India's Green Energy Grid, Battery Storage Scheme Will Give Big Dividends: UN Climate Chief

The Green Energy Corridor Phase-III (GEC-III) scheme is a major step forward which will deliver significant benefits for India's people and economy, UN climate chief Simon Stiell said on Thursday.

The scheme, approved by the Centre on Wednesday, aims to set up an intra-state transmission system with battery storage to evacuate 135 GW (gigawatts) of renewable energy. It also seeks to address curtailment, which occurs when grid operators limit power output from renewable sources to maintain grid stability.

In a statement on the initiative, Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said, "India's grid strengthening and battery storage scheme is a major step forward that will deliver big dividends for India's people and economy. It will help harness the country's growing renewable energy capacity, helping power people's daily needs, boost India's economic growth, and further strengthen India's status as a global solar superpower."

According to him, battery storage provides a strategic opportunity for major economies like India to achieve energy security and economic growth.

The UNFCCC top official added stronger power grids and battery storage will create more jobs in manufacturing, construction and energy storage, and drive forward India's opportunities, as the global renewables and electrotech revolution charges ahead.

The GEC-III scheme has a total project outlay of Rs 1.86 lakh crore, comprising Rs 1.36 lakh crore for the development of the intra-state transmission system and Rs 50,000 crore for 50 GWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS).

It carries a central financial assistance of Rs 54,082 crore, which will help offset the intra-state transmission charges and thus keep power costs down.

All Greenfield projects under the InSTS component will be implemented through Tariff Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) mode, while brownfield upgradation and network strengthening works will be executed under Cost Plus Basis (CPB).

The State Transmission Utilities will be the overall implementing agency, and Transmission Service Providers (TSPs) will participate under TBCB on a Build-Own-Operate-Maintain (BOOM) model.