NEW DELHI: In what will provide a push for India’s energy security, the union government has approved state-owned Solar Energy Corp of India (SECI) for calling expressions of interest (EoI) for setting up a 1 gigawatt-hour (GWh) grid-scale battery storage system.

A pre-bid conference has been called on 28 October. Large grid-scale battery storages can help keep India’s power grids stable, given electricity is produced intermittently from clean energy sources such as solar and wind.

“In order to support the ambitious goal of achieving 450 GW renewable energy target of Ministry of New and renewable energy by 2030, it is important that it gets duly supported with installation of energy storage systems (battery energy storage system, hydro pump storage plants etc.)," union power ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

This comes at a time when India plans to set up a 14 GWh grid-scale battery storage system at the world’s largest renewable energy park at Khavda in Gujarat and also plans to invite bids for the largest global tender for setting up a 13GWh grid-scale battery storage system in Ladakh.

The government also plans to call bids for setting up around 4GWh of the grid-scale battery storage system at the regional load dispatch centres. In addition, state-run NTPC Ltd has floated a global tender for setting up 1GWh grid-scale battery storage system. According to CEA, there will be a need for 27GW of grid-scale battery energy storage systems by 2030 with four hours of storage.

“Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a CPSU under Ministry of New and renewable energy, has called for the expression of interest for procurement of 1000 MWh BESS. This will be published along with the RFS bid document and the draft comprehensive guideline for procurement and utilization of BESS as a part of generation, transmission and distribution assets and with all ancillary services," the statement added.

As part of India’s green energy push, the government is working on an Energy Storage policy for large scale integration of renewable energy with the country’s power system. There is growing traction for hydropower projects among Indian clean energy majors. The idea is to use cheap green power during off-peak hours to raise water to a height and then release it into a lower reservoir to generate electricity.

“Based on the suggestions and the feedback from various stakeholders, the final RFS document will be floated in the first week of November 2021, along with the final comprehensive guidelines for procurement and utilization of BESS as a part of generation, transmission and distribution assets and with all ancillary services," the statement said.

India plans to shortly come out with a policy to promote hydro-pump storage schemes with around 96 GW identified as a potential capacity for the same.

India has already crossed 100 gigawatt (GW) of installed solar and wind capacity, with another 63GW under construction. The plan is to have 175GW renewable energy capacity by 2022 and 450GW by 2030. This huge injection of electricity in the grid from sources such as solar and wind requires a storage mechanism that can help balance the national electricity grid.

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