With the high penetration of renewable energy in India, we require utility-scale storages such as pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES) systems to balance the grid. However, the growth of PHES has been tepid because of the high cost associated with the commissioning of PHES plants, the long gestation period due to delays in obtaining environmental clearances, and the low recovery from the existing PHES pricing mechanism.
To resolve the issue of low recovery from the existing pricing mechanism, the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) has developed a differential pricing mechanism (pumping and generation prices) for PHES instead of having only generation-based energy charges. Our analyses show that differential pricing yields profit, which could be used for fixed-cost recovery.
CSTEP conducted a webinar on 30 July 2021 to discuss the role of pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES) in the Indian grid.
Watch our PHES explainer video here.
Watch the full recording of the webinar here.
