Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has floated a tender for 410 kWh/415 kW of battery energy storage systems (BESS) at three sites in Delhi.

The scope of work includes planning, design, engineering, supply, installation, testing, commissioning, and demonstration of all the equipment involved. The supplier is also expected to provide a one-year warranty for the systems and a comprehensive annual maintenance contract (AMC) for the complete system (including the battery) for five years after the expiry of the warranty period.

The tender documents said that the purchase order would be on a turn-key basis, and all the work – including delivery, installation, and commissioning – should be completed within 21 weeks from the date of signing the purchase order. The deadline for submission of bids is August 18, 2020. No earnest money deposit would be required to participate in this tender.

The tender documents called for the installation of a 230 kWh/125 kW system at Taimoor Nagar, New Friends Colony, a 120 kWh/240 kW system at Dwarka (Ispatika Apartments), and a 60 kWh/50 kW system at TERI School of Advanced Studies, Vasant Kunj Institutional Area, in New Delhi. The locations have been divided into Category A, B, and C. In the first category, BESS would be used to manage the overload of a distribution transformer serving mainly residential consumers. In Category B, it would supply back-up power gated group housing society during power outages, and in Category C, the BESS at TERI would be charged during off-peak hours and discharged during peak hours. This application aims to demonstrate BESS operations with the difference in prices during a day at a constant rate. Apart from this, the system would be used for research work within the technical constraints of battery technology.

To be eligible to take part in the competitive bidding process, applicants must have at least two years of experience executing similar grid-interactive BESS projects. They must have installed and operationalized such systems with a cumulative installed capacity of 125 kW,of which at least one is 30 kW with a capacity of at least two hours. The systems must adhere to the standards and guidelines ascribed by the central government.

Earlier, Mercom reported that The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) invited bids for battery energy storage systems on a turn-key basis under the U.S.-India Collaborative for Smart Distribution System with Storage (UI-ASSIST) initiative with the BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) in the national capital territory of Delhi.

Recently, according to a report published by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a large number of energy storage projects are being built worldwide, and there is a significant interest among policymakers in India as well. It said that the Levelized cost of storage of standalone BESS is estimated to be ₹7.12/kWh (~$0.095/kWh) by 2020, ₹5.06/kWh (~$0.07/kWh) by 2025, and ₹4.12/kWh (~$0.06/kWh) by 2030.

Image credit: The United States of Marine Corps