Energy Efficiency Promotion and Conservation Measures

Pakistan’s energy crisis has been brewing for last one decade, but it was deepened in 2016-17 with power shortage increased to 5000 MW. The installed electricity generation capacity of Pakistan is 23636 MW, which is not fully exploited as plants operate at less efficiency or remain shut down due to non-payment of circular debt. Energy shortfall resulted in introduction of load shedding program which cost about 8 billion US$ to the economy every year. The situation has further compounded due to high transmission and distribution losses (20%), theft of electricity, declining revenue collection and corruption, etc. Due to inadequate domestic oil reserves, Pakistan spends about US$ 15.473 billion every year (2016) on the import of oil and petroleum products to meet her energy demand. Agriculture is an important sector of the economy of Pakistan, which contributes about 21% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and generates productive employment opportunities for 45% of the country’s labor force. Besides meeting the food and fiber requirements of the local population, it also supports other sectors of economy such as manufacturing and services because of having robust horizontal and vertical linkages with them.