How cheap electricity became the enemy

Pakistan's quiet solar rush puts more pressure on nation's debt-ridden power sector, writes Zain Zaman Janjua

- Zain Zaman Janjua

Pakistanis are increasingly ditching the national grid in favour of solar power, prompting a boom in rooftop panels and spooking a government weighed down by billions of dollars of power sector debt.

The quiet energy revolution has spread from wealthy neighbourhoods to middleand lower-income households as customers look to escape soaring electricity bills and prolonged power cuts.

Down a cramped alley in Pakistan’s megacity of Karachi, residents fighting the sweltering summer heat gather in Fareeda Saleem’s modest home for something they never experienced before - uninterrupted power.

“Solar makes life easier, but it's a hard choice for people like us,” she says of the installation cost.

Ms Saleem was cut from the grid last year for refusing to pay her bills in protest over enduring 18-hour power cuts.

A widow and mother of two disabled children, she sold her jewellery and borrowed money from relatives to buy two solar panels, a solar inverter and battery to store energy, for 180,000 rupees (20,400 baht).

As temperatures pass 40 degrees Celsius, children duck under Ms Saleem's door and gather around the breeze of her fan.