IT was expected in an election year that the government will give its very best on the energy front, cutting down loadshedding appreciably.

Tall claims were made by energy planners to reduce power shortfall and concomitant loadshedding to one-third. With summer peak no more than a few weeks away the power shortfall and loadshedding have made their comeback with a vengeance.

Unplanned loadshedding has gripped most of rural and urban areas in Rawalpindi. The shortfall has already started evoking protests on the streets and in the media.

Why has the government failed to tame the loadshedding demon? The reason might perhaps lie in the unsustainable national energy mix wherein the thermal component has gone up to 67 per cent with hydel and renewable components at 26 and one per cent, respectively.

With much brouhaha over environmental damage due to coal-based power plants, it is worth pointing out that the Chinese have scaled down their coal-based power plants, reducing the share from 68pc of energy mix to 50pc. We in Pakistan have not even achieved one per cent.

A familiar sad saga of wrong power sector planning only means yet another long hot summer.

Brig(r) Raashid Wali Janjua

Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2017