Challenges and potentials of implementing a smart grid for Pakistan's electric network

The power sector of Pakistan is facing many issues such as departmental mismanagement, huge dependence on imported fossil fuels, the greater cost of power generation, lower production of energy along with old monitoring and controlling mechanism equipped with outdated devices. These all issues are responsible for energy crises in the country for the last two decades. The motive of this paper is to implement a smart grid model as per National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) interoperability (protocols and standards, release 4.0) in Pakistan's electric network for the efficient management of an integrated energy system. In this regard, discusses the current condition of Pakistan's power sector for smart grid integration. Issues and challenges are presented for smart grid deployment with possible approaches to tackle these problems. Implement smart grid model and its synopsis with the help of available smart technologies and energy resources that are responsible to interconnect the power sector organizations and national power system. The implemented model and its synopsis are evaluated using SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threads) and STEEPLE (Social, Technical, Environmental, Economic, Political, Legal, and Ethical) analysis. In this paper, the authors find the smart grid as the best option and shows that how smart grid technology can be implemented in Pakistan and how this technology can manage the integrated energy system efficiently.