Pakistan is confronted with an acute energy crisis which is taking a heavy toll on economy. Government should launch a serious campaign for adopting energy conservation measures by promoting energy efficiency programs.

Pakistan could significantly mitigate the adverse effects of energy crisis for industries if proper energy efficiency measures are adopted, particularly in textile and steel sectors, Mahfooz Elahi, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has made these remarks, while in a meeting with Mr. Van De Raadt, Energy Expert from Netherlands.

He said that steel industry being an energy intensive sector was vulnerable to a higher rate of energy losses, resulting in higher energy cost and productivity posses. Thus, there is a dire need to promote energy efficiency programs by identifying suitable energy saving measures for increasing competitiveness of our industrial units, he maintained.   

ICCI President lauded the efforts of Mr. Khawaja Muhammad Yousuf, CEO, National Productivity Organization (NPO) which was contributing significantly in promoting energy efficiency practices in some industrial units by conducting energy audits. He said Government should support NPO in its capacity building so that it could conduct energy audits in more industries and help them in improving their industrial processes for adopting energy efficiency practices.

He cited the example of Japan which has met the energy needs of its industry through efficient use and has not added any generation capacity since 1990. He said the same policy should be adopted by Pakistan.

Mr. Van De Raadt, Energy Expert from Netherlands has discussed current energy crisis and highlighted the importance of energy efficiency programs. He said that it has become essential in today’s changing scenario to look for energy saving measures in manufacturing units to enhance productivity.