SDPI proposes grid-scale battery storage roadmap to ease Pakistan’s power constraints

A study by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), prepared with the Network for Clean Energy Transition (NCET), proposes a national roadmap for placing grid-scale battery storage where it can ease transmission bottlenecks. Researchers from the institute said Pakistan's power sector still faces Energy Not Served losses of 2.77 GWh. The team screened the 500 kV and 220 kV grid stations of the National Grid Company and ranked candidate sites, including Shikarpur, Faisalabad, Dadu and Rawat, on technical and locational parameters.

The proposal calls for battery storage modelling to become mandatory in the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan and for storage to be built into transmission expansion planning cycles. It also recommends bottom-up forecasting and a national deployment roadmap for the technology. Dr Kashif Imran, a professor at NUST, said the work offered useful insight into optimal siting but pointed to continuing confusion over deployment, and he noted that the transmission-focused study relied on limited data.

Imran added that storage could reduce transmission losses and help manage voltage fluctuations, though it is unavailable around the clock, so it must be paired with other measures to meet particular grid demands. Profit reported that the discussion centred on grid planning and did not name any listed company.