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Home appliances major cause of power crisis

* Addition of 30m electric home appliances resulted in the 3,570MW power shortfall

By Sajid Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: The addition and use of some 30 million energy-intensive electric home appliances in the country was the major reason for the 3,570MW power shortfall that resulted in the recent power crisis in the country and not only the higher economic growth, reveals an official report of the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO).

The PEPCO report ‘Load Shedding/Energy Crisis in the Country’ submitted to the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power stated that electricity requirement has increased in the country due to additional refrigerators, deep freezers, air conditioners, microwave ovens, televisions, washing machines and fans.

It attributed the electricity shortfall of 3,570MW in the country to the massive growth in electricity consumption in the non-productive sector like electrical home appliances during the last three years.

The power crisis started in the year 2006 and continued during 2007. During these years electricity shortage reached the figure of 2,546MW during the summer season of 2007. The power crisis became severe due to non-addition of generation capacity, inordinate load growth and addition of about 30 million energy intensive electric home appliances during the last three fiscal years 2005-6 to 2007-08.

Electrification of some 30,000 villages and addition of only 500MW power in the system in the last few years were also responsible for the power crisis, stated the PEPCO report.

The former prime minister had been attributing the increase in electricity demand to the higher economic growth in five-year tenure of his government; however, the PEPCO report presented a different picture.

According to the report, in the fiscal year 2005-06, some 2,250MW power was required to operate some 7.7 million electric home appliances i.e. number of refrigerators in the country were 1,100,000 and power required for them was estimated at 110MW, the number of deep freezers were estimated at 200,000 and required power for them stood at 60MW, some 1,000MW power was required to run 700,000 air conditioners, 800MW power was needed for 400,000 microwave ovens, some 1200,000 televisions needed 120MW power, 180MW power was required for 600,000 washing machines and 280MW power was needed to run 3, 500,000 fans in the country.

In the fiscal year 2006-07, some 3,530MW power was required to operate some 9.8 million electric home appliances i.e. number of refrigerators in the country were 1,250,000 and power required for them was estimated at 125MW, the number of deep freezers were estimated at 250,000 and 75MW power for required for them, some 1,500MW power was required to run 750,000 air conditioners, 1,100MW power was needed 550,000 microwave ovens, 120MW power was needed for some 1,200,000 televisions, 250MW power was required for 700,000-850,000 washing machines and 400MW power was required for 5,000,000 fans in the country.

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