Pakistan

USAID has partnered with NREL, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to help Pakistan create a more sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy sector through supporting grid planning, electric vehicle deployment, and integrated energy planning.

USAID-NREL Activities in Pakistan

USAID and NREL are supporting the Government of Pakistan (GOP) in reforming its power sector to increase sustainability, reliability, and affordability. The partnership is focused on four primary areas:

Transmission development planning and technical support
Competitive wholesale market development support
Electric vehicle development and implementation
Supporting the path to renewable energy mandates
Integrated energy planning.·

Transmission Development Planning

Improving electric grid operations will improve system reliability and market access. NREL experts, working with lab partners primarily from ANL, are providing technical support primarily to the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) and National Power Control Center (NPCC). NREL will support NTDC with load forecasting, stakeholder engagement, and designing scenarios, and will help optimize dispatch for NPCC by introducing dispatch modeling. Furthermore, the multi-laboratory team will support future versions of the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan and the national Transmission System Expansion Plan. The laboratory team will also provide expanded support to improve long range integrated resource planning best practices and the use of long-term expansion models to support the continued improvement of the Pakistan energy system.

Wholesale Market Development

NREL, ANL, PNNL and USAID aim to help Pakistan create a competitive wholesale electricity market, consistent with Pakistan’s Competitive Bilateral Contract Trading Market roadmap. Efforts will largely focus on supporting the Pakistan Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA-G) in the implementation of the new markets and supporting the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) with regulatory considerations and the development of a new market monitoring function. Under the new system NTDC will act as system operator and CPPA-G will act as market operator, with the National Laboratory experts consulting on the formation of the new market structures. The effort will also utilize the experience from the founding system operators under the Global Power Systems Transformation Consortium. This work will help Pakistan further refine processes and tool development to support a new efficient and transparent market.

Electric Vehicle Market Deployment

Electric vehicle (EV) adoption is an important part of Pakistan’s effort to address climate change, air quality and reduce importation of liquid fossil fuels. Experts from PNNL, NREL and USAID will provide direct support to public and private organizations that are enabling EV rollout with a near term focus in supporting NEPRA in developing the regulatory framework for EV charging infrastructure. The laboratory team will also support assessment of standards and locational analysis for charging infrastructure.

Renewable Energy Expansion

Pakistan has identified expanding renewable energy use as a national priority, setting a target for 30% electricity from renewable sources by 2030. NREL and USAID are supporting the greater adoption of renewable energy to meet this goal. Experts from DOE National Labs will work with a variety of stakeholders, including the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), CPPA-G, NTDC, and provincial energy departments to develop a national renewable energy auction system while supporting provincial governments develop a pipeline of renewable energy projects. NREL experts will also be supporting NEPRA in the development of a national regulation for mini-grid energy systems to support access to energy services in many remote Pakistani communities.

Integrated Energy Planning

Lead by PNNL and ANL, USAID will also support the Ministry of Planning in support of sector wide integrated energy planning. With the implementation of the new Energy Planning and Resource Center within the Ministry, the DOE National Lab team will support targeted technical energy system analysis, resulting in greater resilience and energy system reliability. Working closely with staff from the EPRC will also result in expand analytical capacity of this new organization.

Power Plant Map

pakistan pp