Wind energy in India shows tremendous potential with estimates varying from 50 GW to as high as 2000 GW. Utilizing this potential is however challenging. Wind is intermittent, unpredictable and may not coincide with the load. Electrical grid in India needs significant upgrades to utilize potential of renewable resources. In many parts of India wind farms lose as much as 15% of the output due to transmission congestions. At lower wind penetration (less than 10%) the conventional resources are capable of adjusting to wind fluctuations. As the share of wind energy keeps increasing it will become more challenging to manage the grid stability. With wind penetration greater than 20% it becomes imperative to find new solutions to absorb wind variability and achieve grid stability. Energy Storage System (ESS) provides one such solution!
ESS makes wind power dispatchable thus reducing the impact of forecasting errors. ESS can reduce UI charges applicable by keeping the actual output within +/- 30%.
For wind farms facing potential curtailment, ESS can be charged to store the energy during curtailment and discharged when the transmission capacity is available. ESS can also be used to reduce transmission capex as well as charges. Industries which are subjected to frequent load shedding use DG as a back-up power resource. Wind integrated with ESS can economically replace or significantly reduce use of diesel. ESS can in essence turn wind farm to a peaker plant to sell energy during peak hours. Due to fast response of many storage technologies wind farms integrated with ESS can follow the load. ESS can also be used to integrate with wind in off-grid applications.