RK Singh, the power minister, recently met with renewable energy developers and industry officials to discuss the draught Energy Storage Policy. He told the audience that the government is considering deregulating the installation of energy storage systems. It means now anyone can install an energy storage system.

Under the Electricity Act, energy storage technologies must be considered an integral part of the power system. At a meeting with renewable energy developers and energy storage industry representatives to discuss the draught Policy on energy storage systems, power minister RK Singh said the government is looking to delicense the installation of standalone energy storage systems.

The draught policy aims to provide a technology-agnostic storage system for the electrical sector’s value chain, including generation, transmission, and distribution. In India, pumped hydro storage plants are now the most frequent type of grid energy storage.

Energy storage systems will assist power generators, state-owned distribution businesses, grid operators, and other energy value chain stakeholders by allowing peak shifting, peak shaving, ramp up/ramp down, and frequency control in the system, as well as improving the transmission system utilization.

Singh added that storage will now be a part of the Renewable Purchase Obligation, highlighting the features of the proposed policy. Renewable energy curtailment will also be penalized under the Act’s requirements.

Energy storage system developers will be permitted inter-state transmission system connectivity under general network access, according to the proposed regulation. As a result, they can sell or buy power from anywhere in the country.

Power generators can build up and use the energy storage facility to meet their generation obligations under the firm supply contract.

According to the minister, the amount of energy storage systems incorporated with round-the-clock (RTC) renewable energy would be counted as RPO for storage. ESS developers may also be given Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).

Discoms have the option of building their storage or purchasing or leasing storage capacity from public or commercial energy storage system providers. Open competitive bidding, Power exchange, or tariffs set under Section 62 of the Power Act may be used to allow the sale of electricity from storage or the sale/lease of storage space.

Renewable energy transmission rates would be waived both when charging the storage and when selling the stored RE, according to the policy.

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The content of this news is taken from PV-Magazine