BSES launches pilot to establish solar micro-grids with battery storage

NEW DELHI: BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) in a statement on March 12, 2019, said that it has launched a pilot to establish solar micro grids, becoming one of the first discoms in the country to do so in an urban setting. The statement further added that these micro grids will combine rooftop solar with lithium-ion-based battery energy storage systems and for demonstration purposes four such micro grids have been set-up at BYPL offices in East Delhi,” BSES said in a statement.

The energy generated through rooftop solar panels is utilized to fulfill the electricity demands and the surplus is fed into the grid, which has the potential to reduce electricity bills, the statement said.

As per the statement, a pan discom (including at consumer location) roll-out of 1,000 such solar-energy battery storage micro grids has the potential to save about 62 million units of electricity and over three lakh liters of diesel amounting to about Rs 41 crore on an annual basis – cumulatively for the discom and the consumers, which would lead to a CO₂ reduction of about 51,000 tons.

“The initial results of the pilot project at four BYPL locations in East Delhi are very encouraging. At these locations, the discom has installed rooftop solar plans varying between 5 KW and 7 KW and energy battery storage between 7 KWh and 10 kWh. They show that over this period only 8 per cent of grid power was used,” said BSES. The balance 92 per cent of power was generated and met through the solar plant coupled with the energy battery storage. Moreover, annually around 1,245 liters of diesel and 0.24 million units of electricity amounting to Rs 20 lakh can be saved. Additionally, it could also reduce around 205 tons CO₂, the statement added.

The discom has tied-up with Council on Energy, Environment and Water to gauge and assess the system performance of the pilot.

Presently, the cost of setting-up a rooftop solar plant is around Rs 40,000 per KW and around Rs 80,000 per KW for an energy storage system.