•Modelling framework for a PV microgrid by incorporating battery degradation.

•Battery degradation rates for five climatic zones of India.

•Trade-off between cost and reliability due to system degradation.

The current COVID-19 pandemic is spooling out to be a calamity of unprecedented proportions, causing loss of lives and devastating economies globally. A disaster of this nature calls for well thought out Government interventions along with responsible individual behaviour to contain the damage. Across the globe, reckless and irresponsible behaviour of individuals has been responsible to a large extent for the exponential growth rate of the COVID-19 graph.

COVID-19 has rattled global industrial production by disrupting supply chains of raw materials and intermediates. Even in India, the outbreak has had an unprecedented impact on the manufacturing sector. This is forcing us to rethink our supply chain models—especially for the industries heavily dependent on imports. One such industry is lithium-ion battery (LIB), which is poised to play a vital role in the highly-electrified transport sector of the near future.

India is still struggling to come to grips with the devastating spin-offs of Covid-19, including the slump in economy. Like other sectors, the power sector too has taken a severe hit, with lowered electricity consumption due to semi-operation of industries. In fact, the dynamic trading price of electricity fell to a three-year low of 60p recently, an indicator of the drop in demand.

Bengaluru is today synonymous with traffic and air pollution. Among Indian cities, Bengaluru ranked third in overall emissions and energy consumption in a recent survey by CSE (Centre for Science and Environment). PM2.5 and PM10 emissions contribute to much of the air pollution in the city, and 60-70% of these emissions originate from vehicles and road dust.

Cab aggregators have revolutionised commuting in cities by offering technology-based seamless connectivity. Along the way, they are also changing the way our cities function and grow. While these services were proposed to improve mobility, global case studies reveal that they significantly increase congestion and impact public transit ridership. However, by providing effective policy direction, city administrators can steer this revolution towards a more sustainable mobility system.

Thanks to favourable government policies and the reducing costs of technology, renewable energy is getting cheaper around the world. Today, it is cheaper to source energy from solar and wind plants than new thermal plants. This is great news for the renewable sector because market forces are now favourable for the large-scale adoption of solar and wind. However, one of the major drawbacks of increasing the share of renewables is that they threaten grid stability, owing to their fluctuating behaviour.

This article is first in the #Empower series of blogs by CSTEP, which aims to inform and interest the public in technical and policy issues that affect us on a day-to-day basis. In this and the next few articles, we will break down the journey of electricity from generation to consumption and elaborate on how every step of this journey has implications for you, the consumer.