Pakistan’s energy system: integrated energy modeling and formulation of national energy policies

Pakistan is facing multiple challenges for harnessing the various indigenous energy resources and devise the energy policy for meeting the ever increasing demand of energy by various sectors of the economy. The country which is believed to have substantial indigenous primary energy resources i.e. Fossil fuels and renewables is facing energy supply gap of over 5,000 megawatts, ending up frequent outages and load shedding. Energy planning in Pakistan was given little consideration before 1980’s mainly owing to limited industrial growth and small urban population. However, in the following years there has had been substantial urbanization and industrial growth in the country emphasized to devise the rational energy polices. From 1994 to 2013 various energy polices have been formulated and implemented. The focus of formulation of these policies have varied from policy to policy with major polices devised without undertaking integrated energy modelling exercise, although there has been some efforts at government level as well as by the academicians. Popular energy modelling tools such as MARKAL/TIMES; LEAP, ENPEP and MESSAGE have been developed and successfully used by nations to devise the energy policies. This paper provides brief on Pakistan’s Energy System, review of energy modelling tools and their possible application in Pakistan for the formulation of energy policies.