The commercial viability and widespread use of existing energy storage solutions could conquer the next frontier in unlocking the potential of clean energy and solve several inherent problems including grid safety and intermittency while allowing the country to utilize the vast energy storage potential available in various forms.

As of March 2023, India has released around 12.2 GWh of standalone battery energy storage (BESS) tenders and 7.6 GW of renewable energy + energy storage tenders. The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and NTPC contributed to over 9.5 GWh of the energy storage tenders released.

India’s cumulative installed energy storage capacity remained at around 27.2 MWh as no new capacity was added in 2022. A total of 7,700 MWh of energy storage projects have been tendered, along with 1,000 MWh of pumped storage hydro currently under development.

Industry experts shared their views on the crucial role of battery energy storage in streamlining the development and deployment of renewable energy in India at the Mercom India Renewables Summit 2023, an exclusive two-day clean energy event held on April 26 and April 27 in New Delhi.

At the ‘Role of Energy Storage in Making Renewables Mainstream’ session on April 27, the panelists discussed India’s long-duration energy storage market and the available choices for the most efficient and cost-effective commercial technologies.

The panel featured A.K. Sinha, Assistant General Manager, Solar Energy Corporation of India; Rupam Raja, Chief Commercial Officer, Fluence India; Brahmendra Thakur, Director, Energy and Distributed Infrastructure, Black & Veatch, and Cyriac Loyola, Customer Project Manager, SMA Solar India.

Priyadarshini Sanjay, Managing Director, Mercom India, moderated the session.

Sinha stressed that insistence on any specific energy storage technology was not the right approach. “The cost component of a battery storage system is higher. However, the demand for energy storage systems is growing in India. We don’t mandate anyone to go for storage, but the developers can themselves find solutions for storage. Making it mandatory is not the way going forward,” he added.

He pointed out that the parts of the energy storage puzzle are already available in the market, and the industry must work on aggregating them together in the right shape and form.

Speaking on the new technologies evolving in the energy storage space, Thakur said, “We have short-duration storage with lithium-ion batteries; for long-duration storage, we have thermal long-duration energy storage (LDES), latent heat technology, and electrochemical and chemical solutions.”

He added that pumped storage is also gaining popularity and is bound to grow in the future. There is a need for a change in mindset from CAPEX to a lifecycle cost approach.

“Advancements are happening in the energy storage segment. Most developments are happening on the electrochemical side. Also, the country has 10 GW of pumped hydro storage capacity. Our grid is very stable, but with more renewable energy coming into the picture, there is a need for renewable energy integration into the grid,” noted Thakur.

Thakur said the need for codes and standards for energy storage projects, safety, and investment in fundamental research were some challenges. The R&D for energy storage is critical, which is not currently happening.

“The price of battery storage systems continued to come down until 2021. But things have been different in the last two years when the prices increased 5X. That has started to go down now. However, I think it will go up in the medium term (18 months),” noted Raja.

“We are doing a 150 MWh project comprising 264 cubes. The project is on track and will be commissioned in the next 2-3 months. The tariffs are acceptable, and the DISCOMs will be the offtakers,” added Raja.

Stressing the need for support from the government, Loyola said it was essential to scale up energy storage projects.

“We should not repeat the mistakes the other countries made in promoting energy storage projects. We should address the problems and look toward the future,” he said.

Last year, the Ministry of Power issued guidelines to procure and utilize BESS as part of the generation, transmission, and distribution assets, along with ancillary services. The guidelines aim to facilitate the growth of the battery storage sector and help establish a uniform framework for all stakeholders.