Pakistan’s solar boom has happened largely because ordinary people took matters into their own hands. Faced with expensive, unreliable electricity, households and businesses have put solar panels on rooftops and batteries in basements.
SOLAR POWER
Pakistan’s solar boom has happened largely because ordinary people took matters into their own hands. Faced with expensive, unreliable electricity, households and businesses have put solar panels on rooftops and batteries in basements.
What began as a way to reduce electricity bills has created something truly remarkable: millions of people are now producing some of their own electricity. However, the solar revolution has come about without a plan to share its benefits with everyone, especially those who may not have access to it.
Pakistan’s electricity debate is still largely about the old system: whether the national grid should be abandoned or reformed. At the same time, the country waits for a new electricity market that would allow large power producers and large users to buy and sell electricity more directly. But even when that market opens, it will deal mainly with large-scale electricity trading. It will not solve how ordinary households can trade electricity with one another, especially since Pakistan’s solar boom has already changed how electricity is produced.
By 2025, Pakistan had imported more than 50GW of solar panels. Estimates put the country’s distributed solar capacity at around 33GW at the time, and it has since grown to around 38GW. The important point is not simply that Pakistan now has a lot of solar panels on rooftops; it is that millions of electricity consumers are becoming electricity producers too.
During the day, many homes and businesses produce more solar electricity than they need. Much of that extra electricity goes unused. At the same time, many households cannot afford solar panels and batteries and remain dependent on an expensive, unreliable electricity supply. This has created two very different experiences of electricity generation and consumption: those who can afford solar can produce their own power and reduce their dependence on the grid, while those who cannot remain tied to the same system.
Imagine, then, a neighbourhood where homes with solar panels can share their extra electricity with homes that need it. A household doesn’t have to consume or produce all the electricity it needs on its own. Instead, people in the neighbourhood can use what they have collectively.
This is the basic idea behind what is called a swarm-grid, or peer-to-peer electricity trading. In such a network, if one house produces more electricity than it needs, it could sell the extra power to another nearby house instead of wasting it. Batteries could also be shared in this way, allowing electricity produced during the day to be stored for later use.
Significantly, we would not have to build an entirely new electricity system to do this. Pakistan already has millions of solar panels, batteries and inverters sitting on rooftops. The question is whether we can connect them into a swarm-electrification system so entire communities can benefit, not just those who can afford solar. The principle behind such a network is simple: many small electricity systems can work together as one larger local system.
This could also make solar more accessible. A household would not necessarily need a large solar installation to participate in such a network. Smaller systems could contribute what they produce and receive electricity when they need it. As simple and logical as that sounds, and as economically sensible as it is, transitioning to such a system is not easy without political will. The system, its design and rules, do not favour this.
At present, the electricity system is built largely around a relationship between individual consumers and electricity companies. It does not provide a clear and present mechanism for one household to sell electricity directly to another household using the existing electricity network. Importantly, the Nepra Microgrid Regulations, 2022 do not mention ‘peer-to-peer’ energy sharing anywhere. The closest provisions deal with the definition of a microgrid, its connection to the national or provincial grid, and the non-exclusive nature of a licence, rather than peer-to-peer electricity sharing.
Regulation 2(1)(e)(iii), for instance, defines a microgrid as one that “is not connected directly or indirectly to the national grid,” while Regulation 3(6) states that a microgrid shall not be connected to the national or provincial grid, directly or indirectly, except as provided under Regulation 7. Regulation 3(3) further provides that a licence is granted on a non-exclusive basis. None of these provisions establishes a framework for households or other small producers to trade electricity directly with one another.
Pakistan, therefore, needs a separate regulatory framework for swarm grids and peer-to-peer energy sharing if such systems are to move beyond the conceptual or pilot stage.
That does not mean Pakistan should simply open the market and let everyone start selling electricity tomorrow. Important questions must be settled first. How would electricity be measured? Who would maintain the local network? How would people be charged for using it? What happens when something goes wrong? How do we protect consumers?
These questions can be answered by starting small. Pakistan could allow carefully controlled projects in neighbourhoods where solar panels and batteries are already widely used. These projects could test different ways to buy and sell electricity and show what works before the system expands. Work is already underway to develop such models for both urban and rural communities in the country. The Policy Research Institute for Equitable Development (PRIED), for example, has developed a model for local electricity networks in which households and businesses can share electricity and private investors can earn from providing the service. The model is designed for different kinds of communities, but it still needs a regulatory framework to operate.
Shared swarm-electrification also matters for another reason. Pakistan’s solar boom has been largely paid for by citizens themselves. People have invested their own money because the existing electricity system has not met their needs. We should now allow them to get more value from those investments.
Connecting these systems could make better use of electricity that is currently going to waste. It could make electricity more reliable in some communities and create new opportunities for local businesses to install, manage and maintain these systems.
All this, of course, does not mean abandoning the national grid. The national grid could remain the backbone of Pakistan’s electricity system. But underneath it, local networks could let communities make better use of the electricity they are already producing, creating opportunities to decentralise power consumption and production for more just and equitable access.
The country does not need to start its solar transition from scratch. Pakistanis have already done much of the work themselves. They have bought the panels, installed the batteries and created a vast new source of electricity. The next step is to connect them. The solar revolution can become a panacea for the power woes of people deprived of access to electricity by sharing it.
The writer is a researcher at the Policy Research Institute for Equitable Development (PRIED).
Date:
