2017 International Conference on Energy Conservation and Efficiency (ICECE)
Smart Grid Implementation and Development in
Pakistan
Shahid Zulfiqar,Usman Munawar,Muhammad Umer Farooq
1, 2
Al-Khwarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS),
University of Engineering & Technology Lahore (UET),
Lahore, Pakistan
3
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Abstract— Basically smart grid technology is the modification
of Electrical power system from which whole grid transforms
into digital setup. All the power transfer smartly, beneficially,
efficiently and eco-friendly from generation to consumption;
whole system works thorough a definite electronic statute by
using a group of generating sources, transfer the electricity
through distribution units which communicate over wireless
scheme in this paper we are presenting the idea of application of
smart grid in Pakistan. In all sections whether it is distribution,
transmission/substation. From this we can eliminate load
shedding to such an extent by using our natural sources and
technology. The decentralization of the power system, automatic
recovery and real time information, reducing transmission losses,
digital meters and the security of the system are some of the
benefits. The paper bring useful perspective for the policy and
decision makers.
Keywords— Smart Grid, NTDC (National Transmission and
Dispatch Company), PEPCO, KESC
I. INTRODUCTION
Smart grid is the acumen control of Generation,
Transmission, Distribution & utilization through complex
communication architecture & integration. Real time
condition/status of Electric system are being provided by
sensors and used along with two way communication [1].
Smart grid enables two ways power flow support. Smart grid
uses several techniques to increase its reliable & long
sustainability. Smart grid Attempts to meet all demand using
wind, solar, battery storage, fuel cell & virtual power plants.
Economic growth in any developing country relies deeply
on electricity. Electricity demand of Pakistan is increasing day
by day like other growing countries of world. Pakistan suffers
from power shortage since last two decade or so. Industries and
domestic users need reliable and cheaper electricity. But
present situation does not allow providing continuous supply of
power. So Pakistan’s economy is not flourishing in this
situation. In Pakistan power system is considered by lacking in
propagation and large transmission and distribution losses. As
well as this Power theft, poor planning of distribution,
corruption in power sector and above all aging power system
are important causes of load shedding. To stop the existence of
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blackouts, it is necessary to upgrade the existing power system.
The only solution of all these problems is smart grid. The smart
grid is being considered as the evolution of electric power grid
to enhance the efficiency, reliability, and safety of present
system. The importance of smart grids were long discussed and
one great article which explains this concept is “Toward a
Smart Grid” in 2005 [2]. Smart grid is achieving many benefits
like power loss reduction, uninterrupted supply of power,
reducing peak demands and load management etc. At present,
old electricity grid is 33% efficient and smart grid is 60%
efficient [3].
To increase the generation capacity, apart from
conventional resources, renewable energy projects are also
started in Pakistan. In future renewable energy would become a
major component of smart grid, handling, protection, planning
of large scale renewable power system would be challenging
without smart grid [4].
There are some characteristics of smart grid:
Self-healing, Compatibility, Optimization, Interaction,
Integration, Reliability, Openness.
II. BACKGROUND
The power distribution at maximum efficiency remains the
most envisaged topic from decades. By passing the time every
system changes into its modified form to get high output, fewer
losses at low cost. Pakistan is holy with richness of renewable
energy however to this point prospective has not been bound
excepting for high capacity hydroelectric projects. In 2012 the
renewable energy covered only 13% of total Pakistan energy
demand that can be increased by using modern techniques in
production as well as in transformation by smart grid too.
By introducing new challenges in order to meet our
energy requirements, unfortunately we were unable to
accomplish the needs of electricity due to political issues and
not sufficiently advancement of power sector.
Particularly we have some main sources in access to
produce energy like Solar, Wind and Biomass, by
implementing these sources into smart grid, huge part of load
 2017 International Conference on Energy Conservation and Efficiency (ICECE)

can be encounter, forecasting plays a vital role in renewable

energy sources to get maximum efficiency by prediction.

Energy storage, demand management and advanced

metering infrastructure are basic sources for changing a grid
into smart
Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is the
communication technology which communicates energy in
near to real time since consumers to Industrial Companies.
Demand management which involves control system to run
heavy load when mandate is low.
In Summary, the energy networks in future from a native
end-user’s view the following features should need to create:
small-scale generation, storing and management of electricity
Fig: Pakistan Power Sector Subsidies [16]
demand by reducing energy consumption [5], communication
among home controlling and monitoring system by software 500KV 5077 km
which drives the smart native system.
220KV 7359 km
III. IMPLEMENTATION OF SMART GRID Table1: Transmission network in Pakistan
A. Needed Budget for Smart Grid
B. Reducing Transmission and Distribution losses
As we know developing countries have a very tight budget.
Financial status of Pakistan is very poorly pretentious by Second main challenge in implementing smart grid is to
terrorism, political instability and increase in debts. Smart grid reduce the transmission losses of electrical system. Huge
requires serious efforts in all sections of grid which require investment is needed for upgradation of transmission
greater budget than ever before. In 2015 china started CPEC system. [6]
project in this extension of Euro Asia trade route. More than Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
$56 billion is invested by china in Pakistan. By 2019 10,000
MW more generation will be added in existing system. In % 21 20 16 17 17
United States of America the energy department has invested losses
more than quarter of its energy budget in smart grid. Results Kwh 19,187M 18,793M 15,184M 16,115M 15.876M
are promising. Investments will be return in next 10 years. The
Industries thinking to quite business while outages, domestic Table2: Losses in transmission [NTDC 2013]
and foreign orders couldn’t be contented because of reduced It has repeatedly been pinpointed that the T&D losses should
production. Business activity is shrunk due to communication not be more than 5 per cent and any loss above this benchmark
and infrastructure shutout. This crisis of production facilities should be treated as theft, which can only be done with the
and deal of electrical appliances led the country towards connivance of staff.
economic catastrophe. Government establishments should
confirm renovating existing power plants to attain highest
generation in addition to save it from overcapacity which has
been a foundation of the power outages by installing renewable
sources in existing power grid. This can be done by
intermittently shutting down one plant at a time for
maintenance and renovating to evade overcapacity on other
power generation plants.
Taxes on energy preserving and relaxing the liabilities
electrical devices such as solar operated devices, LED lights,
energy saver lamp and wind turbines [6].
High lines losses should be swap by economical lines. Fig. 1: Transmission and Distribution losses at DISCO level in
NTDC (National transmission and Dispatch Company in Pakistan. Source: Pakistan Economic Survey [16]
Pakistan)
Since the financial data about distribution companies operating
under Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is not

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 2017 International Conference on Energy Conservation and Efficiency (ICECE)

available the numbers made public by Karachi Electric Supply
Company (KESC) can be used as proxy.
Government should take serious steps that benefit practically
the economic sector of Pakistan. To convert whole system into
smart gird there is a need of time, investment and planning.
Smart stations, substations should built that linked up by a
strong wireless communication system [7].
Smart meters can take place of simple energy meters. It’s not a
change of a week or a month but the start of a change then
there will be end of the change.
IV. CHALLENGES IN DESIGNING SMART GRID
Improving the grid system is very time consuming as well
as severe technical assistance is required. The present grid
system is far behind the idea of smart grid system. At current
the smart grid is present in most of the Europeans as well as
American countries [8]. They have improved their system time
to time which results in that, at present stage they can improve
much in their system by just simple changes. But in Pakistan
the grid system is just a mess, so we have to progress in this
field day by day. This advancement requires so many efforts
that at present stage no one is willing to give their resources
and time to improve this system.
At first, the government sector should start spreading
cognizance for smart grid in different technical as well as
financial departments, so that an atmosphere can be created for
the understanding of the smart grid and define a direction for
the initial stages. In Pakistan many of the high as well as
technical experts don’t even know the concept of smart grid. In
this regard the shareholders should start a crusade in
developing the interest for smart grid [9].
project. International energy conferences can be held inside
universities and power sector should be invited in those events.
In Pakistan, electronic media is very much important in
spreading awareness and develop interest. Any project cannot
be successful without the support of peoples and private sector.
So there should be workshops and seminars in developing
interest regarding smart grid [11].
Fifth challenge for government of Pakistan has to face is to
give some kind of pilot project for investors to see the benefits
from. This can be done by creating full scale pilot project in
university campuses/military bases & by rural electrification.
One such example we can take from micro gird at Illinois
Institute of Technology [17]. This has two main benefits: one is
for research and development at domestic level and second is
to showcase real time benefits for industrial community to
increase people’s interest in investing more in smart grid
technology.
In Pakistan electric grid is traditional and installed almost half
a century ago and is nothing practical regarding smart grid so a
much work is to be done. Cyber Security in modern electrical
grid is of highly in the present case [12]. The smart grid system
is connected through complex communication architecture so
that the two-way system can receive or send data.

The second challenge which is being faced by most of the

countries including Pakistan is the making of policies regarding
smart grid. There should be some parameters or guideline
which will help in designing and promoting smart grid. All the
government departments which are responsible for the electric
system in Pakistan should decide to gather there data and
expertise to implement the concept of smart grid into reality
and develop such a policy which should be acceptable to
everyone.
The third challenge is the biggest and the major hindrance
in developing the smart grid technology in Pakistan. The
electric supply system had such massive losses in it that no one Fig 2. Block Diagram of Smart Transmission
is willing to invest their money in this system. In this regard the Centralized controllers in conventional power systems are
government should give financial security to investors [10]. prone to a single point of failure. However, with the
The next thing is that, the planning department should have all advancements in AMIs, distributed controllers and modeling
the authority in this respect and no other department should have been studied in the literature to overcome this problem.
have the authority to interrupt in their work. These creative [19] In these algorithms, distributed generators (DGs) will only
steps would help in finding their ways and easily implement communicate with their neighboring DGs to control the system
the smart grid portents. rather than exchanging the messages with the central controller.
The fourth challenge is to start spreading awareness in This can help the system to be more stable in terms of any
public as well as private sector, so that an atmosphere could be cyber-attack since not all the information are gathered at only
created for the developing interest of smart grid. The one place.
government should take initiatives to permute smart grid

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 2017 International Conference on Energy Conservation and Efficiency (ICECE)

Smart grid can improve

There is no practice to reduce
transmission line power
transmission losses in
factor by using intelligent
existing system
power electronic devices.
There are no smart meters.
Most of them are All meters are smart.
electromechanical one.
Renewable energy resources
Energy sources is only be
and distributed generation
integrated at transmission
can integrate on transmission
level
and distribution level as well.
Smart grid wirelessly
controls the distribution
Circuit breakers in current
lines. It has the ability to
system cannot be remotely
cut-off certain faulty region
controlled therefore self-
in the case of fault so that
healing is not present.
whole area will not be
victimized.
Security system of these
meters is very inefficient and Errors in billing can be
poor. Billing problem has minimum as 1%. System can
been a major concern. Meter spot non-payment of bills and
readers are not concerned we can cut/reconnect
Fig 3. Consumer Architecture about payment collection but remotely when the consumer
harassment and corruption pays the bill.
with consumers.
V. IMPLEMENTING SMART GRID STANDARDS
In Pakistan various standards are implemented. For successful
implementation of smart grid we have to follow IEEE
standards of smart grid 1547 series for transportation, 1675, VII. CONCLUSION
1775, 1901, 1901.2, and 2030 for home devices. Advance Developed countries implemented Smart grid since this
metering standards 1377, 1701, 1703, 3001.8, p1704, and technology was introduced. They are investing large amount
p1705. For dedicated smart grid design standards 1547 series of money in this sector. As an example, according to IEA
[18]. Developed states like Europe puts investment in power sector
as much as 22 billion Euros per year and annual turnover
VI. BENEFITS OF SMART GRIDS exceeding 112 billion, which is about 1.5% of EU GDP. This
The Smart grid system had many advantages in all illustrations the opportunity of investing in future grid possess
parts of electrical system [13]. great importance. In Pakistan, no technical research and
investment is being carried out in power sector as compare to
Current Electric grid Smart Grid benefits if European and American countries. Energy crises in Pakistan
Situation in Pakistan predicted in Pakistan forced many industrialists specially textiles to shift their
The Electrical power business to Bangladesh, China and even India. All these
Distributed generation and its
generated in Pakistan is factors now forcing to implement smart grid and it will be an
control is possible as well
monitored centrally. excellent choice. This technology is extremely easy to
In Smart grid fault can be maintain and operate as self-healing, theft controlling and two-
Transmission line faults are restored automatically. way communication. So fewer amounts of sources will be
not self-heal but can be Artificial intelligence base needed to fulfil energy requirement of country; it will result in
detected at macro level. self-healing ability will be saving in money and man power as well. In the end smart
present in smart grid. generation, transmission, distribution and utilization will be
achieved & optimized to a great extent. In future work we will
It processes real-time further discuss the potential in EV sector of Pakistan and its
Electrical Distribution system Information from PMUs and impact on Pakistan’s smart grid.
feeders are not fully sensors to monitor real time
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 2017 International Conference on Energy Conservation and Efficiency (ICECE)
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