An ambitious endeavor no doubt, but we have the core ingredient to utilise surplus power and establish a firm power intensive digital infrastructure, eventually resulting in lower costs for the consumer, while cementing foundation of a more forward-looking export-oriented industry; a far cry from our current industry which belongs in the 18th century.
There exist a case for the establishment of AI parks that can host large digital load (LDL) campuses, co-located with existing power plants that have low dispatch rates, and linked with multiple submarine cables. This could be an accidental renaissance for Pakistan, where availability of surplus power in the country directly coincides with a shortage elsewhere in the world.
Demand for compute is exploding globally and utilities in the US and Europe are scampering for power availability of firm power — power-producing capacity that is available at all times even in adverse conditions — that doesn’t exist, or continues to increase in cost. Timelines are further stretched by interconnection queues, lead times for development of requisite infratructure, and fuel constraints. This leads to a scenario where price spreads are favourable in Pakistan where locations in the US have retail prices in the range of 12 to 18 cents per kWh, while dedicated data centres struggle to get availabiltiy of firm power at less than 8 cents.