India's Energy Storage to Grow With 15,800 MW BESS Projects

• 3,300 MW BESS projects in progress; 12,500 MW under bidding.
• India’s current BESS is 205 MW, with major growth planned.
• Targeting 3,000 MW hydro storage this year, 50 GW in 5–6 years.

Ghanshyam Prasad, the Central Electricity Authority Chairperson, said 3,300 MW of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) projects are presently in development, and 12,500 MW of BESS projects are at bidding.

Prasad was speaking at the India Energy Storage Week organized by the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) and said the scale of energy storage endeavors has been enormously scaled up across the country.

The projects in development can give about 8,500 MWh of storage within two years, while projects in bidding will give about 42,000 MWh of storage. Currently, India's BESS capacity is "very meagre" at 205 MW (506 MWh). Prasad said India has an exciting proposition to not only add more renewable energy to the grid but to increase the scale of energy storage by several orders of magnitude.

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The government is also putting a lot of focus on hydro-pumped storage projects (PSPs), in addition to BESS. This year, the target is to add 3,000 MW of PSP capacity, and the ultimate goal of increase total capacity to 50 GW and above within five or six years.

 These plans are part of India’s bigger plan to increase grid stability, facilitate renewable energy storage integration, and cultivate a resilient energy future.