Energy meeting discussed delivery of electricity during peak
Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister https://www.seci.co.in/ R K Singh said that the price of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) https://www.iea.org/ has come down in recent years, and the government will encourage setting up of BESS capacity to meet the fast-growing needs of power demand as well as energy transition.
“A situation will arise in future where we have extra solar energy during the day and extra wind energy https://gwec.net/ during the evening, which would go waste if adequate storage system is not deployed to store and utilize it when needed,” he told Government energy officers on 22 Feb 2024.
He chaired a meeting to finalize the structure for operationalizing the scheme for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for development of BESS with capacity of 4,000 Megawatt Hours (MWh).
Senior officers from the Ministry of Power, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Central Electricity Authority, Solar Energy Corporation of India, https://www.seci.co.in/ Grid India and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd (NVVN) attended the meeting https://www.isolaralliance.org/.
Pointing out that the government role is to create enabling structures so that investment can come in, the Minister said that he wants this system to fructify in a manner which provides energy at those times of the day and year when the nation needs it the most.
The meeting discussed that the BESS should be able to deliver electricity during period of peak demand while as the same time stabilizing the grid.
The power shall be supplied through different market segments in power exchanges. The charging of BESS would be done primarily from renewable sources during times when power generated from solar and wind sources is available.
Various models for procuring the BESS, such as those based on energy contracts and capacity contracts, were discussed in the meeting. The pros and cons of these models were discussed, along with the challenges associated with their implementation.
Various sites in states rich in renewable energy were discussed as potential locations for BESS, in order to get maximum benefit from the storage system. Fiinews.com
