Abstract
Electricity performs an integral role in the economic development and improvement in the living standard of a nation. Unfortunately, Pakistan is currently experiencing one of its worst periods of power shortages. The purpose of this paper is based on diagnosing the present electricity crisis in Pakistan and to discuss the outlook for the diffusion of wind power in the mix of established electricity generation, which relies too heavily on imported fossil fuels at the cost of precious foreign exchange. The existing electricity transmission and distribution (T&D) network has miserably failed to meet the country's requirements. Diversification of the present electricity-generation mix, with a significant increase in the contribution from exploitable wind-power potential recommended, along with upgrading and overhaul of existing power plants and the T&D infrastructure, reductions in non-technical losses and enhancing investment attractiveness (for both thermal and renewable) are some key measures likely to facilitate improved and affordable electricity supply and mitigate the current and forecasted long-term electricity supply–demand gap. Specific recommendations are presented towards overcoming identified challenges and obstacles to the harnessing of the country's abundant renewable energy resources, especially for wind power generation.
Highlights
Pakistan is situated between latitudes 24° and 37°, longitudes 62° and 75°, bordering with India to the east, Iran to the west, China to the north and Afghanistan to the northwest (Figure 1)
The present electricity transmission and distribution (T&D) network in Pakistan is not capable of the efficient and reliable distribution of more than approximately 18 GW to the end users, with the outdated network worsening the supply–demand gap, such that the transmission of anything over this capacity for extended periods increases the likelihood of breakdowns in the distribution network (Ullah, 2013)
The Government of Pakistan (GoP) power-generation plan up to 2030 predicts that electricity supply in Pakistan will increase at an average rate of 11% per annum, with 65% of the increase in installed capacity coming from thermal-based electricity generation (GoP, 2010)
Summary
Pakistan is situated between latitudes 24° and 37°, longitudes 62° and 75°, bordering with India to the east, Iran to the west, China to the north and Afghanistan to the northwest (Figure 1). In 2016, the total installed electricity-generation capacity in Pakistan was approximately 25·0 GW, against the peak demand of 26·4 GW (NTDC, 2017). At the time of writing this paper, the share of wind power of the total electricity-generation capacity in Pakistan was only 0·9 GW (Baloch et al, 2016), against its potential of approximately 320 GW, as documented by Mirza et al (2015). The purpose and focus of this paper is towards diagnosing the present electricity crisis in Pakistan and to discuss the outlook for the diffusion of wind power in the mix of the larger established electricitygeneration technologies. A number of entities working under the umbrella of the Government of Pakistan (GoP) (as illustrated in Figure 2) are responsible for the planning, generation and T&D of electricity to the end users. Further details on the roles and responsibilities of the different entities referred to above can be found in the work of Amjid et al (2011), Mirza et al (2008), Perwez et al (2015), Shaikh et al (2015) and Valasai et al (2017)
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