A Case for Rapid Growth of Decentralized (BTM) BESS: Grid Infrastructure Challenges - Part 1

As India’s Renewable Energy Sector, consisting of Solar and Wind power plants, sees a massive expansion, the grid infrastructure development is lagging behind, threatening the growth of the overall target to add 500GW of renewable capacity by 2030. 

The lack of adequate power evacuation capacity can significantly hamper the timely commissioning of projects and also impact the project ROI. An article published by Mercom India refers to the lead times for the transformer procurement going up as high as 14 months from 8 months. 

Similarly, another report by Wood Mackenzie refers to up to 25% of the renewable energy projects globally being at risk due to transformer shortages. 

Additionally, the critical Transmission Lines construction faces challenges due to Right of Way (ROW) issues, including land procurement issues. A report by Mercom India mentions that fourteen Inter-State Transmission Systems (ISTS) are facing prolonged ROW issues. 

While considering the larger economy of scale benefits, the GW utility scale projects are important for India’s ambitious Renewable Energy Growth targets, however there needs to be higher emphasis on the Decentralized Energy Growth for the closer generation and consumption of power to the consumers. This can be achieved through higher growth on solar rooftop and ground mounted projects near Industrial projects. 

Such decentralized solar projects backed with appropriately sized Energy Storage Systems can significantly reduce the load on the grid. It can help in faster decarbonization of the energy sector through optimized investment in the grid infrastructure. 

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https://www.mercomindia.com/shortage-power-transformers-india-solar

https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/supply-shortages-and-an-inflexible-market-give-rise-to-high-power-transformer-lead-times/

Key Terminologies:

BTM: Behind the Meter - Connected at the Consumer Premises

FTM: Front of the Meter - Directly Connected to the Utility Grid