The government may free up network connectivity outside of sunlight hours

New Delhi: The government is considering a proposal under which during hours when there is no solar power, power from the power grid attributed to solar power producers without storage system should be released and fed into the grid, mainly through storage in existing or other generators.

Discussions are underway to limit the connection of solar plants that do not have storage systems to only sunny hours rather than the entire day, officials familiar with the matter told ET. They added that the move would reduce grid load during hours when there is no solar energy and would also allow more electricity to be fed into the system, mainly by adding storage.

As per the general grid access norms, connectivity to solar generators is allocated for the entire day. However, such projects use connectivity only during the sun hours, which causes the connectivity to remain idle for the rest of the hours.

“If the company that is allocated grid capacity is not interested in building energy storage facilities or utilising non-sunny hours in any other way, then connectivity during non-sunny hours will be given to other developers,” a senior official told ET, requesting anonymity.

Hours when solar energy is not being used could be used for energy storage or another additional form of renewable energy generation, according to people familiar with the matter.

Officials say the Grid Controller of India could be deputed to determine sunshine hours.

“The idea is to use existing grid lines to derive maximum benefit. Some of the grid power is not used during non-sunny hours. Project owners can introduce energy storage systems,” said another official, requesting anonymity.

To utilize the unused network during hours when there is no solar energy, the central transmission utility will ensure that power is available at individual substations to all agencies organizing auctions for renewable energy generation capacity.

As of today, about 71 GW of solar capacity is connected to the grid. Of this, standalone solar projects connected to interstate transmission lines, which feed power into the grid only during sunny hours, account for about 23 GW, another official said.

India’s target of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power generation capacity by 2030 requires significant investment in renewable energy and the necessary infrastructure to support its development, namely the transmission system.

As one of the people quoted earlier said, new renewable energy plants with storage will be able to apply to share existing transmission resources from the grid, which is available during hours when there is no solar energy.