ISLAMABAD, Aug 04: Federal Minister for Energy (Power Division) Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Tuesday unveiled a government roadmap to push clean electricity to 90 percent of the national mix by 2035, with a focus on battery energy storage systems, domestic manufacturing and urgent regulatory reforms.
Speaking at the Solar, Storage and Flexibility 2026 Conference in Islamabad, Leghari described the initiative as a turning point.
He said that the government was moving decisively from a generation-first mindset to one that prizes grid flexibility, energy sovereignty and local industry, a shift designed to protect consumers from international fuel shocks and to harness Pakistan’s fast-growing rooftop solar revolution.
“With nearly 38 gigawatts of distributed solar now on rooftops through consumer-led investment, Pakistan has entered a new era,” the minister said, describing the rapid growth of private solar as both an opportunity and a challenge.
He said the country has plenty of sunlight during the day but remains vulnerable at night, with abundant midday generation that currently goes unused by evening because the grid lacks the means to store and shift that clean power into peak hours.
Minister Leghari pointed to recent supply disruptions, particularly interruptions in RLNG supplies earlier this year, as important lessons.
Those outages, he said, exposed a stark strategic weakness: reliance on imported fuels can force load shedding even when the nation is generating ample solar electricity.
“Battery storage is not an optional add-on,” the energy minister asserted. “It is a strategic asset for Pakistan’s energy sovereignty.”The minister underlined that clean sources, including hydropower, nuclear, wind and solar, already supply about 55 percent of electricity today. But without rapid investments in storage, transmission and market design, he warned, renewable energy ambitions could become disconnected from reliable power supply.
“Ambitious renewable targets must be matched by commensurate investment in storage; otherwise renewables will remain intermittent promises, not bankable power,” he said.
Leghari set out a three-pronged strategy: scaling up battery energy storage systems across the grid, boosting local assembly and manufacturing to create jobs and reduce import dependence, and enacting regulatory reforms to provide certainty for investors.
The federal minister announced the formation of a National Steering Committee on Battery Energy Storage Systems, backed by technical and regulatory working groups, to identify priority projects, craft commercial frameworks and fast-track a national BESS policy.
To ensure policy is practical, not theoretical, the minister said pilot battery projects have been approved within distribution companies to produce operational data that will inform regulation and larger deployments.
He also revealed that the Ministry of Industries and Production is finalising incentives to encourage domestic battery manufacturing, from assembly lines to software integration and engineering capabilities.
Invoking both urgency and optimism, Leghari appealed directly to international investors and development partners.
He promised regulatory certainty, transparent market mechanisms and long-term policy support to attract capital and technology.
“We will not trade one form of dependence for another,” he said, urging partners to join a transition that safeguards Pakistan’s energy future and strengthens its industrial base.
Leghari asked conference participants to give practical recommendations on storage technologies, flexible power markets and attracting investment.
