Open AccessWhat Inspires Electricity Crises at the Micro Level: Empirical Evidence from Electricity Consumption Pattern of Households from Karachi
Author(s) -
Lubz,
Munir Ahmad
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v52i4ipp.375-403
Subject(s) - electricity , electrification , consumption (sociology) , mains electricity , agricultural economics , electricity retailing , population , economic shortage , business , labour economics , government (linguistics) , economics , electricity market , demography , engineering , social science , linguistics , philosophy , voltage , sociology , electrical engineering
With urbanisation1 and modernisation of the economy, the useof electrical appliances has increased manifold in Pakistan. Now,household shares in the total electricity use account for 46.5 percent.While other users have lower shares that are industrial 27.5 percent,agriculture 11.6 percent, commercial 7.5 percent and the government 6.2percent only [Pakistan (2012-13)]. Overtime, the household electricityconsumption has also increased because of the increase in electricityconsumers2 and of village electrification.3 Other important reasonsinclude the use of modern appliances including both locally made andsmuggled and increase in the share of urban women in the labour force by6.5 percent during 2007-08 and 2012- 13 [Pakistan (2012-13)]. Thesereasons are also responsible for enlarging electricity demand and supplygap over the years and have led to the electricity shortage to alarmingproportions in March 2012. The electricity gap increased to 57,754 GWfrom 56,930 GW showing an increase of 1.4 percent from the correspondingperiod of the last year. The acute electricity shortage has caused longhours of the electricity load shedding in the country. The populationliving in urban areas bears the direct fall out of the electricitybreakdown because of the modern lifestyle and sheer dependence onelectricity [Pakistan (2012-13)].