“Powering the Future: The Critical Role of Grid-Scale Battery Storage in Renewable Energy Integration”
“As India strives to achieve its ambitious renewable energy targets, grid-scale battery storage will be a crucial tool to manage grid variability and ensure a reliable power supply. Investing in energy storage is essential for the successful integration of high levels of renewable energy into the grid.”
India has set an ambitious target to generate 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, which includes 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind power. However, with the increasing deployment of solar and wind capacities in the grid, managing grid variability becomes a major challenge. This is where grid-scale energy storage systems, specifically grid-scale battery storage, become a must-have to ensure a stable and reliable power supply.
Grid-scale battery storage allows for the storage of excess solar and wind energy during times of low demand, and release it when demand is high. This provides a consistent and stable supply of electricity, even during times of peak demand, which can be a challenge with the variability of solar and wind power.
Studies and real-world experience have demonstrated that interconnected power systems can safely and reliably integrate high levels of renewable energy from variable renewable energy (VRE) sources without new energy storage resources. However, in the case of India, given the large deployment of solar and wind capacities in the grid, grid-scale battery storage becomes a necessary resource to manage grid variability.
The amount of grid-scale battery storage needed depends on system-specific characteristics, such as the current and planned mix of generation technologies, flexibility in existing generation sources, interconnections with neighboring power systems, and the hourly, daily, and seasonal profile of electricity demand and renewable energy generation.
In many systems, battery storage may not be the most economic resource to help integrate renewable energy, and other sources of system flexibility can be explored, such as building additional pumped-hydro storage or transmission, increasing conventional generation flexibility, and changing operating procedures.
Overall, grid-scale energy storage systems, particularly grid-scale battery storage, are necessary for India to manage grid variability and successfully integrate high levels of renewable energy into the grid. As India continues to pursue its ambitious renewable energy targets, investing in grid-scale energy storage will be critical to achieving a stable and reliable power supply.