Need for Smart Transmission Grid in Pakistan: (Technical and non-technical challenges in its development)

Pakistan, a developing country, full of natural resources and manpower with population exceeding 176.74 million has a lot of potential in fulfilling its energy requirements. However, the country is facing severe shortage of electricity due to overloading, mismanagement, transmission line losses, electricity theft issues, aged equipment, poor maintenance and questionable monitoring and control. These issues have really put the power sector to a downfall. In Pakistan, transmission line losses are very high as compared to other countries. Each year these losses are increasing which is becoming a challenge for the country. Existing aged Transmission Grids (TGs) are very poorly managed, rendering them unreliable, insufficient, and unaffordable. Intelligent energy management using advanced digital technology combined with power electronics and sensors can greatly improve transmission lines efficiency. In this paper, need for Smart Transmission Grid (STG) and possible technical and nontechnical challenges are focused; proposed solution is given to tackle with these on-going issues which are the main obstacles for its practical implementation.