COP28: Cost effective ESS for energy transition and RE integration

At the India Pavilion of the on-going COP28 in Dubai, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) under the Indian Ministry of Power held a thought leadership discussion on the theme 'Cost Effective Energy Storage System for Energy Transition and Integration of Renewable Energy'. 

"We enhanced the target in COP 27 to achieve 50 percent of the installed capacity by 2030, as against the Paris commitment of 40 percent. We shall achieve this as well. Not only this we will even surpass this target for COP 27 maybe to set new standards of for COP 28. India as a country has performed, achieved and has shown the path of energy transition and organization".

"The task is very difficult for us as we are still growing at the pace of 7 to 9 percent unlike other countries whose growth has either stopped or stagnated or is at declining rate. For such countries the path is simple and must contribute for India and many other countries", he added.

Speaking on the importance of energy security, Prasad noted that efforts are in place to ensure base power stations focus on installation of renewables and energy storage systems in India. "The fund requirement for achieving the energy storage as per the National Electricity Plan is huge, it is around 52 Billion USD by 2030 itself. At present without storage no country can think about energy transition. India has already made all the necessary policy guidelines to facilitate integration of storage in grids", he said.

He further added, "Environment impact of energy storage also needs to be seen, especially mitigating battery recycling mechanism. We encourage manufacturers across the world to come and set up in India, They will have domestic market as well as export opportunities. There are challenges especially the high cost of BSS. To reduce the cost of BSS all the stakeholders need to work on it for technological advancement".

Called as the "Storage Man in India", Dr. Rahul Walawalkar, President of India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), and MD - CES India, moderated the panel discussion and provided an overview of various policy and regulatory changes that have opened up energy storage opportunities in India.

Stephen Fernands, President, Customized Energy Solutions (CES), gave insights from the energy storage adoption in US over past decade driven by market rule changes. He also shared his experience of managing over 2GWh energy storage in various electricity markets through CES Marlet operations centre that manages over 20GW of assets.

Speaking on the manufacturing perspective, Vijayanand Samudrala, President, New Energy, Amara Raja Group, spoke on his company's plans to become a key player in advanced energy storage technologies.

Sumant Sinha, Chairman and CEO, ReNew shared insights form the RE (Renewable Energy) developer and IPP perspective. He went in depth on how renew led the RTC and peak power tenders. He also spoke about how RE plus storage in next 3-5 years is expected to replace even base load coal. 

Further, presenting an overview of initiatives from world Bank under ESP, Chandrasekar Govindarajalu, ESMAP Acting Practice Manager, World Bank, discussed in detail the role of financing for the clean energy transition in developing countries.