ENERGY STORAGE

Dr. Rahul Walawalkar

Executive Director, India Energy Storage
Alliance & VP, Emerging Technologies &
Markets, Customized Energy Solutions

India poised to adopt energy storage

revolution with 2 new initiatives
for energy storage deployment
Two recent major announcements by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Power
Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) have opened doors for energy storage deployment for
ancillary services and renewable integration in India. Although this is just a beginning, I am
excited about the potential of these projects to start a new direction for Indian Electricity Grid.

I
ndia has witnessed number of trans-
formations in past 50 years starting
with the Green Revolution of 1960s
that transformed the agricultural practic-
es in India. In 1970s and 80s, the “White
Revolution - Operation Flood” included
the world’s biggest dairy development
program which transformed India from a
milk deficient nation to the largest milk
producer in the world within a span of
30 years. The 1990s saw the economic
reforms that opened up the
Indian economy and led to
the telecom and IT revolutions
that have made India a leader
in the knowledge economy in
the 2000s.
Today, India is one of the
fastest growing economies in
the world, with current elec-
tricity generation capacity of
~230 GW to meet the needs
of over 1.25 Billion popula-
tion. India’s per capita annual
consumption of energy at
~600 kWh is one of the low-
est in the world, even when compared
to developing countries like Brazil and
China. This is a decade where India needs
a clean energy revolution for transform-
ing the electricity infrastructure to pro-
vide energy access to over 400 million of
households that still lack basic access to
electricity.
At the same time India currently boasts
a middle class population exceeding 300
Million (almost the size of USA) that is
looking for the same level of energy ac-
cess and power quality that is taken for
granted in developed countries through
movement towards Green Cities and sus-
tainable living. Also the lack of reliable and
quality power supply is a major obstacle
for accelerating development of manufac-
turing and industrial sector in India that
is required to maintain 8-10% economic
growth for the world’s largest democracy.
Consumers bear a large burden due to
poor quality and unreliable power supply.
Industries maintain diesel powered gener-
ators and households have inverters with
batteries as backup for unscheduled pow-
er cuts, low voltages or variable frequency.
Advanced Energy Storage systems can
play a key role in every part of the modern
grid in India.
The newly elected government in India
has taken number of steps in past couple
of months to fast track development of
the energy infrastructure and set aggres-
sive targets for continued renewable en-
ergy deployments in India. Policy makers
have taken some key initiatives that can
drive grown of storage & microgrids:
India is looking for rapid adop-
tion of clean energy technolo-
gies with anticipated addition of
30-50 GW of new wind capacity
and 20-30 GW of solar capacity
by 2020.
India has various initiatives for
providing energy access where
government of India provides
up to 90% of the capital fund-
ing for building microgrids in
rural areas with no access to
electricity.
Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India has mandated use of
renewable power for telecom towers in In-
dia that are currently utilizing diesel power
as primary source of energy.
These policy initiatives have resulted in
tremendous opportunities for integration
of energy storage technologies for variety
of applications. Advanced energy storage
market in India is in its infancy however it

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 ENERGY STORAGE

carries significant market potential. A re-

cent market assessment by India Energy
Storage Alliance suggests a potential of
15-20 GW by 2020 in India.
Immediate applications range from tel-
ecom tower backups to grid ancillary
services and renewable integration. The
$300 Million orders during 2013 by Indian
Telecom Companies for purchasing Li-Ion
batteries for telecom tower backup is a
perfect example of the value proposition
of the advanced storage technologies, and
willingness of Indian businesses to adopt
such technologies. Now with the RFPs is-
sued by PGCIL and MNRE similar oppor-
tunities will open up for grid scale energy
storage deployment.
India has also recently launched a Na-
tional Mission on Electric Mobility with
a target of 6 million electric vehicles (4
million two-wheelers and 2 million four-
wheelers) by 2020. For efficient roll out of
the EV program, electrical distribution in-
frastructure upgrades and smarter systems
are required which will control/limit simul-
taneous charging of hundreds of EVs from
the same feeder. Beyond just timing the
consumption of power, immediate policy knowledge Partner Network (IESA KPN)
level support is required to build enabling for an open and transparent information
infrastructure to integrate the EVs in the
India is looking for exchange. In past 6 months, IESA network
electrical network so that these millions rapid adoption of clean has grown rapidly and currently more than
of EVs connected to the power system technologies with 25 members are actively exploring oppor-
can be leveraged as virtual power plants tunities for energy storage and microgrids.
(VPPs) that can store energy when there
anticipated addition of These members include a good mix of en-
is surplus generation and support the grid 30-50 GW of new wind ergy storage technology providers, power
during moments of deficit. Globally Vehi- capacity and 20-30 GW conversion system providers, system inte-
cle to Grid (V2G) technologies are evolving grators, project developers, large users,
rapidly that can achieve these objectives. of solar capacity by 2020 potential investors as well as research in-
Recent India Auto Expo featured for stitutions 7
the 1 time a pavilion dedicated to electric
and hybrid vehicles. The key challenge for
making this electric mobility possible is
the advancement of cost effective energy
storage systems. The rapid advancement
in technology and the scale provided by
growing Indian market coupled with lo-
calization potential can help drive down
the cost of these emerging technologies.
The India Energy Storage Alliance
(IESA) was launched by Customized En-
ergy Solutions in 2012 to promote Energy
Storage and Microgrid technologies and
their applications in India. To further the
growth of awareness about storage and
the application of storage to solve elec-
tricity system problems, we launched the

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