Draft Energy Storage Mission

The Energy Storage Mission will focus on seven verticals: indigenous manufacturing; an assessment of technology and cost trends; a policy and regulatory framework; financing, business models and market creation; research and development; standards and testing; and grid planning for energy storage.The features of the draft energy storage mission are

• The draft National Energy Storage Mission expects to kick-start grid-connected energy storage in India, set up a regulatory framework, and encourage indigenous manufacture of batteries.
• The draft sets a “realistic target” of 15-20 gigawatt hours (GWh) of grid-connected storage within the next five years.
• Central Electricity Authority is considering a draft regulation to make storage mandatory for large-scale solar projects ranging between 100 MW and 200 MW

Issues in integrating renewable with grids

• The peak supply of renewable sources does not always meet peak demand. For instance, solar energy generation may be at its peak at noon, but unless stored, it will not be available when needed to light up homes at night.
• Renewable sources are inherently intermittent: there are days when the wind doesn’t blow or the sky is cloudy.
• Batteries could help store surplus energy during peak generation times, but are more immediately needed to stabilise the grid when shifting between renewables and the baseload thermal capacity.

Once the installed capacity of renewable reaches 100 GW as committed under Paris climate deal, it will become critical to incorporate storage options to ensure energy accessibility.

It is important to look beyond mere capital expenditure costs and also consider life cycle costs and the distributor’s costs due to grid instability and transmission and distribution losses.