An analysis of barriers to the implementation of smart grid technology in Pakistan

The share of renewables in the energy mix of Pakistan has gradually been increasing over the past few years, and the generated electricity is sufficient to cater to consumer electricity demands. However, almost one-third of the population still lacks electricity because of inefficiencies in transmission and distribution systems. To address this, the government introduced smart grid projects that were ineffective. Therefore, for the successful implementation of the Smart grid technology in Pakistan, it is important to know the barriers to implementing the technology in Pakistan and determine their interrelationship with each other. This research aims to identify Pakistan-specific smart grid implementation barriers through a mixed-methods approach involving a literature review and expert surveys based on the Delphi method to identify barriers and determine their interlinkages. Nine barriers are identified: state monopoly, lack of public awareness, lack of relevant regulations and policies, organizational barriers, financial constraints, market uncertainty, a dearth of technical human resources, lack of modernized grid infrastructure, and data management issues. This is followed by developing a hierarchical model in consultation with Pakistan's Energy sector experts using the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) method. The driving and dependence powers of the identified barriers are determined by using MICMAC analysis. The result shows that the nine barriers are interlinked at five hierarchical levels. These are: ‘state monopoly’, and ‘lack of public awareness (level five)’, ‘lack of relevant regulations and policies (level four)’, ‘organizational barriers (level-three)’, ‘market uncertainty and financial barriers (level-two)’, and ‘lack of modernized grid infrastructure’, ‘a dearth of technical human resources’, and ‘data management issues (level-one)’. From this, we draw the conclusion that since the barriers with high driving power are influencing those with less driving power, the identified barriers may be addressed sequentially starting from level-five for the successful implementation of the Smart grid technology in Pakistan. The existing literature on the Smart Grid Implementation barriers in Pakistan lacks a determination of the interlinkages between barriers. Therefore, the findings of this research will help the energy sector stakeholders in Pakistan understand the nature of the barriers hindering smart grid technology implementation and enable them to devise effective energy policies while simultaneously adopting intelligent implementation and operational strategies. Insights reported in this study could also be useful for policymakers and stakeholders from other developing countries with socioeconomic and political contexts similar to Pakistan. Further investigations on the findings of this study may be performed using the Analytical Hierarchical Process method to quantify the weights of barriers identified in this research, and Structural Equation Modeling may be used to check the validity of the hierarchical model developed in this study.