Indian govt. to float 4000MWh of battery storage tenders

Power and Renewable Energy Minister, R K Singh has announced that the Indian government will float 4000 MWh battery storage tenders.

Speaking at the CII AatmaNirbhar Bharat Conference on Self Reliance in Renewable Energy Manufacturing on Thursday, Singh explained the government will come out with 4000 MWh of battery storage as ancillary, such that, each of the four regional load dispatch centres (RLDC) will have 1000MWh of storage to balance the grid in case of any sharp fluctuation because of renewables.

"Part of it will work as ancillary to the grid controller and part will be made available to the developers for use on a commercial basis," Singh added.

Draft Ancillary Services Regulations, 2021

The latest announcement has been hailed as a bold and encouraging move for the industry by energy storage backers.

The announcement also comes on the heels of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) release of draft Ancillary Services Regulations, 2021, in May. The Ancillary Services Regulations seeks to provide a regulatory mechanism for ancillary services in the interest of reliability, safety, and security of the grid.

Singh emphasized that while the government intends to add more storage, they want that capacity to be based on manufacturing in India.

PLI in battery storage to boost domestic manufacturing

"We already have PLI [Production Linked Incentive] scheme. We want that capacity to be based on manufacturing in India. We do not want to export jobs to China or any other country," he said

Singh shared that post the announcement of the PLI scheme, the government has received expressions of interest for large quantities of manufacturing of modules, cells, and polysilicon.

"In polysilicon, we already have Coal India in partnership with one firm. Similarly, we have Reliance. Other companies are also going to set up manufacturing," he added.

Experts note, the latest announcement will go a long way in allaying some of the demand creation-related concerns of the industry for PLI battery storage, and at the same time, it will also boost the confidence of the investors looking to invest in battery storage manufacturing in India.