The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is looking at rebidding a high number of vanilla solar and wind power projects that have been stalled due to the stalling of signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) with distribution companies (Discoms).
The government intends to remodel these projects by incorporating them with battery energy storage systems (BESS), which means that Discoms will be able to better tap into the renewable energy capacity during peak demand hours when there is low or no solar generation. Intermittency and grid stability are the problems that vanilla renewable energy projects have, which can be addressed by the implementation of storage systems.
This problem is related to about 40 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy potential, largely conventional solar and wind projects, left unassigned because Discoms is being reluctant to enter into PPAs. In April, New and Renewable Energy Minister Pralhad Joshi revealed that they are in discussions with the state governments to finalize PPA signings to give a push to these deadlocked projects.
This project will be consistent with the overall policy by the government to enhance the reliability and dispatchability of renewable energy sources, which will be grid-friendly and enhance the clean energy goals of India.
