Latest News | R K Singh Stresses on Another PLI Scheme for Grid Scale Storage Projects

New Delhi, Jun 20 (PTI) Union Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh on Tuesday stressed the need to have another production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for grid-scale storage, to augment capacity and have round-the-clock renewable energy.

Addressing 'The Economic Times' Energy Leadership Summit & Awards event in New Delhi, Singh said that the Government of India has been working tirelessly on energy access, energy efficiency, energy sustainability and energy security, the four pillars of India's future in the energy sector.

Also Read | Zero Tolerance on Spurious Medicines, 71 Firms Issued Notices, Says Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Cough Syrup Row.

The minister shared with the business and investor community the story of India's progress in the energy sector and its vision for the road ahead.

He informed that since renewable energy storage is expensive, the government has come out with a policy to encourage Pumped Hydro Power Projects.

Also Read | SBI MD Swaminathan Janakiraman Appointed RBI Deputy Governor.

"Huge capacities of Pumped Hydro projects are coming up. At the same time, we need to build batteries for grid storage. We need to have another PLI scheme for grid-scale storage, so that we can augment capacity and have round-the-clock renewable energy. We will keep adding storage to ensure that demand goes up and investment keeps happening," he said.

He pointed towards the nation's huge targets in renewable energy.

"Today, 42% of our energy capacity is from non-fossil-fuels. We have made a commitment to take this to 50% by 2030, but we shall achieve 65% of capacity from non-fossil-fuels by 2030. We will add 50 GW of capacity every year. We have emerged as the fastest growing renewable energy destination," he said.

Singh however stated that even as we build renewable energy capacity at the fastest rate, we will not shy away from adding the thermal capacity we may need in order to meet our energy requirements.

"Our pace of energy transition will be the fastest in the world, but we will not compromise with our energy needs. In 2030, I see the capacity crossing 800 GW, and that is at a conservative rate of growth."

The Minister underlined the need to prioritize green hydrogen for the country.

"We need to reduce importing coal for blending. We need to strengthen our logistics from coal-bearing areas and also exploit our coal reserves, for which we are auctioning coal blocks so that our dependence on imports reduces. Our feedstock too has to transition, for which green hydrogen is a priority area and a huge opportunity. We have set a target of setting up at least 5 million tons of green hydrogen by the year 2030.

The Minister also underlined the need for diversification of supply chains, using technologies such as sodium ion.

He said that around 100 GW of battery storage capacity is going to come up in the coming years, out of which around 50 GW will be available for exports.

The minister said that from 2014 onwards, India has added total power generation capacity of over 184 GW and that total installed capacity is 417 GW, while peak demand has reached 221 GW.

Peak demand has accelerated in the recent past, and it will continue to increase, but we have sufficient established capacity as of now. he said.

He informed that availability of power in rural areas went up to 22.5 hours and in urban areas to 23.5 hours. We aim to make it 24 hours, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)