Energy Management Systems

With electric vehicles starting to gain traction, the International Energy Agency’s updated, ten-year e-mobility forecast has suggested geopolitical and economic concerns will trump environmental niceties when it comes to encouraging recycling. But what price ever-cheaper batteries?

An Ieefa report has suggested the cost of generating electricity from solar will be near zero in the world’s sunniest regions by 2030-40 – despite what the naysayers at the International Energy Agency might think.

The new Indo-Danish cooperation will prepare the Indian energy system for the integration of 450 GW renewable energy by 2030. It will focus on knowledge exchange in areas such as energy planning and scenario modelling, integration of high share of renewable energy, power system flexibility and electricity markets.

The projects—to be developed in three phases of 1 GW each—are expected to be completed by year 2022-23. While the first and the third phases will be developed under public-private partnership basis, the second phase will be on the ownership model of REMCL and eligible for capital subsidy under the CPSE scheme.

MIT scientists have suggested used electric vehicle batteries could offer a more viable business case than purpose-built systems for the storage of grid scale solar power in California. Such ‘second life’ EV batteries, may cost only 60% of their original purchase price to deploy and can be effectively aggregated for industrial scale storage even if they have declined to 80% of their original capacity.

Given the close links between energy and economy, an impact analysis is needed to evaluate the sector and initiate suitable measures against unusual circumstances. Government policy thinktank NITI Aayog is working on a roadmap to improve energy data management system for India. The centralized energy data unit will host all demand and consumption data related to all forms of energy, which can be used by researchers, policymakers and business strategy formulators alike.

India’s energy system immediately needs a shift from centralized commands to dynamic interactive structures. While the UK is already spearheading digitalization of its energy systems, India has ample areas demanding interventions, such as integration of decentralized energy systems using digital innovation and analytical tools.

The digital platform automates the entire distributed solar project design and net metering approval process, which is crucial in today’s era of social distancing and remote business operations driven by COVID-19 globally.

The programme—co-funded by Swedish Energy Agency and India’s Department of Science & Technology (DST)—aims to develop technologies that can be commercialized after two years. While SEA has committed US$2.6 million over four years for research and innovation collaboration with India, DST will also fund a matching investment of Rs 18 crore to support Indian partners.

The OneBox, from Indian manufacturer Vision Mechatronics, consists of a lithium battery, hybrid inverter and solar charge controller to give a hassle-free solution for electricity back-up during power outages. Solar rooftop owners are offered a grid feed feature to maximize net metering income from any excess power generated.