Annual Summary Report 2018: Sustainable Energy for Pakistan (SEP) Project

The project's FY18 work plan was finalized through a consultative process with the Government of Pakistan (GOP) and USAID, and was approved after a national-level Inception Conference held in Islamabad in November 2017. A major portion of Year 1 of the SEP project was devoted to startup activities, including mobilization of key project personnel to Islamabad, hiring of additional local staff, establishing and equipping the main SEP office in Islamabad and a site office at the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) in Lahore, and implementing operational protocols and systems. Technical work was initiated in January 2018, despite delays in Technical Component 3 due to lack of formal GOP consent on the target distribution utilities to be provided SEP assistance. SEP achieved considerable progress during the year in initiating several major technical activities, achieving important milestones and outputs, and progressing against the annual performance targets for the year. Key accomplishments include assisting USAID in carrying out three training workshops, providing support to CPPA-G in drafting the Technical Assessment of CPPA-G for USAID G2G Grant Assistance, and reporting one event completed: the Clean Energy Development in Pakistan-Issues & Prospects Workshop held on April 24, 2018 in Karachi. Technical Component 1 focused on clean energy development in Pakistan, with notable achievements including conducting a national workshop on Clean Energy Development in Pakistan: Issues & Prospects in Karachi, developing a Sustainable Energy Advisory Facility (SEAF) framework for soliciting, screening and channeling SEP technical assistance to public and private sector entities, researching and developing a draft memorandum on measures for mitigating financial risks faced by investors and developers in the CE domain, and completing preparations for hosting a technical workshop on Developing Renewable Energy Zones in Pakistan. Technical Component 2 focused on grid integration and modernization, with notable achievements including working in collaboration with NTDC and the World Bank to devise the scope of work (SOW) of a national-scale variable renewable energy (VRE) grid integration study, finalizing the SOW for the Power System Simulator for Engineering (PSS-E) training, re-operationalizing the Real Time Power System Simulator (RTPSS) facility installed under previous USAID assistance, and developing Task Sustainability Plans (TSPs) with NTDC for the PSS-E and RTPSS training. Technical Component 3 focused on operational assessments of selected DISCOs, with notable achievements including undertaking an operational assessment of selected DISCOs based on field visits and meetings with utility management and staff, identifying performance inefficiencies, preparing improvement plans to mitigate them, establishing baseline information that could be used to measure performance improvements over time, and highlighting areas where immediate actions by DISCO management are required.