بهینه سازی سیستم تولید انرژی: پاکستان Energy production system optimization: Evidence from Pakistan

1. Introduction For sustainable growth and economic prosperity of any country in the world, the availability of electricity plays a critical role. In the case of Pakistan, a developing country with a growing population of over 200 million people, the need of electricity is ever on the rise. Moreover, the country’s economy is mostly comprised of manufacturing sector [1]. Similarly, the manufacturing sector is heavily dependent on the supply of electricity [2,3] and Pakistan is suffering from severe energy crises [4–8]. Therefore, energy sector development needs special attention due to its vital role in the economy. Past studies have highlighted electricity as the life line of an economy [9–11]. Sahir and Qureshi [12] argued that in the era of intense industrialization, the production and supply of electricity is strategically essential for socioeconomic development. In addition, steady focus on the nation’s economic development has created pollution; availability of electricity can also play a vital role in reducing pollution and cleaning the environment [13]. However, a fast increase in demand of energy and dependency on energy will be leading to the biggest problems of the world in the upcoming century [5]. The reason is that resources of energy production are diminishing day by day and the demand for energy is increasing [14,15]. Presently, the world is seen as global village, where energy is a strategic source that would result in wars [16,17], and further, it can also smooth the economic development of any nation [1,3]. Moreover, due to materialistic lifestyles of the people, energy does not only play a vital role in the production process, but also has equal importance in consumption patterns of any country [18]. Therefore, production and the supply of energy is not only important but also considered as a backbone of the world economy [19]. Existing literature has highlighted the importance of energy and suggests that energy is considered as a most important determinant with respect to other variables of economic progress [10,20,21]. That’s the reason energy variable is included in production and consumption pattern of countries which are the intermediate level of economic progress [22]. At its current, Pakistan is facing severe energy crises and most of Northern areas are still not linked to national grid. According to Rafique & Rehman [5] the gap between energy supply and demand is large and increasing day by day due to limited resources for producing electricity. However, Pakistanis were enduring as much as 10–12 hour load-shedding in urban areas whereas in rural areas, electricity remains unavailable for 16–18 hours in a day [5,23].