ISLAMABAD, June 10: The total installed power generation capacity increased to 19,566 megawatts during July-March 2007-08 from 19,440MW during the same period the previous year, showing a marginal increase of 0.65 per cent.

According to the Economic Survey for 2007-08, Wapda’s total installed capacity stood at 11,654MW during July-March (2007-08). Of this, hydroelectricity accounts for 55.6 per cent, or 6,474MW, while thermal power accounts for 44.4 per cent, or 5,180MW.

During the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, 74,032GWh of electricity was generated. During the corresponding period in the previous financial year, 71,033 GWh was generated --- an increase of 4.22 per cent.

The number of villages electrified increased to 126,296 by March 2007 from 113,605 in 2005-06, showing an increase of 11.2 per cent.

The country’s energy demand is projected to reach 129 million tons of oil equivalent (MTOE) during the next 15 years. “Ensuring availability of usable and affordable energy is therefore the bedrock of Pakistan’s current and future developments,” the survey says.

In recent years, the energy demand has increased sharply, owing mainly to a strong economic growth and a rise in per capita income. The supply of energy, on the other hand, has remained far too short to match growing demand because the existing energy resources could not be sufficiently explored and exploited.

Although energy is a high priority item on the economic agenda of the government, growth in the sector remained slow due to a host of factors, such as inadequate institutional framework, financial constraints, skyrocketing oil prices, high risks, low interest of private sector, heavy costs and complex character of hydrocarbon development.

To address the issue of demand-supply gap, the government is working on many fronts, including the import of electricity and gas from Iran, utilisation of coal reserves, development of small hydel projects, promotion of efficient use of energy, and acceleration of current programmes of alternative energy development.

A study of the sectoral consumption of electricity has identified the domestic sector as the largest consumer of electricity for the past many years. During the current fiscal year (July-March 2007-08), the consumption pattern remained more or less the same with the share of domestic consumption at 45.6 percent, industrial at 28.4 percent, agricultural at 11.8 per cent, and commercial at 7.4 per cent.

CNG USE GROWING: A large number of vehicles have been and are still being converted to CNG mainly due to the fact that price of CNG is just 40 per cent of the petrol price.