Pakistan Shows Bangladesh the Battery Path as Power-Sector Deficit Mounts
IEEFA data published Thursday shows Pakistan's solar-plus-battery fleet could cut national grid demand by 8.4%, a template Bangladesh's tariff-stressed power sector cannot afford to ignore.
Solar power supplied an average of 25.3% of Pakistan's utility electricity during the first four months of 2025, Reuters data showed, placing the country among fewer than 20 globally where solar covers more than a quarter of the grid. That shift is now catalysing a second wave. When Pakistan moved to tighten net metering terms, its rooftop solar customers responded by pairing batteries with their panels — a behavioural shift that analysis published Thursday (2026-06-25) by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis quantifies in material terms.4
Connecting batteries equivalent to Pakistan's entire existing net metering capacity would reduce annual electricity demand from the grid by 1.5 terawatt-hours, or 1.1% of the country's total 2024 demand, IEEFA calculated. Store just 25% of the solar output from that combined fleet and the grid stress reduction rises to 11.5 TWh — 8.4% of Pakistan's 2024 demand. The numbers are not a forecast; they are a measure of the leverage already present in the installed base.4
Pakistan's solar buildout has been rapid. The country imported another 16 gigawatts of capacity in the first nine months of 2025 alone, the Economist reported, following comparable volumes in prior years. Grid power consumption has dropped by around 12% in consequence. A 10% sales tax imposed on imported solar panels in June (2025) had little discernible effect on installation rates, according to the same report.1
In Bangladesh, the same transition is starting from a more acute fiscal position. The power sector reported a revenue shortfall of $4.53 billion in fiscal year 2024-25, within a total national budget of $65.1 billion, according to IEEFA analysis cited by Asian Power. Electricity tariffs for industrial users have risen by as much as 17%, pushing costs to $0.13 per kilowatt-hour for some customers. Higher tariffs are directly improving the commercial case for daytime solar, particularly during Bangladesh's frequent load-shedding periods.2
Bangladesh's Renewable Energy Policy 2025 targets at least 20% of electricity from renewables by 2030. To reach that level, officials at an April (2026) press briefing announced plans to scale solar capacity to 10,000 MW through public-private partnerships. Twenty-six renewable power plants covering 1,174 MW are currently under construction.3
Policy on storage is advancing alongside generation capacity. Authorities plan to introduce a battery storage system policy in an upcoming budget, with incentives focused on industrial-scale systems in the 5-10 MW range. A first concrete example is already in procurement: a 140 MW solar plant with integrated battery storage through a PPP on Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority land in Sonagazi, Feni.3
The Pakistan comparison cuts both ways. Pakistan's battery adoption emerged organically, driven by customers responding to a threatened policy tightening of net metering — government incentives were not the catalyst. Bangladesh is trying the opposite sequence, offering incentives before grid economics have forced the same customer-level response. A Bangladeshi official quoted on Wednesday (2026-06-24) acknowledged that bureaucratic processes still need to be streamlined before deployment can accelerate at scale.3
Bangladesh is among South Asia's significant LNG importers, relying on floating storage regasification units for a material share of its power-sector gas supply. Pakistan's 12% grid consumption decline is already a constraint on domestic gas demand growth that the country's own import planning has had to accommodate. If Bangladesh follows a similar trajectory — combining worsening grid economics with new storage incentives — the compound effect on South Asian gas demand will be gradual, though the fiscal pressure creating the incentive is not.4,2