Centre planning 4,000 MWh battery storage tenders.

The Centre is planning to tender out 4,000 MWh of battery storage and ancillary power generation capacity to balance the fluctuations in the supply of renewable electricity, Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy RK Singh said recently.

“We intend to come out with bids for 4,000 MWh of storage and ancillary capacity. Four RLDCs will have about 1,000 MW of storage which will act as an instant intervention mechanism whenever there is any stark fluctuation because of renewables,” Singh said at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s event on renewable manufacturing.

“Part of it will be reserved as ancillary for the grid controller, and part will be made available to the developer so that they can use that parked storage on a commercial basis and draw from it during peak hours,” he said. “We are going to create that demand.”

India intends to raise its renewable generation capacity to 450GW by 2030. “We don’t want to export manufacturing jobs to China or any other country,” Singh added.

The government has introduced basic customs duty (BCD) on imports of solar cells and modules and enlisted domestic suppliers on the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) for exclusive access to government-funded projects.

“The BCD is not temporary. It is going to be there,” the Minister said. “If you don’t set up manufacturing here, I can give it in writing that you will not qualify according to our standards for entry into ALMM.”

Singh added that going forward, tenders for renewable generation capacity will earmark some portion for only cutting-edge technology to give a boost to domestic R&D.

HBL