State’s First and Largest Project Established in Singareni as per Government Directions
Positive Results Within Four Months… Rs.26 Lakhs Saved Through BESS
Singareni Bhavan, May 21: The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), established for the first time in the state at Singareni as per the directions of the State Government, is yielding encouraging results. This system enables surplus solar power generated during the daytime to be stored in batteries instead of being supplied free of cost to the grid, thereby allowing its utilization whenever required and generating financial benefits for Singareni.
Following the directions of Hon’ble Chief Minister Sri.A. Revanth Reddy and Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister & Energy Minister Sri.Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu, a 1 MW Battery Energy Storage System was established four months ago as an auxiliary facility to the 28 MW Singareni Solar Plant in the Mandamarri Area. The management invested Rs.2.5 crores for this project.
What is the Use of BESS?
Taking advantage of the encouragement being extended by the State Government towards solar energy, several state-owned organizations, including Singareni, have been generating solar power. Singareni has already established solar plants with a total capacity of 245.5 MW at eight different locations. Out of these, plants with a capacity of 147 MW have been categorized as Open Access Plants, while the remaining plants with a capacity of 98.50 MW have been categorized as In-House Plants and connected to the Telangana power grids.
Although electricity generated from these in-house plants is also connected to the Telangana power grid, according to the power purchase agreement, only the electricity consumed for local requirements is utilized, while Telangana DISCOM does not make any payment for the surplus electricity generated. The excess electricity must therefore be supplied to the grid free of cost. In this manner, thousands of surplus units generated daily from the in-house plants were being supplied to the grid without any financial benefit.
With the objective of deriving value even from this surplus power, Singareni, under the directions of the State Government, experimentally established a 1 MW BESS unit at the Mandamarri Plant — the first such initiative in the state.
The 28 MW solar plant at Mandamarri has been functioning efficiently and supplying electricity required for the mines and colonies in the Mandamarri and Srirampur Areas. However, after meeting local power requirements, some electricity still remained surplus. In this context, Singareni established the Battery Energy Storage System at the Mandamarri Plant in January this year.
Since then, the BESS unit has been utilized for local requirements, and the remaining 3,35,485 units of electricity have been stored and used whenever required. As a result, Singareni has achieved financial savings amounting to Rs.25,66,460.
It is noteworthy that a BESS unit with just 1 MW capacity could save such a substantial amount of electricity and generate significant financial benefit. The Singareni management expressed happiness over the success of the BESS project, which was established experimentally under the directions of the State Government.
The management further stated that, in line with the Government’s objective of promoting renewable energy resources, Singareni is prepared to undertake more such projects in the future.
