Feasibility of the Smart Grid Implementation for Better Load Management in Pakistan

For the past two decades, the energy sector of Pakistan has been facing many problems in the form of low production, higher generation cost, departmental mismanagement, outdated monitoring and controlling system equipped with older devices. These problems have increased load shedding in the country; the line losses in Pakistan are also high as compared to other countries, which is not good for the country’s economy. The existing power network in Pakistan is very poorly managed, makes it unreliable and un-affordable. A new system known as Smart Grid, supported by renewable energy resources, equipped with the latest power electronic based controlling, monitoring and sensing devices can greatly improve the reliability of the power network. In this paper, solutions are proposed for the practical implementation of Smart Grid in Pakistan to tackle ongoing energy crisis in the country, focusing the technical and non-technical challenges which have devastated the economy, and considered as the main obstacle in SG implementation.