Dive Brief:
-
Mitsubishi Corp., together with a subsidiary of AES Corp., has formed a partnership to deliver India’s first grid-scale energy storage project.
-
The 10-MW project will be operated by Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd. and will use AES’ Advancion energy storage array.
- The project is designed to demonstrate peak load management, increase system flexibility and support reliability.
Dive Insight:
India has plans to integrate 175 GW of renewable energy into its grid by 2022. The country already has the world’s biggest solar farm, a 648-MW plant in Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu. But India has a paucity of natural-gas plants to act as backup for the expected surge in renewables.
That makes “storage is relatively more crucial for the growth of renewables in India as compared to many other countries, Jasmeet Khurana, associate director of the consultancy Bridge to India, told Greentech Media.
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, India could commission as much as 800 MW of storage by 2020, not including pumped hydro storage. India’s Central Electricity Authority says as much as 100 GW of pumped storage could eventually be built in the country, with 10 GW coming on-line in the next five years.
The AES-Mitsubishi project will be built in Rohini, Delhi, at a site operated by Tata Power-DDL. The array will provide peak load management, grid stability, and renewable integration services in the region when operational by the end of 2017.
“By choosing energy storage over other alternatives, Tata Power-DDL is taking smart steps to modernize their power system, improve grid efficiency and provide better integration of distributed and renewable resources,” Manish Kumar, managing director of AES Energy Storage said in a statement. “Their pioneering work will pave the way for the rapid deployment of energy storage throughout the country.”