Assessing challenges to sustainability and resilience of energy supply chain in Pakistan: a developing economy from Triple Bottom Line and UN SDGs’ perspective

Figures & data

Table 1. Brief description and linkage of energy supply chain (LNG Power) challenges to SSCM, SC Res and energy security dimensions.

Main group	CODE	Sub-group challenge effecting ESC	Brief description in context of Pakistan’s energy and power sector supply chain	Dimensions linkage
Supply Side Challenges (SSC)	SSC 1	Non-availability of fuel	LNG price volatility and constrained supply capacity in International Market resulting in spike in LNG prices. Moreover, oil price indexation to US $ puts heavy burden on foreign reserves of weak economies, resulting in non-availability of fuel.	Se, Sg, SCR, ES
	SSC 2	Lack of (LNG) fuel storage and regasification facilities	Inadequate regasification infrastructure and lack of storage capacity for LNG/RLNG, except for buffer stock available in gas line packing. Thereby putting the RLNG Power SC at risk.	Se, Sg, SCR, ES
	SSC 3	Excessive delays in payment to fuel suppliers	Long delays in payment to fuel suppliers both in-land and abroad. Thereby limiting the ability of suppliers to purchase LNG from International market besides taking loans from banks to remain solvent.	Se, Sg, SCR, ES
	SSC 4	Procurement delays	Procurement delays are mostly due to inflexible/legacy procurement rules and inapt planning practices at all levels in the energy supply chain. It also includes inability of suppliers to provide LNG on time and non-sustainable procurement practices.	Se, Sen, Sg, SCR, ES
	SSC 5	Poor supplier’s commitment to sustainability and resilience	Lack of supplier commitment and involvement for sustainability and resilience adoption due to lack of awareness, financial resources and power held in ESC.	Sen, Sg, SCR
	SSC 6	In-sufficient infrastructural capacity and high gas transmission losses	Lack of gas infrastructure flexibility/redundancy and considerably high transmission losses due to poor maintenance and theft.	Se, Sen, Sg, SCR
	SSC 7	Exposure to natural and man-made disasters	Vulnerability to extreme weather events, war, terrorism and pandemic risks, political unrest, terrorism.	Se, Sen, Sg, SCR, ES
Demand Side Challenges (DSC)	DSC 1	Uncertain power demand	Uncertainty in annual power purchase planning due to abolishment of 66% min power takeoff contractual clause by the government and grim sector outlook, curtailing power generation by 2030.	Se, Sg, ES
	DSC 2	Lack of capacity in power transmission infrastructure	Capacity constraints limiting amount of power evacuation, i.e. inadequate transmission infrastructure. Poor planning and foresight at SC level.	Se, Sg, SCR
	DSC 3	High power transmission losses and frequent breakdowns	High T&D losses due to legacy infrastructure, lack of maintenance and malpractices. Frequent breakdown in peak summers and rains. Death of citizens due to short circuiting in rains.	Se, Sg, SCR
	DSC 4	Unethically prioritising highly polluting power generation	Violation of merit order by running inefficient, high cost, polluting plants mostly on furnace oil/coal instead of RLNG plants by system operator (NTDC).	Se, Ss, Sg, Sen
	DSC 5	Inadequate and environmentally averse power tariff structure	Non-inclusion of carbon pricing CO2 per KWh in EMO (Economic merit order) by power purchaser, leading to less utilisation of efficient and environmentally friendly LNG Base Power Plants.	Se, Sen, Sg
Operational Challenges (OC)	OC 1	Inefficient, expensive, unreliable and no eco-friendly power generation and transmission	Production inefficiency due to under-utilisation of RLNG plants generation capacity, i.e. running on partial load in addition to complete shutdown. High gas and power transmission losses accompanied by frequent breakdowns.	Se, Sg, Sen
	OC 2	Out-sourcing of plant operation and maintenance (O&M) to foreign companies	Increasing reliance on foreign companies for O&M services. Resulting in less job opportunities for locals, lack of transfer of expertise (skill development) and prone to exploitation.	Se, Sg, ES
	OC 3	Non-availability of skilled/qualified Human Resource	Lack of skilled technical manpower including expertise on implementing SSCM, SC Res and Industry 4.0 technology’s. No dedicated institute for power sector workforce.	Ss, Sg, SCR
	OC 4	Excessive delays in payment to Power Producers	Financial insolvency of power producers with mounting bank loans, as a result of long delays in payment by Power Purchaser.	Se, Ss, Sg, SCR, ES
	OC 5	Inadequate sustainability reporting practices and poor risk management culture	Inadequacy of sustainability reporting standards being followed by Power and Energy Industries. Legacy risk management mechanism undermines sustainability and resilience of the RLNG Power Supply Chain.	Sen, Sg, SCR
	OC 6	Lack of Supply Chain Orientation	Lack of collaboration, trust and supply chain visibility among SC members, as most of the key players in Energy/Power Industries are operating in Public Sector.	Sg, SCR
Strategic Governance Challenges (SGC)	SGC 1	Lack of vision, strategy and top management commitment towards Sustainability and Resilience in ESCs and UN SDGs	Lack of vision and strategy to achieve sustainability and resilience in ESCs, which can be mainly be attributed to unawareness of their vital importance to national energy security by sectoral/government officials/top level management. This is also linked to half-hearted commitment to UN SDGs i.e. SDG 7 and 9 by all stakeholders.	Sg, SCR
	SGC 2	Absence of policies, regulations and standards	Absence of National Integrated Energy Policy and Standards, Regulations for adoption of practices for implementing SSCM, SC Res and Industry 4.0 Technologies in ESCs. Poor enforcement of commitments to UN SDGs by stakeholders.	Sg, SCR, ES
	SGC 3	Bureaucratic Supply Chain Governance Mechanism and departmental silos	Bureaucratic culture, working in functional silos, lack of integrated planning culture, poor accountability standards and lack of trust and information sharing among ESC members.	Ss, Sg, SCR
	SGC 4	Non usage of Industry 4.0 technology’s	Non-adoption of ICT, data analytics and Industry 4.0 technologies (IoT, BDA, AI, Block chain, etc.,) for enhancing sustainability and resilience of ESCs. This can be attributed due to unawareness among stakeholders of their immense potential to transform the ESC.	Se, Sen, Ss, Sg, SCR
	SGC 5	Stalled and incomplete energy sector structural reforms	Sluggish Power and Energy (LNG) sector reforms towards open market structure, mostly due to lack of political will and vested interest of officials/politicians/cartels.	Sg, SCR, ES

Legend: Supply Chain Sustainability (S) (Sub-dimensions: Economic (e), Social (s), Environment (en), Governance (g)), Supply Chain Resilience (SCR), Energy Security (ES).

Figure 1. Research methodology.

Table 2. Survey descriptive statistics – shortlisting of challenges.

#	Challenges/barriers	Mean ‘Ẋ’	SD ‘σ’
1	Government/top management commitment and awareness about sustainability and resilience	4.2	0.55
2	Lack of energy sector specific policy and regulations on sustainability and resilience	4.12	0.84
3	Stalled and incomplete energy sector structural reforms	4.4	0.89
4	Exposure to natural and man-made disasters	3.8	0.97
5	Lack of Supply Chain Orientation	3.4	0.55
6	Bureaucratic Supply Chain Governance Mechanism	3.2	0.84
7	Poor supplier’s commitment to Sustainability and Resilience	3.4	0.89
8	Inadequate sustainability reporting practices and poor risk management culture	3.32	0.71
9	Non usage of Industry 4.0 technology’s	3.6	1.14
10	Uncertain power demand	3.9	0.55

Table 3. Group best worst method results – main groups.

Expert #	Best/worst		SSC	SGC	DSC	OC	CR = ξ/C.I
1	Best	SGC	2	1	3	4	0.0909
	Worst	OC	4	5	2	1
	Weights Obtained		0.27	0.45	0.18	0.091
2	Best	SSC	1	2	3	4	0.05
	Worst	OC	4	3	2	1
	Weights Obtained		0.4655	0.25	0.172	0.104
3	Best	DSC	3	2	1	5	0.0677
	Worst	OC	3	2	4	1
	Weights Obtained		0.186	0.237	0.492	0.0847
4	Best	OC	4	2	5	1	0.087
	Worst	DSC	3	2	1	7
	Weights Obtained		0.15	0.26	0.082	0.51
5	Best	SGC	2	1	4	5	0.066
	Worst	OC	3	4	2	1
	Weights Obtained		0.28	0.48	0.14	0.12
Average weights*			0.2703	0.335	0.213	0.1819	0.07232
Group ranking			2nd	1st	3rd	4th

*Indicates mean weights obtained through judgements made by experts input.

Table 4. Group best worst method – global weights and final ranking of challenges.

Main group	Main group weights ‘MWs’	Sub-group challenges	Local weights ‘LWs’	Global weights ‘GWs’	CR = ξ/C.I	Final ranking
SGC	0.335	SGC1	0.262	0.0879	0.072	1
		SGC2	0.260	0.0872		2
		SGC3	0.208	0.0698		5
		SGC4	0.087	0.0292		17
		SGC5	0.255	0.0855		3
SSC	0.270	SSC1	0.135	0.0365	0.084	12
		SSC2	0.130	0.0351		13
		SSC3	0.122	0.0330		15
		SSC4	0.123	0.0332		14
		SSC5	0.190	0.0514		9
		SSC6	0.060	0.0162		21
		SSC7	0.260	0.0703		4
DSC	0.213	DSC1	0.250	0.0533	0.068	8
		DSC2	0.120	0.0256		19
		DSC3	0.077	0.0164		20
		DSC4	0.200	0.0426		11
		DSC5	0.260	0.0554		7
OC	0.182	OC1	0.146	0.0266	0.064	18
		OC2	0.063	0.0115		22
		OC3	0.060	0.0109		23
		OC4	0.165	0.0300		16
		OC5	0.270	0.0491		10
		OC6	0.320	0.0582		6

Figure 2. Sensitivity analysis of global challenges.

Data availability statement

The data used/obtained for this is research are under confidentiality agreement and cannot be disclosed.