“UPI For Energy” can be one of the biggest regulatory reforms that the power sector has seen, and can be a true game changer for the growth of Distributed Power Generation and Storage sources.

It will be a true coming of age moment for the decades of background work done in the Decentralized power generation especially solar rooftop and banking on top of the Digital Payment Infrastructure (UPI) built by India.

As the Decentralized Solar Generation goes up, it needs a transparent and efficient price discovery market to be available to enhance solar project ROIs. For this market to take off, there is a need for a massive ramp-up of Decentralized Energy Storage (BESS), which then allows the generators to optimize their PV and BESS capacity to take advantage of the Time of Day benefits. All the excess power not being consumed at generation nodes can be sold off to the right buyer at the right time of the day.

In a highly regulated market where the DISCOM is the sole buyer for a Decentralized Generator through net metering and with critical bottlenecks in the Transmission Infrastructure, there is significant potential for wastage of power. Even as the installed capacity keeps increasing, due to a lack of a fair price discovery market and power evacuation capacity in terms of Transmission Lines and transformers, there is likely to be significant curtailment in the coming years due to the phenomenon known as the Duck Curve Effect. Similarly, there is a significant growth in the Electric vehicle market, which will create additional demand for power but needs the right charging support.

To the contrary a Decentralized Power Market will boost the local grid level investment in both the PV installation and the Battery Energy Storage. It can then be utilised smartly to sell power at the right time and quantity. With the falling cost of Solar and BESS, this can create several micro entrepreneurs who will utilize their existing real estate to create an additional source of income.

To summarize the following key aspects need to be designed properly for the realization of “UPI for Energy”:

- Significant Investment in Digitization for Smart Grids for demand/ supply matching
- Creation of a Fair, Transparent, Secure, Decentralized Marketplace for selling and buying power
- Right Policy Support in a Sector which is traditionally Heavily Regulated
- Right Incentives for Promotion of PV and BESS at the Decentralized Level

This can ensure a much faster Decarbonization of Grid even with optimized investment in Transmission Infrastructure and by supporting local micro entrepreneurship.

hashtag#BESS hashtag#UPIforEnergy hashtag#SmartGrid hashtag#PV