India Begins its Journey in the Large Scale Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) for 1000 MW hour Project

Government has given go ahead for inviting the expression of interest for installation of 1000 MWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) as a pilot project. This is the joint effort of both Ministry of New and renewable energy and Ministry of Power who have been working on this to provide a road map for the installation of the energy storage system in the country.

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.).

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. 

This will be discussed in the pre-bid conference scheduled to be held on 28^th October 2021 at 4pm.

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.

Going forward, India plans to use energy storage system under following business cases:–

1. Renewable energy along with the energy storage system
2. Energy storage system as grid element to maximize the use of transmission system and strengthening grid stability and also to save investment in the augmentation of transmission infrastructure.
3. Storage as an asset for balancing services and flexible operation.  The system operator i.e. load dispatchers (RLDCs and SLDCs) may use storage system for frequency control and balancing services to manage the inherent uncertainty/variations in the load due to un-generation.
4. Storage for distribution system i.e. it may be placed at the load centre to manage its peak load and other obligations.
5. As a merchant capacity by the energy storage system developer and sell in the power market
6. Any other future business models as a combination of the above.