“Renewable Energy integration with storage will be part of the wider picture in realizing India’s commitments towards climate change mitigation in its INDC”.
- Shri Suresh Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Railways
While media attention was focused on Vibrant Gujrat, Mumbai hosted a specialized International Conference and Expo on Energy Storage and Microgrids with over 250 delegates and 1000+ visitors. The 4th edition of Energy Storage India Conference and Expo was held at the Nehru Convention Centre in Mumbai, organized by Customized Energy Solutions and Messe Dusseldorf India, powered by India Energy Storage Alliance. The event was also supported by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), US Commercial Services and IIT Bombay. Honorable Railway Minister, Shri Suresh Prabhu, was the key note speaker with focus on Make in India and E-Mobility. Shri Suresh Prabhu reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to add 175GW of Renewable Energy (RE) in the grid by 2022 and also emphasized the need of storage to augment integration of RE. Mr. John Zahurancik, President – AES Energy Storage delivered a key note address highlighting drivers for energy storage in India based on AES’s global experience. He announced a joint partnership agreement between AES and Mitsubishi Corporation to deliver India’s First Grid-Scale Energy Storage Array (10MW) to Tata Power DDL.
Focus of ESI 2017 was “Moving from Vision to National Energy Storage Mission”. During the conference, Mr. Dalip Sharma, M.D. – Delta Power Solutions India announced expansion of Delta’s manufacturing facility in India to include production of Lithium ion batteries. Mr. John Wood, CEO – Ecoult announced a strategic partnership with Exide industries to launch its UltraBattery in India with a plan to set up manufacturing in 2017. Mr. Brett Galura of AES also invited Indian manufacturers to supply components for AES’s Advancion system. IESA and UL jointly invited nominations from the industry for IESA-UL energy storage standards taskforce to formulize India-based standards on energy storage modules and packs. Mr. Sunil Misra, Director General – Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA), and Dr. Rahul Walawalkar, Executive Director – IESA signed an MoU to facilitate capacity building in Energy Storage Manufacturing, Policy Frameworks and Human Resource Development.
The event witnessed strong participation from key policy makers and government bodies including Ministry of Power (MOP), NITI Aayog, MNRE, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL), Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) as well as state nodal agencies. The Policy and Regulatory session featured an eminent panel comprising of Dr. Pramod Deo (Former Chairperson, CERC), Dr. P C Pant (MNRE) and Mr. Pankaj Batra (CEA) among others. The panelists briefed the audience about various initiatives and policy changes being considered by government agencies to fast track adoption of Energy Storage and Micro grids in India.
A key invite-only CXO Roundtable with key policy makers was attended by CEOs of IESA member companies to bridge the existing policy and regulatory gap in the sector and press for a national energy storage policy.
The participants benefited from knowledge sharing by various international speakers covering USA, Canada, Europe, Russia, China, Australia and Japan. A key highlight of the event was European Space Agency’s announcement on partnering with IESA in leveraging space technology to support micro-grid applications and modeling. Dr Dinesh Arora, Executive Director, REC, confirmed that over 700 minigrids are in process of tendering in the country. He requested the industry to keep up the pace of technology innovation for bottom of pyramid. The Microgrid Initiative for Campus and Rural Opportunities (MICRO) initiative by IESA was demonstrated during the conference, explaining its unique value propositions for various stakeholders such as investors, developers and equipment suppliers catering to microgrid market.
India saw 46MW of opportunities in 2016 and looks forward to over 100MW of RfPs for 2017. This includes projects by SECI, NTPC, PGCIL, NLC, CEL and REIL. Dr. Bharath Reddy of SECI announced that a total of 13 bids were received for the recently concluded 2x5MW Storage + 50MW Solar PV project in Andhra Pradesh Solar Park. He also mentioned that bidding for 4 similar projects in Karnataka is open till 24th January.
IESA announced its first Industrial Awards for 2016-17 at the conference. The awards were divided into 4 categories – “Energy Storage Company of the Year” was awarded to Panasonic for deploying over 130MWh of Li-ion batteries for Telecom and Banking applications in India, “Energy Storage Project of the Year” was awarded to PGCIL for their Puducherry project, “Technology Innovation of the Year” was awarded to Pluss Advanced Technologies for their revolutionary work in Phase Change Materials, and “Microgrid Company of the Year” was awarded to Husk Power for electrifying 15,500 households in India.
A special issue of Emerging Technology News (ETN) was also released at this occasion, which honors Business Leaders, Researchers and Policy Makers of Indian origin who have made an impact in the global Energy Storage and Micro-grid sector. The issue will be available at www.indiaesa.info.
This year, the conference featured a dedicated track on e-mobility applications and e-transportation with panelists representing Mahindra Electric, GoGreenBOV, Axiom Energy and other industry stakeholders. Advanced energy storage technologies such as Ultra Capacitors, Lithium Sulphur and flow batteries as well as Emerging Applications including thermal storage and fuel cells were highlighted during the conference.
Quoting John Zahurancik from AES, understanding energy storage applications and its market possibilities is similar to the story of blind men who touch an elephant to learn what it is like. We have just learned this market by its tail and are yet to witness massive energy storage applications at grid scale. The event saw avid participation from key industry stakeholders, academicians, entrepreneurs, business leaders looking to enter the energy storage space and others keenly interested in Energy storage and Microgrids, deeming ESI 2017 a resounding success.