Energy Storage Has a Big Role in India’s Energy Transition Mission
By integrating just one hour of energy storage, the peak solar generation pressure can be reduced by 50 percent. This allows doubling the installed solar capacity using the same grid infrastructure, simply by time-shifting the energy with storage.
July 09, 2025. By News Bureau
Moreover, an additional 100 GW of renewable projects are currently under implementation, signifying the momentum and commitment toward a cleaner energy future. However, this rapid growth brings with it new challenges—the existing grid infrastructure is fast approaching saturation.
Our nation is today the world’s third-largest producer of solar energy. We also rank fifth in the world in terms of installed solar capacity. But in terms of actual electricity consumption from renewable energy, India is still behind the global average. Solar and wind energy combined made up only about 10 percent of actual electricity supply and consumption in 2023. The world average is 13 percent.
While solar decentralisation has indeed helped meet local energy demand, we still face a critical bottleneck: the mismatch between solar generation (which peaks during the day) and electricity demand (which peaks in the evening).
One major reason for this mismatch in production capacity and actual supply is the variable nature of solar or even wind energy. Solar energy for example is only produced during daytime hours and wind is equally fluctuating, and this variability directly translates to power supply fluctuations and ends up hurting grid stability.
Integrating such volatile sources into the transmission is therefore extremely challenging unless we can somehow take the variability and fluctuation of this power out from the equation. The goal is to make solar and wind power as predictable, stable, and manageable as power generated from coal or hydroelectric units.
Perhaps the most effective way to do this is to store all solar and wind energy produced and then draw from this storage to supply stable power to consumers. If we can build enough storage, theoretically the entirety of India’s installed solar and wind capacity can be actually fed into the grid and consumed by industries, commercial establishments and consumers.
This is where Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) become a game-changer. By integrating just one hour of energy storage, we can reduce peak solar generation pressure by 50 percent. This allows us to double the installed solar capacity using the same grid infrastructure, simply by time-shifting the energy with storage.
The size of BESS capacity, ranging from hundreds of megawatt-hours to as small as ten MWh allows us to classify them as grid-scale (usable for direct connections to the grid), commercial or industrial-scale, or smaller units that can deliver optimum solar power utilisation to residential complexes or individual houses.
A grid-scale BESS can easily store solar or wind energy generated during peak production times and release it during night, or during times of high electricity demand. This process, known as energy arbitrage, can easily smooth out power supply.
The question then worth asking is how quickly we in India can build enough energy storage capacity to actually put our rapidly growing solar capacity to more effective use. Many experts and analysts have a bullish outlook on this count.
A recent report by SBI Capital Markets (SBICAPS) noted that “India is poised to significantly augment its energy storage capacity, with a projected 12-fold increase to ~60 GW by FY32”. The report adds that BESS and Pumped Storage Projects (PSP) will capture virtually 100 percent of this pie, with BESS being the dominant technology, growing an astronomical 375x to 42 GW by FY32.
The real tailwinds for growth are coming from none other than the Indian government. As the SBICAPS report noted, there is a substantial uptick in the proportion of projects incorporating storage solutions, from 5 percent in FY20 to 23 percent in FY24. In September 2024, India sought bids for the supply of 6,000 MW of electricity from renewable energy projects integrated with storage solutions for peak-hour supply. The demand for energy storage from commercial and industrial applications is expected to grow in a similar trajectory.
We at Oriana see energy storage as a key enabler in making solar power a round-the-clock energy source, turning variable generation into reliable base load supply. To start off, we are going to build 400MWh energy storage systems with Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu state utilities. With abundant storage, we can flatten the dynamic demand profile, stabilise the grid, and increase the utilisation of India’s fast growing solar power capacity - ultimately moving our country towards energy self-reliance that is a precursor to complete energy security.
This transformation will not only benefit the grid but also enhance value for all stakeholders in India’s energy ecosystem: power generators, consumers, and regulators alike. The opportunity to support this transition by fulfilling the demand for energy storage is also massive, and will allow companies like ours to create significant value for all ecosystem stakeholders as well as contribute meaningfully to enhancing India’s energy security.
- Parveen Jangra, Co-Founder and CTO, Oriana Power Ltd.
please contact: contact@energetica-india.net.
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