The Ministry of Power (MoP) has issued guidelines for procurement and utilisation of battery energy storage systems (BESS) as part of generation, transmission and distribution assets, along with ancillary services on March 10, 2022.
The objectives of the guidelines include facilitating procurement of BESS, as part of individual renewable energy (RE) power projects or separately, for addressing the variability/firming power supply/increasing energy output/extending the time of supply from an individual RE project or a portfolio of RE projects, augmentation of existing RE projects and/or to provide ancillary, grid support and flexibility services for the grid; to facilitate procurement of BESS for optimum utilisation of transmission and distribution network; to ensure transparency and fairness in procurement processes/ and to provide for a framework for an intermediary procurer as an aggregator/trading licensees/implementing agency for the inter-state/intra-state sale-purchase of power; and to provide standardisation and uniformity in processes and a risk-sharing framework between various stakeholders, involved in the energy storage and storage capacity procurement, thereby encouraging competition and enhanced bankability of the projects. The guidelines are being issued for procurement of energy from BESS by the procurers, through competitive bidding, from grid- connected projects to be set up on build own operate, or build own operate transfer basis.