Planning PLI for grid-level energy storage, says power minister RK Singh

Union power minister RK Singh said the government was planning to come up a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for grid-level renewable energy storage. “The extent will be up to 50 GW,” Singh said.Asked about battery storage turning out to be a major challenge in the country due to the high costs involved, Singh said his primary problem was that battery manufacturers were primarily focussing on automotive batteries.“The problem I am facing right now is that almost all the battery manufacturers in India are focused on the transport market. They are making batteries for two-wheelers, three-wheelers, cars, and so on. It’s all for electric mobility. I want batteries of a much larger size which can store my renewable power to the extent of 1000s of MW,” the power minister told HT.The minister said one possibility was to push manufacturing to bring prices down. “The other solution is to add volume – we have already had a tender for 1,000 MWh, then NTPC is coming up with about 2,000 MWh and I will come up with another bid of about 2,500 MWh. All these bids will be the largest in the world because we are such a big country,” the minister said.At an event earlier this month, Singh, who is also the minister for new and renewable energy, said that lithium ion batteries would not be preferred for the grid level storage and other chemistries would be looked into.In the renewable energy space, the government has earlier come up with PLIs for solar PV modules and advanced chemistry cells.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sweta Goswami writes on urban development, transport, energy and social welfare in Delhi. She prefers to be called a storyteller and has given voice to several human interest stories. She is currently cutting her teeth on multimedia storytelling.
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