India to Require State Utilities to Add Energy Storage

The federal government is also working to launch additional clean-energy tenders for storage, Agarwal said. The move comes as constraints on batteries, transmission and grid flexibility have led to renewable power being curtailed.

India curtailed as much as 118.6 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power capacity in September, according to data from JMK Research & Analytics cited last month. The research firm attributed curtailments to mismatches between demand and generation, transmission constraints, limited storage and grid flexibility, and seasonal overlaps between high renewable output and moderate demand.

Record renewable generation and solar output were also accompanied by curtailments in July and August, when India experienced power availability shortages. From July 2027, the country plans to require developers of solar and wind projects to install battery storage at their sites.

Earlier this week, the federal government approved a $1.54 billion (145 billion Indian rupees) program to support 92 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of grid-scale storage that has yet to be commissioned. The Viability Gap Funding Scheme covers 30 GWh of battery storage systems, 60 GWh of pumped storage projects and 2 GWh of emerging storage technologies. The government said the funding would improve projects’ financial viability and accelerate large-scale storage deployment.