SDPI unveils battery storage roadmap

Dawn reported that a study by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), prepared with the Network for Clean Energy Transition (NCET), was launched on Monday to propose a structured way of using battery storage to ease strains on Pakistan's electricity network. The paper sets out a data-based national plan for choosing locations for grid-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS). According to the study, storage could help with grid bottlenecks, reduce curtailment of variable renewable energy and improve grid flexibility.

At the launch, Dr Kashif Imran of NUST's US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Energy welcomed the analysis but said the sector remains unclear about how storage should be deployed. He also noted that the study relied on limited data, which points to a need for better data analytics. Presenting the findings, Muhammad Umer of SDPI said the power sector still faces Energy Not Served losses of 2.77 GWh, and the study screened grid stations operated by the National Grid Company at 500 kV and 220 kV levels, with Shikarpur, Faisalabad, Dadu and Rawat among the candidate sites.

Recommendations include making BESS modelling mandatory in the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP), folding storage into transmission expansion planning cycles, adopting bottom-up forecasting and creating a national deployment roadmap. The study also frames the work as a business case aligned with CPEC 2.0 investment. The report names no listed company.