The idea is to benefit from the larger national ambition for renewable energy integration in the grid.New Delhi: State-ownedpowertransmission utilityPowergrid Corporationof India (PGCIL), is looking to ramp up focus on setting up energy storage projects and is identifying investment opportunities in this area.
The idea is to benefit from the larger national ambition for renewable energy integration in the grid. India has a target of 500 GW non fossil fuel-based power capacity by 2030. This will require battery storage capacity of 27 GW or 108 GWHr, projected to be a part of the installed capacity in 2029-30.
“Powergrid is naturally poised for investing in this area because we have connectivity with the grid and land availability too. We also have asset management experience. So, we have entered into this segment,” Powergrid’s Director-Operations R K Tyagi said, speaking at ETEnergyworld Smart Electricity Conclave.
The company has already set up a pilot project on energy storage in Puducherry where a 500 Kilowatt battery energy storage system has been installed, using two technologies – Lithium Iron Phosphate and Lead Acid. PGCIL has also taken up a 500 KW energy storage project being set up in Gurugram as part of the government’s smart city initiative.
A third energy storage project at a smaller scale — 5 MW or 20 MWHr — is being set up at Nagda in Madhya Pradesh along with a solar power plant of 85 MW capacity being installed by Powergrid.
“Now we are also considering participating in various tenders being floated by Gujarat and other states to invest in this area,” Tyagi said. He was speaking at a panel discussion on the role played by technology in boosting the power sector’s growth. Other participants included Anil Razdan, former power secretary; Ashish Khanna, CEO, Tata Power Renewables, Ishwar Dubey, Head-Engineering, Adani Transmission and Bhadresh Mehta, Director, Odisha Power Transmission Corp.
Powergrid is India’s largest transmission company with a huge transmission asset base that includes 172,000 circuit Kilometer (ckm) of transmission systems, around 480,000 transmission capacity, and 265 EHV substations.
Tyagi said the power transmission sector is moving towards technology and innovation driven transformation considering the integration of renewable energy, especially solar and wind and Powergrid is matching the pace.
“This is especially true for the dynamic situation considering the huge variation in power flow, dynamic compensation through statcoms for voltage excursions in RE grid. We have also installed HVDC with black-start capability.
India is planning to achieve a power generation capacity of 830 GW by 2030 as against the installed capacity of 408 GW today. Experts say developing the matching transmission system at such a huge scale within the next seven years will be a challenge.
In order to optimize the existing transmission network, PGCIL is using Dynamic Line Rating devices and is trying to optimally utilize transformers. Generation of power occurs mainly during the day time for the RE grid. That makes shutdown-availability an issue and transmission firms have to operate in online conditions.
Tyagi said Powergrid is focusing on adopting Industry 4.0 through complete digitalisation of its asset management functions. It is developing robots for monitoring substations with the help of IIT-Kanpur, and developing augmented reality applications for remote maintenance assistance and virtual reality for training purposes.
“We have also undertaken a project on drone-based patrolling and AI/ML based image processing. We are also working on developing the digital twin of transmission line and transformers. That project will be ready in three years,” he said.
In order to reduce its carbon footprint, Powergrid is also working on installation of process bus technology which is based on fibers and would helps the company getting rid of conventional copper cables. The new technology has already been installed at two substations.
