LAHORE: Consumers will have to pay for the surplus power generation capacity regardless of the use, an amount that is set to rise from Rs900 billion now to Rs1.6 trillion by 2030, said a report released on Friday.

The report, titled Pakistan Electricity Outlook 2022 and compiled by the Energy Institute of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums), reveals that the period of the expensive capacity surplus will sustain over the modelled period, ranging from over 15 per cent in summer to over 40pc in winter over peak demand despite an optimistic growth in projected demand.

“It means that the amount of capacity the government has already installed (including that which is under construction/development) — the power system — will remain in surplus capacity, much more than needed,” the report said.

“As a result, the consumers will be bound to pay for this excess capacity regardless of use, which is currently Rs900 billion and will rise to Rs1,600bn by 2030,” said the report.

“If you buy a car on lease and bring it to your home, your leasing period will immediately start whether you drive it or not,” Director Lums Energy Institute Dr Fayyaz Chaudhry told Dawn.

“And this is what is happening with our power sector where everyone continued getting power plants installed and planning to install more in future without thinking to go for digging out the root cause behind increasing demand and find out the solution for decreasing it through energy conservation,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2022