directed to ensure that the ban is strictly enforced.
All public offices and educational institutions will follow a five-day work week to conserve energy.
Further, a panel has been set up to look into the possibility of making Friday a mandatory work-from-home day for government employees.
Discussions are also underway with provinces to only operate street lights on alternate days.
A 40% cut in the official fuel allowance given to ministers and government officials was also approved as part of the new conservation plan
Pakistan, reports said, hopes to lower government offices’ energy consumption by 10% by adheraing to these measures.

Pakistan’s Minister of Development and Planning Ahsan Iqbal has requested more electricity exports from Iran amid the ongoing energy crisis.
Iqbal requested Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Ali Hosseini to expand energy cooperation between Pakistan and Iran during a meeting in Islamabad,
Especially to increase the export of electricity by 100 MW in addition to the current 104 MW of electricity from Iran to Baluchistan province.

The Sharif government has blamed the situation on the mismanagement of the power sector by the previous administration of ousted prime minister, Imran Khan. Khan and his aides have denied any blame.
In the face of soaring energy prices, Pakistan is facing a balance of payment crisis with forex reserves falling below $10 billion, enough for around 45 days of imports, as well as double-digit inflation.

Q) How much more heat is produced, if the current is doubled?