Govt to mandate battery storage for renewable power projects | Mint

New Delhi: The Union ministry of new and renewable energy may soon mandate battery storage capacity for upcoming solar and wind power plants, said Prashant Kumar Singh, secretary, Union ministry of new and renewable energy on Monday.

Addressing the 21st edition of the Global MSME Business Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the official said that an initial mandate of 10% of the plant’s total renewable energy capacity may be introduced for storage, and that this can then be gradually enhanced.

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Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event, Singh said: “Today we are dealing with this issue of intermittency, the adaptation of RE (renewable energy) is not there to that extent because people say solar is there for 7-8 hours and wind is seasonal. Now it has been experimented and (proven) that if you use some battery storage, it becomes a continuous and complete round-the-clock power supply.”

“The tenders that have happened recently where (for) solar plus wind plus battery, the rates that we have been getting are better than that for a coal non-pithead plant. It’s come down to that level. Now, with falling battery prices, it makes a lot of sense to go ahead and henceforth not have any (plain) vanilla solar or (plain) vanilla wind project.”

The intermittent nature of renewable energy requires battery energy storage systems or pump storage projects (PSP) for storing and regular release of power, which would keep the grid stable and ensure round-the-clock power supply.

“Looking at declining battery prices we may start with a small quantum of compulsory battery storage in the solar plant or wind plant and gradually scale it up. I would say 10% would be a good start. Then we shall also give you a trajectory… depending on price as the price keeps coming down. As it comes down further, it can be 30-40% also. The point here is there is immediately a requirement to set up extra capacity with battery storage where transmission line is there but used only for 7-8 hours,” Singh said, adding that the norm would come in “very soon.”

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In September last year, the Union cabinet approved a ₹3,760 crore viability gap funding (VGF) scheme aimed at enhancing the viability of infrastructure projects—for battery energy storage systems. Under the scheme, the government will provide financial support of up to 40% of the capital cost of BESS projects totalling 4,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) till FY31.

Grid-scale battery storage systems are critical to energy transition since renewable power generation fluctuates depending on sunlight and wind conditions. Storage systems store energy for release at night or when generation is not possible. However, such systems are yet to pick up in India, because of high expenditure.

The government has been focusing on policies for the renewable sector in a bid to achieve the ambitious target to achieve 500GW of installed non-fossil energy capacity by 2030. In 2022, the power ministry issued guidelines for the procurement and utilization of battery energy storage systems as part of generation, transmission and distribution assets, along with ancillary services. Further, it also notified the energy storage obligations of 4% of the total consumption of electricity by FY30 for power discoms in line with the renewable purchase obligation.