Background:-

Energy Storage is one of the most crucial & critical components of India’s energy infrastructure strategy and also for supporting India’s sustained thrust to renewables.
The Expert Committee which was constituted earlier by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy to propose draft for setting up National Energy Storage Mission (NESM) for India has proposed a draft NESM with objective to strive for leadership in energy storage sector by creating an enabling policy and regulatory framework that encourages manufacturing, deployment, innovation and further cost reduction.

Draft NESM :-

India’s Energy Storage Mission has proposed three stage solution approach i.e. creating an environment for battery manufacturing growth, scaling supply chain strategies and scaling of battery cell manufacturing.

Stage 1

• The report recognises therefore that in the short term at least, Indian manufacturing could or should focus on assembling battery packs domestically using imported cells from competing vendors.
• India should incentivise and encourage investment in this battery assembly sector, while simultaneously also investigating if the means exist for individual companies to foster battery cell manufacture domestically.
• The industry across India should develop partnerships and a multi-stakeholder consortium for conducting joint research, pooling investment as well as developing better battery tech and recycling.
• A consortium should also be convened to help inform government, officials and other stakeholders on how standardization, recycling and end-to-end strategy should evolve in future.

Stage 2

• In the second stage, battery cell research conducted by the aforementioned consortia will inform decisions on implementing a strategy for domestic battery cell manufacturing.
• Participants will also be expected to establish best practise plans for the full manufacturing value chain, including investment in new battery chemistries where appropriate and recycling.
• The battery manufacturing consortium will also be putting together its supply chain to feed into its future plans.

Stage 3

• The third stage would bring the various stakeholders together across India to coordinate the rolling out and use of batteries as part of the country’s energy infrastructure.
• There would also be a “rapid scaling” of battery cell manufacturing infrastructure.
• Draft sets a realistic target of 15-20 gigawatt hours (GWh) of grid-connected storage within the next five years
• 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 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.
• 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

Conclusion:-

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.