INTRODUCTION

Pakistan is a low-income country, where large portion of the population has no access to
commercial energy. About half of the country’s population has no access to electricity and per
capita electricity consumption is only 1/10th of the world average. About
68% of the country’s population lives in rural areas and majority of them have no access to
electricity [1,2]. Pakistan meets about 32.5% of its annual primary commercial
Energy needs from imported oil by spending about US$5 billion.
The oil import bill is a serious strain on the country’s economy and has been deteriorating the
balance of payment situation. Pakistan is becoming increasingly more dependent on a few
sources of supply and its energy security often hangs on the fragile threat of imported
Oil that is subject to supply disruptions and price volatility. With its attendant risks to energy
security, it is necessary to reduce reliance on oil to achieve a stable energy supply [2–4].
Wind power projects harness natural wind and convert it into electrical energy. Over the past
several decades, there have been steady improvements in technology and performance of wind
power plants. The global wind capacity touched 336.327GW by June 2014, of which 17.613 GW
was installed in the first half of 2014.This surge is considerably higher than the first six months
of 2013 and 2012, during which 13.9GW and 16.4GW were installed respectively. The installed
capacity of wind turbines is rising at an annual rate of 25% worldwide. This shows a growing
interest in the wind electric power every year .Owing to the increase in wind farms in the
recent years, around 45 of the world's total electricity demand can be fulfilled by the wind
turbines [5].
Despite of tremendous growth in wind energy internationally, the technology did not pickup in
Pakistan due to several factors and most significant of them being wind speed data and suitable
wind regime. All international agencies/ investors required accurate wind data to even initiate
feasibility studies. Wind speeds data was being collected all over the country at different heights
from 2 meters to 10 meters for decades in Pakistan.[6] Rural areas are facing load shedding
approximately 20 hours as compared to, in cities Approximately 14 hours per day. According to
estimation of Pakistan Electric Power Company, in May 2012, gap between demand and supply
has been increased up to 6,000MW [7].
Pakistan is blessed with abundant wind resources. Recent assessments and surveys have
identified a number of areas with commercial potential -- along the 1,000 km coastline, and
inland in Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Northern Areas. Pakistan’s first commercial-scale wind
power generation began in April 2009, from the 6 MW first phase of what is to be a 55 MW
wind farm in Jhimpir, Thetta District, Sindh, within the 60 by 180 km Gharo-Keti Bandar“Wind
Corridor”. The Gharo Wind Corridor alone is estimated to have some 50,000 MW of wind power
potential. Since the national target for renewable energy generation is 9,700 MW by year 2030,
it is clear that wind power projects could play a significant role in the country’s future energy
development. Pakistan has considerable renewable energy resources such as wind, hydro,
biomass & solar. Energy from all available coal, gas and renewable energy resources should be
extracted to increase power supply and remove gap between required and delivered amount of
electricity. The better and efficient use of Renewable energy resources helps in getting rid of
load shedding and tackle environmental issues [8].
The Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) was established in 2004 to assess, promote,
and facilitate the development of alternative or renewable energy resources such as wind
power. The AEDB actively assists in the development and implementation of plans and projects,
working with potential developers and with concerned authorities and provincial Governments
[5]. To date, all utility-scale wind power development in Pakistan has focused on independent
private producers, generally relying on foreign investment and imported technology and
equipment, and exclusively concerned with on-shore wind power opportunities
As wind power becomes an established power generation alternative in Pakistan, a wider range
of investors and locations are likely to become involved. It has been predicted that owing to the
increasing awareness about their benefits, wind and solar will be the cheapest forms of energy
production for largest energy markets of Asia within 10 years [9] Optimistic estimation also
estimate that by 2030, one fifth of the electricity demands of the planet can be met by wind
energy. This indicates not only environmental but economic benefits for all countries to include
wind power as clean, renewable source of energy. This paper attempts to highlight the efforts
done in research and development of wind energy sector in Pakistan. [10] As the market has
grown, wind power has shown a dramatic fall in cost. Large capacity wind turbines (i.e. 50 kW
and over) are getting cheaper as the technology improves and the components are
manufactured economically. At present, the cost of 1 kW installed capacity WEC (wind energy
conversion) system is less thanUS$1000 for large capacity wind turbines and as the
international market continues to explode, wind turbine prices will continue to fall [11]. Using
the method of net present value analysis, per unit cost of electricity generated from wind
energy has been estimated as4e5 ¢/kWh and 7e11 ¢/kWh for the coastal areas of Sindh and
Balochistan, Pakistan respectively. The cost of electricity generation from natural gas, high
speed diesel oil and furnace oil has been estimated (in 2008) as 5.5 ¢/kWh, 20 ¢/kWh and 10.5
¢/kWh respectively. The comparison of the results indicates that at most of the locations
especially in Sindh province, wind power is competitive to conventional grid connected thermal
power, including natural gas, even without considering the externalities [12]. As the total
output of the energy intensive sectors decreased, overall welfare of the country was affected
[13]. Now in the recent year, the price of crude oil dropped to almost half of its previous price,
from 11,298 rupees per barrel in December 2013 to 6, 112 rupees per barrel in December 2014
[14]. Also, Pakistan's energy statistics from 2012 estimate that an annual electricity
consumption of a meager 74 billion kW h consumption per capita is 456.64 kWh, one of the
lowest in the world [15]. Still, Pakistan has been unsuccessful in fulfilling its energy demand by
conventional fuels and remains among the ten most energy deficient countries in the world.
The current distribution system is not capable of supplying more than15,000MW.Ineffect,the
constricting bottleneck currently is distribution and not generation Therefore, even if existing
generating units are geared up to operate three-fourth of their capacity, the country simply
does not have the infrastructure to distribute this power to end users [16].

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