India with abundant
sunshine and a unique confluence of supply and demand situation is an
ideal location to develop solar energy. In most parts of India, clear
sunny weather is experienced 250 to 300 days a year. The equivalent
energy potential is about 5,000 trillion kWh per year. With
an aim to harness the huge solar energy potential in India, Ministry
of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) launched Jawaharlal Nehru National
Solar Mission (JNNSM). Since its launch JNNSM along with respective
state solar policies have been the key drivers for the growth of
Indian solar industry.
India is amongst top
15 nations around the world in terms of installed solar capacity
which is around 1.5 GW. However, the fundamental
drawback of solar energy is its intermittent nature. Solar power is
available only for 6-8 hours during the day. Also, conditions like
cloud covers and other weather related events can create significant
fluctuations in solar power. Reliance on solar, can thus affect grid
stability and hence can put limits on the development of solar
energy.
Integrating Energy
Storage System (ESS)
with solar PV can make solar power dispatch able, reduce stress on
the grid and optimize overall system resources. In addition, ESS can
play an important role in optimally sizing the solar PV systems for
off-grid usage. Realizing the
importance of ESS integrated with solar PV, India Energy Storage
Alliance (IESA) is releasing the “Applications
of Energy Storage for Solar PV in India” report
as part of its ongoing series of reports about various applications
of ESS in India. The objective of this report is to provide key
applications of ESS for solar PV integration in India. Some of the
key applications of ESS for solar PV integration analyzed in this
report are:
- Potential replacement/ reduction of diesel generators (DG) for backup power
- Peak shaving and load shifting
- Managing grid power quality
- Development of microgrids
- Demand response (DR) applications
Most parts of India suffer from significant power shortages. Since
most of the commercial and industrial (C & I) customers rely on
the DG backup for meeting electricity requirements during frequent
power outages, energy arbitrage opportunity exists for solar PV
integrated with ESS. Due to power scarcity during peak demand
periods most utilities in India resort to load shedding to manage the
demand.
Solar PV integrated with
ESS can be used to supply the peak load above the base load, in such
a way that when solar energy is unavailable ESS can be used to supply
the peak load. This can lead to reduction in demand charges for the
customer. In the case of utilities it can be used for better load
management without resorting to load shedding. In addition to outage
protection big industrial customers in India are looking at solar PV
with ESS to solve power quality problems such as harmonics
distortion, stabilize electrical power frequency, etc for sensitive
equipment. ESS
technologies integrated with solar PV can smooth the output, reduce
the intermittency and help in maintaining grid stability.
India has nearly 54,000
un-electrified villages, representing over 300 million people.
Microgrids could supply a small area with electricity from
distributed sources—such as battery storage combined with solar PV.
One of the possible solutions for the historical blackouts that
happened in India during July 2012 could be developing solar PV based
micro-grids integrated with ESS for consumers such as hospitals,
factories, etc to generate their own power and help reduce a portion
power use resulting in cut down on peak overloads. Adding solar PV to
a mix of generation, DR and ESS could make those systems
self-supporting.
This report includes two case studies based on
solar PV integrated with ESS. Trojan Battery case study illustrates
the integration of solar PV with ESS for a resort in Kerala resulting
in financial benefits, energy independence and environmental
benefits. HBL Power Systems case study shows off gird application of
solar PV with ESS to meet electricity needs of petrol pumps
situated on remote locations on highways and rural/semi urban
locations.
Based on results from the case studies and
analysis, IESA estimates a market potential of around [311] MW for a
low growth case and a market potential of around [727] MW for a high
growth case through 2020 as shown in the figure below:
About IESA
India Energy Storage
Alliance (IESA) was launched in 2012 to promote energy storage
technologies and applications in India by creating awareness among
various stakeholders to make the Indian industry and power sector
more competitive and efficient. IESA is working towards providing
insights to technology developers and system integrators on the
policy landscape and business opportunities in India through
interactions with key stakeholders. IESA – KPN (Knowledge Partner
Network) is one of the sought steps, which was appreciated by various
industries. For more about IESA, visit at http://www.indiaesa.info/
IESA is conducting a
Webinar on ‘ESS integration with Solar PV - India Perspective’
on 28th October 2013. To know more details about the
webinar and registration visit http://www.indiaesa.info/
