160 GWh Of Energy Storage Needed To Meet India’s 2030 RE Target: IESA

The India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) has recently brought out a report VISION 2030 that projects India will need at least 160 GWh of energy storage by 2030 in order to integrate the targeted 500 GW of non-fossil fuel energy onto its networks. This energy storage capacity has been calculated as aggregate of front-of-the-meter grid-scale storage, storage for integrating renewable energy directly, storage for distribution and transmission networks and for ancillary services provision to balance the grid. VISION 2030 outlines the requirement for energy storage in the country as well as recommended actions for both policymakers and private companies to achieve its goals.

Founded by energy consultancy Customized Energy Solutions 10 years ago to promote the advancement of energy storage, green hydrogen and e-mobility technologies in India, IESA has been working closely with the government. Ghanshyam Prasad, joint secretary, Ministry of Power, has been quoted as saying, “It is imperative for India to assess its storage capacity requirement in the coming years and formulate a plan for its implementation, keeping in view the energy transition in the Indian grid,”. Non-fossil fuel generation in the country has already reached 156.83GW, or 40.1% of the total generation mix, while peak demand for energy as of July 2021 exceeded 200GW.

Already a late starter, energy storage didn’t pick up the momentum until 2018. A pilot tender for 500MW/ 1,000MWh, standalone storage, has been recently floated by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), following a set of guidelines from the Ministry of Power procurement. As and when renewable penetration exceeds 50%, it will serve an “unique opportunity” to establish India as both a major market for energy storage deployment and as a manufacturing centre for related technologies.

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Support to 50GWh of new advanced chemistry cell (ACC) battery annual production capacity through the PLI scheme in the country would help roughly create 10,000 employment opportunities for every gigawatt-hour of that production capacity, IESA estimated. Besides, the mandated targets for deployment would give drive and certainty to project development as well as to investments in manufacturing and other aspects of the energy storage industry ecosystem. However, the states are still possessed with lethargy and inertia refusing to embrace the energy storage despite their growing renewable energy capacity.