SUSTAINABLE URBANIZATION WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY AND LOCAL EMPOWERMENT IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN
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Date
2023
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UMT, Lahore
Abstract
Urbanization is swelling up cities and causing a continuous hike in the demand of electricity to meet the development needs. This study challenges the existing highly centralized and the fossil-fuel dependent power system of Pakistan and investigates whether it is necessary to harness the local renewables in Punjab in order to meet the energy challenges posed by the rapidly surging urban Population. Punjab with its 110 million people and 36.7 % rate of urbanization is the most populous and highly urbanized province of Pakistan. It consumes 65 % of the total electricity supplied by the national grid, which receives 67% of all its power from the non-renewable thermal and nuclear sources. This research builds on the theoretical concepts propagated by the sustainability framework, the energy transition theory and the administrative principle of subsidiarity and proposes energy transition to the renewables (ETR), the engagement of local communities (ELC) in smaller power initiatives and the introduction of local empowerment in energy provision (LEEP) as workable solutions to make the urbanization sustainable in Punjab. The Likert scale survey technique was employed to fetch responses from 480 domestic electricity consumers living in 37 cities of Punjab. The data was subjected to multiple linear regression analysis using SPSS. The output values confirmed that the ETR and LEEP are significant predictors to study variance in sustainable urbanization (SU), which is also found to have a positive association with the income of the subjects. The research promises to provide a new direction to the urban planners, energy managers and the policy makers with the suggestion to devolve the sectoral planning of energy sector to the districts in order to make rising urbanization sustainable in Punjab