According to a plan unveiled earlier this year, India would give incentives for storage projects worth Rs 3,760 crore. These companies need to set up battery storage facilities totaling 4,000-megawatt hours (MWh).
The program aims to accelerate battery storage projects that are essential to India’s ambitious objective to increase its renewable energy production to 500 GW by 2030 while lowering the cost of battery energy storage from its present range of 5.5-6.5 rupees per unit.
There are very few large-scale operating projects worldwide for battery storage, which is used to support intermittent renewable energy supply and stabilize the grid. As part of the plan, large-scale battery energy storage devices will be developed to reduce costs through competitive bidding.
According to the sources, the government will offer funds for three years as part of the so-called viability gap funding program, which offers incentives to developers of important infrastructure projects to cover risks that those projects may prove to be economically unviable.
It anticipates receiving 56 billion rupees in private investments under the program.
According to one of the individuals, who asked to remain anonymous because the proposal hasn’t been made public and still needs approval from the federal cabinet, the contracts will be paid out in five installments until 2030–2031.
According to them, contracts will be allocated through a competitive process, with the lowest-bidder company being chosen. An inquiry for comment was not answered by India’s power minister.
Reliance Industries, Adani Power, and JSW Energy are three Indian corporations that have plans to build sizable battery factories.
The country’s cabinet, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will then discuss and decide on the plan, which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made public during her budget statement on February 1. The approval has not yet been given a deadline.
India currently has a battery storage capacity of 37 MWh. By 2031-32, it will need 27 GW of pump storage projects in addition to 236 GWh of battery energy storage, according to projections by its power sector planning organization.
Source: The Economic Times
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