Gujarat tenders for 1,000MWh BESS project
GUVNL will enter into a Battery Energy Storage Purchase Agreement (BESPA) with the successful bidders
Tendering for 500MW/1,000MWh standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) has begun, driven by the electricity board of the Indian state of Gujarat. Electricity market regulation board Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam (GUVNL) issued a Request for Selection (RfS) document for what is billed as a new pilot project.
Earlier in the year, GUVNL had previously issued a tender for a separate 500MW renewable project also featuring energy storage systems.
GUVNL is also the holding company for the state-owned generation, transmission and distribution companies (discoms). It said that the project would be utilised on an ‘on-demand’ basis according to the requirements of discoms.
In July, FRV said it had begun construction on one of UK’s largest battery storage projects, while in August, NineDot launched a Tesla Megapack-based 12.32MWh energy storage site in New York City.
The electricity board said it will enter into a Battery Energy Storage Purchase Agreement (BESPA) with successful bidders, who will be required to set up the BESS projects on a build-own-operate model. Projects in development or construction are eligible but not those that have been commissioned already, and projects must dedicate all offtake to the requirements of the tender/discoms, GUVNL explained.
In terms of requirements, the BESS units must have a minimum size of 40MW/80MWh and the land needed (in the vicinity of substations), will be leased by the Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporate (GETCO), the transmission system operator (also owned by GUVNL).
A government thinktank had previously stated that the demand for BESS in the country would reach around 180GWh by 2030. Demand will be driven by numerous factors including recent government legislation calling for the percentage of total energy consumed from renewable resources with or through energy storage to be 1% in the 2023-2024 timeframe and 4% by 2029-2030.
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