Prudent choices

This refers to the article ‘Energy mega scams’ (Sep 2) by Atta-ur-Rahman. The writer has attributed every issue in the energy sector to past corruption, which may be true to some extent, but not entirely. For instance, he says that the past governments, instead of developing local hydro and nuclear resources, opted for imported technology and fuel-based plants only to mint money. This isn’t fair. Multiple factors may have forced the past governments to opt for thermal technologies, for example, their short lead times and low investment costs. The PML-N-led government’s decision in 2016 to peg LNG contract prices with those of crude oil could be termed poor foresight and judgment, but not necessarily corruption. In 2016, after reaching record high in 2012, oil prices plunged to record lows.

While comparing high-cost solar and wind plants contracts, he ignores that there is a ‘learning curve’ with all emerging technologies, which is too difficult to predict. It’s also unfair to compare two different technologies with each other. His recommendation to go exclusively with local coal and nuclear generation in the future may not be practical. There are technical constraints that make it imperative to keep a diverse set of capacity-mix in the grid. There are also serious environmental concerns with coal-based generation as there are safety and waste disposal issues with nuclear plants that will constrain their high shares in the grid. His advice to provide electricity to the export industry at a 50 perfect discount is also not appropriate as it would further exacerbate the government’s problems in the power sector which is already sinking under the weight of subsidies.

M Shahid Rahim

Bahawalpur