India's to have first 10 MW utility scale storage this year

AES India and Mitsubishi today began construction of India's first utility-scale energy storage system of 10 MW which would be ready this year.

The system will serve electric grid operated by Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd and facilitate grid balancing and stability, TPDDL CEO and Managing Director Praveer Sinha said on the sidelines of ground braking ceremony of the project.

TPDDL has about 7 million customers in Delhi region.

Sinha said it will help regulators come out with norms for these services. "At present, there are directives about grid stability, reactive power and peak load management. But this will help sell these services on power exchanges at grid level."
 

TPDDL is not investing in the storage project.

AES, the India unit of US based AES Corporation, and Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation will own the Advancion storage solution, which is being supplied by Fluence.

The solution is being deployed in Rohini, Delhi at a substation operated by Tata Power-DDL.

Once completed, the 10 MW solution will enable better peak load management, add system flexibility and enhance reliability for more than 7 million customers in the Delhi region.

AES Managing Director, Energy Storage Manish Kumar told reporters that the first utility scale storage system will help the sector to develop business models for it.

Without divulging the details about the investment on the projects, Kumar said that a special purpose vehicles would operate this storage project.

Fluence, an energy storage technology and services company owned by Siemens and AES, will supply its Advancion technology platform for the project.

The storage process involves capturing of energy produced for using it later through an accumulator or battery. It converts energy into conveniently storable forms.

Indias renewable energy sector is experiencing remarkable growth and India recently expanded its renewable energy target to 175 gigawatts by 2022.

Deploying energy storage will help network operators mitigate solar and wind resources variability and reduce congestion on the regions transmission system, delivering more affordable, clean energy and enabling new sources of revenue from frequency regulation and other grid services.