LUMS Wins KE’s 7/11+ Innovation Challenge

Out of 300 entries, the innovative solution of LUMS Team was the proud winner at the K-Electric’s (KE) 7/11+ Innovation Challenge 2022. The top award is the culmination of nine months of hard work by Dr. Naveed Arshad (Associate Professor, Director, National Center in Big Data and Cloud Computing, and founder of Energy Informatics Group and Co-Director of LUMS Energy Institute), Ahmad Nadeem, Wasif Tahir, Owais Khan, Aleena Ahmad, Sumayya Javed, Ameera Arif and Huzaifa Rauf, all members of the LUMS Energy Institute’s energy informatics team.

Celebrating innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry-academia collaboration, this first of its kind event in Pakistan, KE’s 7/11+ Innovation Challenge, sets to be a gamechanger in strategic innovation for the country’s power sector. The top ten finalist spent the first half of the day at Habib University, Karachi, making final pitches to the Jury. This was followed by a panel discussion titled, ‘Innovation and Sustainability in Utility Sector’ and award announcement in the second half. Chairman NEPRA, Tauseef H. Farooqi, and a LUMS alumnus, MBA 1996, was the Chief Guest at the event while the impressive panel of Jury was made up of dynamic profiles in the current Pakistani innovation ecology.

Talking about the project, Dr. Arshad said, “Forecasting the electricity load of utility companies for a span of one to fifteen days is extremely important to manage and optimise the electricity supply. This allows selecting the best combination of power plants that will eventually lead to minimising the cost of operations. It is critical to schedule maintenance, make decisions about ordering fuel, and intelligently manage the demand side of the equation in the entire scenario”. The teams participating in KE’s 7/11+ Innovation Challenge, a ground-breaking initiative, allowed them to innovate in the areas of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or solve specific problem statements identified by KE. The innovators, all of whom work in the energy sector, also got a chance to network, get mentorship and capacity building support. Karachi Electric, an over a hundred years organisation, currently serves over 3.2 million customers across Pakistan.

“For all of us participating in KE’s 7/11+ Innovation Challenge served to be a strategic step in the right direction. LUMS is at the frontline of leading innovative ideas and bringing change through feasible solutions for the energy sector of Pakistan and this platform was a great way to showcase our work. The LUMS Energy Institute is a unique entity that challenges us to solve the deep-rooted challenges of the power sector. I would like to thank the LUMS leadership for developing the LUMS Energy Institute as a think tank and innovation centre in disruptive technologies of the future in the energy and power sector of Pakistan,” added Dr. Arshad.