The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has sanctioned $375.9 million in funding to enhance Pakistan’s national power transmission system. This initiative aims to alleviate persistent power outages and expedite the country’s shift toward renewable energy sources.
This financing will initiate the Grid Stability Enhancement Project, the first phase of a comprehensive 10-year plan known as Boosting Energy Security through Transmission in Pakistan (BEST-PAK). The program targets the modernization of Pakistan’s aging electricity grid, which has long impeded economic progress due to frequent failures and severe transmission constraints.
World Bank Country Director for Pakistan, Bolormaa Amgaabazar, highlighted the close link between Pakistan’s energy challenges and its overall economic stability. She noted that these infrastructure improvements are expected to lower electricity costs and establish a foundation for a more sustainable power sector.
In a significant development, the project aims to resolve major transmission bottlenecks in southern Pakistan, where hundreds of megawatts of clean energy remain unused because the current grid cannot accommodate the load. The installation of advanced technology, including Static Synchronous Compensators (STATCOMs) at three key 500 kV substations, along with fixed reactors and capacitor banks at 26 other stations, is projected to immediately integrate 640 MW of previously curtailed wind energy into the national grid.
This upgrade will enable the full utilization of 1,840 MW of wind capacity in the south by efficiently transmitting power to major demand centers in other regions. Additionally, the improvements will support an extra 491 MW of upcoming private-sector renewable energy projects. Officials emphasize that this is a vital step toward Pakistan’s climate goal of achieving a 60 percent renewable energy mix by 2030, which is expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 20.8 million tons over the next 25 years.
Meanwhile, Waleed Saleh Alsuraih, the World Bank’s Lead Energy Specialist for the program, stressed that these infrastructure investments will be complemented by important institutional reforms. The project is designed to assist the government’s ongoing restructuring of the National Transmission & Dispatch Company (NTDC) into specialized successor entities to enhance governance and attract future private investment.
Given Pakistan’s vulnerability to extreme weather, the new grid infrastructure will adhere to stringent climate-resilient standards. Following consecutive years of devastating floods and record summer temperatures, all new installations will be constructed on elevated platforms to reduce flood risk and will include equipment rated to operate safely in extreme heat conditions up to 55°C.
