Thermal energy storage sees ongoing development in India

August 3, 2015

India is one of the premium emerging international markets when it comes to the adoption of green building and integration of renewables and energy storage. Technologies, such as solar and thermal energy storage, have already made inroads in this market. A recent forecast performed by Grand View Research noted that thermal energy storage projects made up the largest technological segment within the energy storage market worldwide in 2014, and that much of that growth was driven by rapidly advancing economies like India's.

Experts expect India to continue adopting energy storage
The expectation that energy storage adoption will continue to rise in the country is further supported by market research performed by the India Energy Storage Alliance. According to the IESA, much of this energy storage adoption will be driven by the government's own energy-focused reforms and commercial scenarios where energy storage makes the most sense.

The organization's blog mentioned several government initiatives and commercial projects that are pushing India in a more energy storage-oriented direction. For example, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy received proposals from over 50 companies last year for its planned projects to integrate energy storage with renewable applications. This year, Power Grid Corporation of India is evaluating several proposals for three energy storage applications with hopes of improving frequency regulation.

If India's interest in more energy storage is certain, then the next question to answer is which advances will drive this growth. There's plenty of opportunity for technologies that have already found success, such as commercial-scale thermal energy storage, to lead the charge when it comes to demonstrating the full potential benefits of the technology for facilities operating in the region.

Thermal energy storage is finding success in India
Thermal energy storage equipment stores over 12MW of cooling in cities like Nagar, Bangalore, New Delhi and Chennai. Adoption in in the country's commercial sector has been steadily occurring for over a decade. Use of thermal storage systems are being adopted as a standard practice in the Software Development sector and almost all major players - namely, WIPRO, TCS, Cognizent technologies, Infosys and Hexaware have adopted the technology in their projects. Almost every multi-tenant software development in parks such as TIDEL Park and Olympia Tech Park have made it a standard part of their design. One example is the TATA Consultancy Services project which is spread over a 70 acres. This software development center ranks among the largest in Asia with over 24,000 occupants.

By adopting thermal energy storage tanks from CALMAC, a company that specializes in manufacturing ice storage systems that freeze and store water for cooling purposes, the Park saw several benefits. The technology allowed the TCS technology development center to reduce its maximum demand requirement and enhance utility system efficiency by providing uniform loading over 24 hours. Use of air-cooled chillers for night-time operation took advantage of dry bulb temperature drops, leading to even greater energy efficiency.

India's energy future holds even more promise for thermal energy storage
There's plenty of reasons to believe that India will create a positive environment for energy storage growth. Growth is augmented by a need for India to provide more reliable power to 400 million residents lacking access to electricity, and to increase peak electrical demand per regulatory and legislative changes. 

Most recently, utility Tata Power launched a load shifting thermal energy storage incentive program, according to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. The incentive will allow Tata Power to lower peak electricity demand in Mumbai. Tata Power will also provide metering services for their customers to demonstrate how thermal energy storage impacts their power bills. Another important development is the explosion of solar technology in the region. According to Business Spectator, solar deployment in India is expected to grow past 2,500 MW by March 2016. The development of solar energy is positive for the growth of energy storage, both in deployment and awareness. In an interview with Greentech Lead, Chairman of IET India Power Engineers' Panel Prakash Nayak pointed out that a major issue that will drive the adoption of energy storage is the need for a solution to variability in clean energy, like solar.