A 41 MW solar photovoltaic, wind, and battery storage hybrid plant is being built in India.
The project in Andhra Pradesh and is being constructed by IL&FS Energy Development Company Limited, a company that is behind several gigawatt-scale solar parks in India.
The core components of the project are 25 MW solar PV and 16 MW wind power generation systems, coupled to an optimized energy storage system.
US-headquartered Black & Veatch has been selected to provide engineering expertise to the project. Mitesh Patel, the company’s director of renewables in Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “Grid modernization through hybrid projects like this one will help promote sustainable economic growth in India, and support the government’s goal of reaching 175 GW of capacity from renewable sources by 2022.
“Hybrid solutions, by optimizing output and reducing variability, will also improve the bankability of renewable energy projects.”
Black & Veatch stresses that appropriate battery storage solutions are an important tool in stabilizing the grid when a significant amount of renewable energy is integrated, as is the case currently in India. The system will enable a more reliable and consistent output from the combined facility by stabilizing fluctuations in output from the intermittent resources and providing services to support stabilization of the grid.
Keshav Prasad, chief operating officer for solar at IL&FS Energy, said: “This pilot project, apart from delivering industry leading plant load factor and optimized hardware configuration, will assist the distribution company inefficient grid management through real-time monitoring of ramps, peak shifting and matching of load and generation profiles.”
According to International Energy Agency, investment in renewables in India exceeded that for fossil fuel-based power generation for the first time in 2017.
India’s Ministry of New & Renewable Energy released the National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy in May. The main objective of the policy is to provide a framework for promotion of large grid-connected wind-solar PV hybrid system for optimal and efficient utilization of transmission infrastructure and land, reducing the variability in renewable power generation and achieving better grid stability.
