Greening the Grid (GTG) Newsletter · the key partner in various bilateral and multilateral program...

Connect with us:GreeningthegridIndia/

GTG_India

Greening the Grid

www.gtg-india.com

U.S., Germany and U.K. Bolster Support for India’s Large-Scale Grid Integration of Renewable Energy

More than 450 energy experts converge to brainstorm innovative ideas to support India’s RE capacity targets of 175 GW by 2022

Expanding renewable energy (RE) will boost sustainable growth and India needs to take strong action on integrating RE sources into the power grid to continue to grow at 7 to 8 percent annually, according to energy experts who gathered here in New Delhi for the 2nd International Conference on “Large-Scale Grid Integration of Renewable Energy in India.” More than 450 representatives and energy experts from 16 countries attended the three-day conference, jointly convened by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID) from September 4-6, 2019 to deliberate on large-scale grid integration and its benefits to countries like India, which has embarked on one of the most ambitious clean energy programs in the world.

India is proceeding aggressively toward achieving its commitment of adding 175 gigawatts of installed RE capacity by 2022. However, variability and intermittency of solar and wind-based energy continues to pose a techno-commercial challenge for stability of the power grid and its reliability. The conference discussed these crucial issues and made recommendations for the Indian power management system to raise overall responsiveness of power generation and make the system more balanced and advanced. To meet global benchmarks in RE, the Ministry of Power (MOP) and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) have entered into bilateral cooperation with many developed countries including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. The U.S., Germany and the U.K. have achieved a high share of RE in total electricity generation i.e., 18 percent, 54.5 percent, and 33.1 percent respectively, by adopting innovative policies, market regulations and technology transformations. Lessons learned in these countries could provide useful insights for India.

The conference covered deliberations between representatives from the MOP, MNRE, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited and other key stakeholder on technical and economic issues. International representations included: Ofgem (UK), California Independent System Operator (CAISO) (USA), Eurelectric (Germany), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) (USA), International Energy Agency (IEA), Southern California Edison (USA), Det Norske Veritas Germanischer Lloyd (DNV GL) (Germany), American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) (USA), Next Kraftwerke (Germany), Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI) (USA), Uniper Kraftwerke (Germany), Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE (Germany), Recognis (Finland), and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand).

Vol 5, Aug 2019 - Jan 2020

1 USAID’s Asia EDGE initiative aims to enhance the economic and energy security of Asian countries by promoting a more affordable and reliable energy system that is also more globally accessible by focusing on four key areas; Regional Energy Trade and Integration, Increased Deployment of Advanced Energy Systems, Utility Modernization and adoption of Transparent and Best Value Procurement practices.

About GTG Program

USAID’s Greening the Grid (GTG) is a five-year program implemented in partnership with India’s Ministry of Power (MOP) under the USAID’s ASIA EDGE (Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy) Initiative.1 The program aims to support the Government of India’s (GOI) efforts to manage the large-scale integration of RE into the grid and combines the following three components which interact with each other.

1. Power system planning reforms and targeted analysis for large RE parks and RE integration pilots implemented by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories

2. Renewable Integration and Sustainable Energy (RISE) initiative to implement innovation pilots, aimed at testing and evaluating building blocks to improve the integration of RE

3. Peer-to-Peer exchanges between U.S.-India system operators (System Operator Partnership) and regulators (India Regulatory Partnership)

Greening the Grid (GTG) Newsletter

Vol 5, Aug, 2019 - Jan, 2020 - Greening the Grid (GTG) Newsletter2

The conference was jointly inaugrated by Edgard Kagan, Chargé d’Affaires of U.S. Embassy along with Dr. Jasper Wieck, Chargé d’Affaires, German Embassy, and Jan Thompson, British Deputy High Commissioner. In his keynote address, Dr Kagan underscored U.S.’s long term energy partnerships with Government of India and in particular with the Ministry of Power on large-scale integration of RE into the grid.

Edgard KaganChargé d’Affaires, U.S. Embassy New Delhi

“Today’s conference is dedicated to identifying potential concerns and solutions for grid integration with higher levels of RE. This year, in addition to GIZ, we are also joined by the U.K. Government to showcase the U.S. government’s commitment to support large-scale integration of RE in the Indian power grid.”

Jan ThompsonBritish Deputy High Commissioner

“As a joint force for good, the UK and India aim to address significant global challenges including climate-focused investments, enabling power sector reform through high-calibre technical assistance, and supporting cutting edge research and innovation on grid integration. International platforms like this conference deepen partnerships, support innovative solutions and raise our ambition to tackle the global climate challenge. I would like to thank our partners GIZ and USAID for their role in co-hosting the event, and the Government of India for their endorsement and continued support.”

Dr. Jasper WieckChargé d’Affaires, German Embassy New Delhi

“Integrating such a large quantum of variable power into the existing grid is a challenge and requires specific knowledge and skills, adequate regulations, enabling policies and flexible market mechanisms. Thus, policy cooperation in Green Energy Corridors was initiated and Germany also supported India in the expansion of its transmission grid to be capable of taking in more renewable power with concessional loans of up to 1.4 billion Euros through KfW bank. More funds are yet to be committed.”

INAGURAL SESSION

Vol 5, Aug, 2019 - Jan, 2020 - Greening the Grid (GTG) Newsletter 3

More than 450 energy experts representing Indian power utilities, regulators, system operators, etc. attended the 2nd international conference. It was the perfect opportunity to draw learnings from the international community of energy experts representing the world’s most advanced RE markets. The conference brought together power sector experts from various countries to discuss the challenges and opportunities to achieve large-scale integration of RE into the grid.

The conference featured many deliberations that will support utility modernization; promote grid flexibility, energy storage, electro mobility, smart grids and foster policy regulations for enablement of advanced energy markets. Following these learnings from global benchmarks will not only enhance the capacity of the utilities to meet certain challenges but will also shape the country’s long-term energy independence.

In a developing country such as India where a prominent growth in electricity demand is observed, optimization or most effective use of energy resources could prove advantageous in bringing down the system costs. This will also increase the visibility of generation that can ensure better reliability of power to consumers as well as the power network. All these suggestive and actionable reforms discussed during the international conference will create new opportunities for integrating global benchmarks ensuring robust market monitoring and enforcement practices for grid integration of variable RE generation.

The Indian counterparts MOP, MNRE, POSOCO, CERC, NTPC who have been pioneers towards enabling such large-scale RE integration, applauded the joint initiative by USAID, GIZ and DFID to convene such a diversified conference. In particular, they acknowledged the continuous support and efforts made by USAID’s Greening the Grid (GTG) program to implement and scale innovation pilots that support RE integration into the grid.

This newsletter presents highlights from the 2nd international conference, particularly the key deliberations relating with the crucial thematic areas covered under GTG program.

Michael Satin, Director, Clean Energy and Environment Office (CLEEO), USAID/India welcomed the key dignitaries, senior leaders from industry and participants attending the conference. He said the Indian government is at an epicenter of revolution, and it is imperative for India, U.S., Germany and UK to continue to build their quadrilateral cooperation to create an environment for renewable penetration across the globe and be honest about the challenges and come together in a unified way for a successful integration

The conference brought together power sector experts from 16 countries to discuss the challenges and opportunities to achieve the large scale integration of RE into the grid.

Shubhranshu Patnaik, Senior Advisor,GTG-RISE Initiative opening the inaugural session.


The Day One of the conference focused on deliberating major bottlenecks, opportunities and solutions for integrating high levels of RE in India.

The event kicked off with a context setting on the international experience by Thomas Ackermann, CEO, Energynautics (Germany), followed by an overview on the significance of the largest synchronous grid like India vis-à-vis RE integration, presented by S R Narasimhan, Director, POSOCO (India). Mr. Narasimhan flagged certain challenges for India, such as restructuring PPA’s, defining distribution utilities’ role, market design, etc. for deliberations during the conference. POSOCO is the key partner in various bilateral and multilateral program including USAID’s GTG program and plays an integral role in RE integration.

The international and Indian context setting was followed by a deep dive panel discussion on the progress made so far on RE grid integration and related challenges for India. The panelist included; Vikram Kapur, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO), Tamil Nadu; Mr. Mahendra Jain, Additional Chief Secretary (Energy Department), Karnataka; KVS Baba, CMD, POSOCO and Mohit Bhargava, Executive Director, NTPC Ltd. (India’s largest power generator), who shared their valuable insights into facilitating seamless integration of RE in to the Indian grid.

At the outset, CMD of the TANGEDCO, Mr. Kapur cherished their long partnership with USAID and NREL and support to Tamil Nadu to devise new ways to overcome the challenge of RE grid integration. Giving an overview of the key challenges for the state, he said, “Tamil Nadu has the highest concentration of wind power in India i.e. 8 GW of total 24 GW installed capacity, however, wind intermittency remains a challenge. The other big challenge remains the additional cost of integrating RE by the state Distribution Companies (DISCOMs) which will need to be adequately compensated.” He further added that till a commercially viable battery storage solution matures in the market, Tamil Nadu is considering pumped storage facility as the solution.

Grid Integration of Renewable Energy – Challenges, Roadmap & Progress

Vikram KapoorCMD, TANGEDCO

“High cost PPAs signed by the state remains to be a pure case of first movers disadvantage. As the markets establish, the cost of RE keeps declining resulting in low-cost PPAs for late comers. One needs to address the issue of high-cost PPAs which is affecting the bottom-line of state DISCOMs”

S R Narasimhan, Director, POSOCO setting the Indian context


Highlighting the key achievements of the state, Mr. Jain said “Karnataka has been at the forefront of renewables, accounting for 15% of India’s total installed RE capacity. In terms of RPO achievement it stands at 31% against 17% norm”. He further shared his valuable insights emphasizing the need for better innovative solutions and technological advancement coupled with financial support.

While highlighting the generators perspective on flexible generation, NTPC’s Mr. Bhargava applauded its association with USAID, specifically on the GTG-RISE Initiative, which has enabled NTPC to conduct low load test runs such as at Simhadri power plant to meet the requirements of grid by incorporating flexibility and digitalization.

As a National System Operator, CMD of POSOCO, Mr. Baba enlightened the august gathering with the commitment shown by India towards integration of RE amid commercial and technical challenges. He assured the utilities of POSOCO’s commitment to ensure integrated operation to facilitate transfer of electric power within and across the regions and trans-national exchange of power with reliability, economy and sustainability. Mr. Baba further shared his thoughts on demarcating the issues of unavoidable intermittency, flexibility requirements and load forecasting.

Mahendra JainAdditional Chief Secretary, Energy Department, Karnataka

“The challenges include unpredictability in forecasting of renewables for the operators. What India needs right now is R&D and technology support to ensure accurate forecasting and scheduling. Need for battery storage and better tariff structures promoting solar rooftop generation is a plus.”

Mohit BhargavaExecutive Director, NTPC Ltd.

“NTPC believes that renewables have a long way to go and are here to stay. However the biggest challenge is the need for having reasonable ramping requirements for coal-based plants and also address commercial implications for flexible generation.”

K V S BabaCMD, POSOCO

“The biggest challenge for India is matching the demand and generation complexities. Load forecasting demands bigger involvement and hence the need of the hour is to meet this demand with effective portfolio management. I urge the states to utilize the robust grid infrastructure and explore this learning phase to accept and commit to seamless integration of RE”


The discussions around India’s grid integration of renewables and its challenges, roadmap and progress continued during Day One. A detailed presentation on “Planning Power Systems with High Levels of Renewable Energy – Case Studies for India in 2030 and Beyond” was made by David Palchak from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The presentation was followed by a deep dive panel discussion on the major reforms needed to bring in policy, regulatory and commercial reforms to meet the commitment of 175 GW of RE by 2022 and additional 100 GW in the next 5 years. The panelists included Saurabh Kumar, Managing Director, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL); Ghanshyam Prasad (MOP); Dr. S K Chatterjee, Chief Regulatory Affairs, CERC; S.K. Soonee, Adviser, POSOCO and David Palchak, NREL (U.S.).

Being the apex body of power sector reforms in the country, Mr. Prasad from the MOP shared his views on the preparedness and journey so far made to achieve the RE targets and also highlighted the supportive role played by the bilateral agencies like USAID. He further deliberated on how India’s power sector is transforming and the Ministry with regulators and grid operators are aligned together to deepen the energy markets. Even when the targets of 175 GW were decided nobody was sure about the trajectory one should follow to achieve the targets with much less solar and wind in 2014-15 as compared to now. Then came the GTG report from POSOCO and NREL which was supported by USAID under its GTG program, which provided the necessary scientific pathway. The ministry, through a committee, identified a recommended list of 14 action items and took wide-spread actions -- from policy and regulatory changes, changes in manufacturing, DISCOMs etc. -- because of which the RE addition is happening.

India being so diversified brings complex scenario which requires regulator to operate not only from the central level but also to ensure acceptance from the state regulators. On top of it with the emerging decentralized stand-alone networks, smart grid scenario emerging in the cities poses more challenges to achieving holistic integrated regulatory apparatus as a response to the energy needs. While sharing his views on the preparedness of country’s regulatory framework to balance these challenges, Chief Regulatory Affairs

Planning Power Systems with High Levels of Renewable Energy in 2030 and Beyond

Ghanshyam Prasad Ministry of Power, Government of India

“The time has come wherein the regulated business must end and we must move towards competition, which ultimately will percolate to consumers and the entire value chain. All this transition will have a greater role for the regulator to play keeping surveillance and checks on the energy markets”


Highlighting India’s springboard progress on introducing electric vehicles (EVs) during the panel discussion, Mr. Kumar from EESL said that India has set targets for 30% stock of its vehicles being electric by 2030, which will be close to 150 million and shall not contribute much load on the overall system. The increase in electricity demand shall be around 3.5% during off-peak and 6% during peak times. Private capital for investment does not remain to be an issue but we need the regulators to become the enablers by introducing quick regulations to support the sectoral growth in the country.

Shri Saurabh Kumar Managing Director, EESL

“There are challenges towards integration of EV’s in the grid, which is attributed to high capital cost of ownership and absence of adequate charging infrastructure. However, looking at it from a different perspective, at the end of life, these transportation batteries can be reused for storage, which can reduce the overall cost and in totality would serve as a win-win scenario for both sectors.”

Panel discussion on planning for Indian power systems with high levels of RE by 2030 and beyond. From Left to Right: Jagan Shah, Senior Infrastructure Advisor, DFID; Saurabh Kumar, Managing Director, EESL; Ghanshyam Prasad, Ministry of Power; S.K. Soonee, Adviser, POSOCO; S K Chatterjee, Chief Regulatory Affairs, CERC; David Palchak, NREL.

of CERC, Dr. Chatterjee said - “India is a federal country that itself possess a big challenge in terms of creating a harmonious regulatory framework in the country. CERC being the central regulator has been taking various initiatives right from the requirement of Forecasting, Scheduling and Deviation Settlement Mechanism for wind and solar generators, wherein its enforcement remains be challenging. This is just a beginning for creating a regulatory framework for RE integration and this gradual discipline seems to be quite welcoming”


Sukhinder Lalli Ofgem, United Kingdom

“In the UK, we try to incentivize industries and consumers towards reducing emissions and adopt RE. On the other hand, we have put in place hard-edged legally binding environmental obligations and introduced carbon taxes. We believe these interventions have played a key role in reducing emissions. In a little over 10 years, share of renewables have increased from less than 5% of total UK generation to 33%“

S K Chatterjee Chief-Regulatory Affairs, CERC, India

“CERC is working on a framework for ancillary services mechanism, which is still under an administered mechanism, and already a series of discussion papers are being converted into regulations i.e. the Day-ahead Market, Real-time Market & Ancillary Services Market. When we are talking about half-hourly intra-day or real-time market, we are also thinking in terms of RE integration since one needs RTM for RE generation to get accommodated into the system in a natural fashion. You also need AS mechanism and other market products to encourage fast response.”

Variable renewable energy (VRE) such as wind and solar requires a range of strategies to ensure the reliability and stability of the power grid. With a changing load-generation mix and move towards RE based energy sources, there is a need to introduce changes in policy and market design to effectively address and absorb the novel uses of electricity as well as changing generation mix in the country.

Policy, Market and Regulatory Interventions was a central topic during the conference, and international speakers from the U.S., U.K., and Finland shared their country’s perspectives and pathways for RE integration. The panel, Policy, Market and Regulatory Interventions, was moderated by Dr. Chatterjee, Chief – regulatory Affairs, CERC. Dr. Chatterjee brought to light how the Indian market has already set its foot on the path to transition to a market-based power sector. The commission is also working to build a stronger and robust market monitoring cell to introduce and manage market monitoring and enforcement practices.

Dr. Chatterjee further emphasized the need to build capacity of the states, where CERC is already playing a crucial role to ensure that regulatory frameworks get replicated or adapted at state level. The unique mechanism enables CERC to provide hand-holding support via the Forum of Regulators (FOR) to states covering a range of issues.

Panelists from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) - Jeremy Larrieu & Donna Melinda Sauter, Hannele Holttinen from IEA Wind Task 25, Finland and Sukhinder Lalli from Ofgem, United Kingdom shared their insights and country experiences. Speaking during the session, Mr. Lalli highlighted the UK government’s commitment to a legally binding target of zero emissions by 2050 and zero emissions cars and vans by 2050. He further highlighted that going forward, flexibility is going to be increasingly important to the system with technologies and solutions such as storage and demand side response will help balance generation with demand, and provide essential service to the grid.

Policy, Market and Regulatory Interventions


Donna Melinda Sauter FERC, USA

“About two-thirds of the U.S. wholesale electricity markets in the U.S. are RTOs and ISOs, which operate comprehensive competitive energy in ancillary services markets including real-time markets, day-ahead and forward capacity markets. Each of the ISOs include market monitors that oversee the markets and mitigate the market manipulation or violation of FERC rules, which gets reported to the Office of Enforcement for further investigations.”

Jeremy LarrieuFERC, USA

“FERC has the jurisdiction both over interstate physical wholesale electricity transactions and financial products administered by RTO/ISOs. The other agency which regulates futures and option markets is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which has the jurisdiction over financial futures and swaps in commodity markets (including electricity and natural gas). Although both the agencies coordinate for enforcement investigations involving both physical electricity & financial futures (cross-market manipulation), however their respective statutes also allow them to consider all positions when bringing a case against a market participant.”

Ms. Sauter in her remarks described the role of FERC, which is to ensure open access and level playing fields for all types of generation including renewables. She elaborated on the role and coverage of Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs) in the U.S. wholesale electricity markets. Each of the ISOs monitors the market manipulation or violation and reports it to the Office of Enforcement for further investigations. The whole function is organized into four divisions -- energy market oversight, investigations, analytics and surveillance (DAS) and Audits & Accounting. The DAS builds all kinds of screens to detect manipulative schemes, violations of rules and market anomalies and shares it with the Office of Enforcement. Mr. Larrieu from FERC, also explained the robust regulatory mechanism and administrative coordination in place to address any financial and market manipulations.

Currently, the imbalance on intra-day and day-ahead basis in the country is being largely managed within state control areas resulting in limited flexibility to accommodate variable renewable energy. At present, the states resort to self-scheduling of generation on a day-ahead basis and do not tap into the larger available resources with the other states/regions as they have no visibility. Moreover, there is no real-time market to manage energy imbalances and hence the Deviation Settlement Mechanism (DSM) is used as the only resort which can be detrimental to grid safety and security. In addition, there are restrictions on participating in the intra-day market in a shorter time frame largely due to the lack of automation in the open access approval process. Because of that, there is little scope for participation of flexible resources to manage the variability in real time.

A wide gamut of reform initiatives is currently taking place in India to redesign the power market. The CERC recently issued papers on Re-designing Real-time Market (RTM), Re-designing Ancillary Services (AS) Mechanism and Market Based Economic Dispatch (MBED) of Electricity: Re-designing of Day-ahead Market (DAM) in India. One of the key focus areas under the USAID’s GTG – RISE initiative is the redesign of the Indian power market. Over last two years, USAID’s GTG-RISE has extended its support to CERC on Market based procurement of AS. This included analysis of the suitability of the international market practices and design of procurement of AS in the Indian context. Detailed simulation modelling for designing the market-based procurement framework of AS co-optimized with energy market in DAM and RTM was undertaken.

Suporting India’s preparedness for future ready energy markets - USAID’s GTG-RISE Initiative


Power System Operations was another key thematic area for discussions and speakers from the U.S., UK and Germany shared their country perspectives for the grid management through ancillary services (AS) with increasing RE penetration. The panel was moderated by S K Soonee, Advisor and Former CEO of POSOCO and the panelists included Marcus Merkel from Eurelectric (Germany); Robert Hull from Riverswan Energy Advisory (UK) and Guillermo Bautista, Director CAISO (U.S.), who presented the challenges and solutions for system operations with high share of RE from their own country experience.

Power System Operations and International Experience

Guillermo Bautista Director CAISO, USA

“Similar to any conventional generation, renewable resources have the capability and obligation to participate in the market. However, the biggest challenge is how we identify and secure resource capabilities needed in future and also how optimally we utilize and price resource capabilities in the ISO markets.”


Energy storage remains an important technology option for reliably integrating a large proportion of VRE into large power grids and a number of countries are evaluating Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) as part of their RE strategies. In India, energy storage has been the subject of study by a technical committee and task force constituted by the MOP and CERC. These studies have recommended appropriate policy and regulations to promote storage deployment in India.

To deliberate on storage issues a technical session was held, chaired by S.K. Soonee, Advisor to POSOCO and Priya Sreedharan, Senior Technical Adviser, Clean Energy and Environment Office (CLEEO) at USAID. This session provided more insights at deploying low-cost battery storage to cost-effectively transition India towards decarbonized power sector.

The session covered a range of presentations from sector experts including Rupam Raja from Fluence, who explained the challenges of deploying battery storage in the country and emphasized the need for policy including fiscal incentives and subsidies to create favorable environment for the sector to grow.

In another presentation, Ranjit Deshmukh, Professor from the University of California, Santa Barbara presented the findings from the report titled “Evaluating Battery Storage in High Renewable Energy Scenarios for India” highlighting the need for battery capacity and sizing evaluation based on the variable grid scenarios.

Energy Storage and Large-Scale Integration of Renewable Energy

Rupam Raja Fluence Energy

“As far as the question of chemistry is concerned, I got some news for the room. Battery games are over. Li-ion has won! 90% of the demand for batteries is coming from the automotive companies, and they are overwhelmingly going with lithium-ion technologies for their cars”

Ranjit Deshmukh University of California

“Low-cost battery storage will be crucial to cost-effectively transition India towards deep decarbonization. Value of battery storage will increase when benefits beyond peak capacity and energy arbitrage are considered such as ancillary services, transmission and distribution (T&D) deferral, black-start.”

The session also had a presentation on a real-time pilot project, implemented under the USAID’s GTG-RISE Initiative, on use cases with different grid-connected BESS technologies. The outcomes expected out of pilot include interconnection standards for grid-connected BESS and estimation of the systemic value of storage in the Indian power system, which will feed into policies and regulations to support deployment of BESS.


India wants to achieve 30% e-mobility by 2030 and the transition towards Electric Vehicles (EVs) is one of the most promising pathways to increase energy security, reduce hefty oil imports, lower carbon emissions, and improve air quality in the country. The Indian government has been urging the automakers and component manufacturers to invest in development of EVs and has also sanctioned an outlay of INR 10,000 crore to promote e-mobility. As per the report “India’s Energy Storage Mission” released by the NITI Aayog and Rocky Mountain Foundation, EV batteries market in India could be worth as much as USD 300 billion from 2017 to 2030 with India representing a third of global EV market demand by 2030.

Various initiatives have been taken for the development of EV and charging infrastructure. MOP released the standards and guidelines on EV charging infrastructure highlighting the need for adequate availability of charging stations. The guidelines and standards further aim to promote affordable tariffs and encourage utilities and other parties to improve participation. The state governments including Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh have rolled out their policies to keep parity with GOI’s e-mobility 2030 targets. These governments have even declared various incentive mechanisms on supply and demand side and are supporting other enabling components. However, regulatory interventions, which are necessary for enabling an EV charging framework in India, is still under nascent stage of discussions.

To understand the challenges around integration with addition of EVs, couple of sessions were held during the conference. Two of the technical sessions on e-mobility were moderated by Ghanshyam Prasad and Dhiraj Kumar Srivastava from MOP with Vibhu Kaushik from Southern California Edison (SCE) (U.S.). These sessions covered national and international perspective on integration strategy for EVs considering India’s ambitious e-mobility targets. The sessions included quite diversified experiences with presentations from Mr. V. Kaushik, SCE; M. Braun, Fraunhofer IEE (Germany); N. Nagpal, Shuttl and BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) (India); C. R. Atla, Power Research & Development Consultants (PRDC) Pvt. Ltd; R. Sharan, Central Electricity Authority (CEA) (India) and C. Sasidharan from Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE).

Electro Mobility

Vibhu Kaushik Southern California Edison, USA

“We in Southern California are at a point of inflection & there is a lot of energy and excitement in this area. In last year summer, 10% of all new car sales were battery electric vehicles. The transportation electrification pathway to 2030 targets to remove 17000tons of NOx and 58 million metric tons of GHG emissions from California’s neighbourhoods.”


The variability and unpredictability of renewable sources presents notable challenges in terms of grid stability and reliability. Many studies suggest that the integration of 175 GW of the renewables into Indian grid would lead to daily net load swings of more than 80GW, and pose techno-commercial challenges and ultimately necessitates overall generation responsiveness to be more balanced or flexible. In Indian context, due to limited balancing resources from gas and hydro, coal-based power generation will continue to be the preferred choice for flexibility. The coal power plants can no longer operate as base load. They have to respond to the increased power generation from renewable energy in the power system by adjusting their output. Over-generation in the power system can lead to grid collapse. And therefore when there is more RE power in the system, the coal plants will have to reduce their generation to technical minimum and then increasing their output in the evening when the RE generation starts declining. At some instances, the coal plants may have to start and stop the plan to ensure the grid stability. Ignoring any such flexibility requirements would result in ‘over-generation’ situations leading to output curtailment of renewable generators to maintain load balance - which is an undesirable situation and thus demands a proactive enablement by regulators and relevant stakeholders.

Flexibilization requirements to manage renewables Integration was another key thematic area discussed in the conference with speakers from the U.S., UK and Germany sharing their perspective of flexible operations and incentivizing flexibility. The session on Coal Power Plants and RE was jointly chaired by Prakash Tiwari, Director Operations, NTPC, India and Stephen Storm, EPRI - U.S. The session witnessed quite diversified experiences including presentations from Mr. Storm; C. Mohanty from GE Power; D. Waters from Uniper, Germany; A. K. Sinha and Nikhil Kumar (Intertek), who are also advisors to USAID’s GTG-RISE Initiative. Mr. Sinha and Mr. Kumar shared the key findings from GTG -RISE pilot on flexible power generation at NTPC and Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Ltd. (GSECL). The panel discussed how the flexible generation demands a method or an approach to use coal flexibility as a tool for grid stability and reliability. Mr. Tiwari from NTPC highlighted their preparedness for flexibilization and how NTPC is gearing itself up and in very short time these learnings from the pilot will be deployed across the power sector.

While presenting the findings of the paper “Flexibilization of Conventional Power Plants — The Indian Experience” developed under the GTG-RISE Initiative, Mr. Sinha also shared the real time experiences from NTPC’s Dadri Unit, wherein just by retrofitting (a condenser throttle), the unit’s fast primary response has been proven and the unit can go operate at 40 per cent load levels.

Coal-Based Flexible Power Generation

Prakash Tiwari Director Operations, NTPC, India

“Recently decision has been taken by GOI to retrofit all the stations with automatic generation control and this is already operational at our Dadri plant. Everyone … benefitted out of this. Once we roll out this across India, grid management will become far easier. However, to meet the flexible requirements, we still have to address the issue at the level of processes, people and regulations. We need to reflect on the cost factor for flexing of the coal plants and it’s important to ensure how it will bring down the cost of electricity to consumers.”


A K Sinha Senior Advisor – USAID’s GTG-RISE Initiative

“Now flexibilization is moving from the pilot stage to implementation and our GTG-RISE study estimates that 82 GW, across 302 units of India’s coal power plants “can be made available.”

Nikhil Kumar Intertek, USA

“Our viewpoint is that almost any unit can be cycled, and this can be done with minimal capital investment. However, we have to account for long-term penalty of increased wear & tear and reduced reliability as well as short-term penalty of higher heat rate, increased Operations and Maintenance (O&M), training requirements, and equipment efficiency. The strategy we need to follow is to define the metrics, do some transient analysis, testing and training, revise the operating procedures and undertake economic assessment.”

Stephen Storm Electric Power Research Institute, USA

“Key recommendation for making coal-based flexible power generation a reality would be to form teams at the plant level to have guidelines for qualitative operational assessment, quantitative benchmarking assessment, site specific goals and standards. Key is to identify top 5-10 low hanging challenges/issues that pose greatest vulnerability to the assets and start offsetting implications through pragmatic actions. Use technology as an enabler to flash digital dashboards to monitor flexible operations and identify key parameters to address.”


USAID’s GTG-RISE initiative, the central component of GTG program in partnership with India’s MoP, is implementing several innovative pilots that aim to support India’s efforts in managing the large-scale integration of RE into the grid. One of the key focus areas under the initiative is flexible coal-based power generation, wherein a few pilots are under implementation which will support development and execution of a nationwide roadmap. To execute these pilots, USAID partnered with India’s largest public-sector power generation utility, NTPC Ltd, producing approximately 1/4th of the country’s total power generation, and with another state-level utility, GSECL. These pilots examined the preparedness of their select units in order to support the development of their fleet-wide strategy and to build the business case for policy and regulatory changes for the enablement of flexible operations.

Over the past three years, GTG-RISE has carried out a series of technical feasibility studies for 1410 MW of units for both the utilities and has also conducted multiple operator trainings and capacity-building workshops to train more than 300 engineers. This was followed by low-load test runs conducted at their select units, which provides the evidence and basis for the nationwide scale-up of flexible operations. On May 29, 2019, NTPC successfully completed its second trial run at a 40% minimum load of the 500 MW capacity unit at its Mauda stations. These tests were conducted based on the low-load (flexible) operations procedures developed and guided by GTG-RISE experts and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). Similar to NTPC, GSECL has successfully conducted low-load test runs at a 52% and 48% minimum load of 500 MW and 420 MW capacity at its Ukai and Wanakbori stations respectively. Recently GTG-RISE, with its aim at scaling up, has partnered with Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) to support its efforts on making its coal plant more flexible. GTG-RISE is also contributing to the national committee constituted by the CEA, which enables the countrywide scalability of flexible operations.

Achieving India’s Ambitious Goals for Renewable Energy through Flexible Generation for Coal-Based Plants – USAID’s GTG-RISE Initiative


Edgard Kagan Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Embassy New Delhi

“USAID is committed to maximize women’s participation and to strengthen gender diversity and equity in the energy sector and today we feel proud to launch the regional chapter called ’South Asian Women in Energy (SAWIE)’ from this platform.”

The energy sector remains one of the most gender imbalanced sectors and gender equity still holds a greater challenge in the India’s power sector. The skewed women participation can partly be attributed to the social and perception barriers about dominance of field-based activities, geographical mobility and shift-based working, which have been traditionally considered as negative for women participation.

During the 2nd International Conference on ‘Large-Scale Renewable Energy in India’ Edgard D. Kagan, Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Embassy New Delhi launched the USAID supported “South Asian Women in Energy (SAWIE)” under its Greening the Grid (GTG) Renewable Integration and Sustainable Energy (RISE) Initiative. SAWIE aims to provide a platform for women to form a collaborative and strategic approach towards reaching gender equality goals and building strong pillars across power sector. This platform will bring together women leaders across the energy sector to work together on designing interventions in outreach and recruitment; mentorship and leadership; and professional development that can help bridge gender gaps.

During the second day of the conference, a special session on “Dialogue on gender equity challenges and opportunities across the power sector” was organized. The event was largely attended by energy experts to engage and ideate on the pertinent issues and solutions to promote gender equity and equality in the sector. The august panel for the dialogue included esteemed women leaders representing diverse verticals of the energy sector, Dr. Shalini Sarin, Board Chair – Signify Foundation, Dr. Ashu Verma, Associate Professor – Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Kathleen O’ Dell, Principal – Deloitte U.S., Markus Wypior, Deputy Cluster Coordinator-IGEN, GIZ and Debolina Chakravarty, Research Director – Spencer Stuart. Michael Satin, Director, Clean Energy & Environment Office, USAID/India moderated the session. He shared a compelling narrative around highly skewed participation of woman in power sector and emphasized the need for a collaborative and strategic approach towards reaching gender equality goals and building strong pillars to mitigate the challenges faced by women in the power sector.

Dialogue on gender equity challenges and opportunities across the power sector in India


Shalini Sarin Board Chair, Signify Foundation (Philips Lighting Foundation)

“Three key areas for women equality at workplace are enabling infrastructure, financial empowerment and women in position of influence.”

Kathleen O’Dell Principal, Deloitte Consultant LLP

“Major issues in women participation are at recruitment, retention and advancement stages. Companies need to ensure level playing field rather than retaining conventional approach.”

The panel deliberated on the challenges and needs for strengthening the 3E’s for women professionals across verticals — Education, Entrepreneurship and Employment. It stressed on the need to ensure biggerwomen representation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) academic disciplines which has its implications for workforce development, to strengthening the next crop with skillsets essential to ensure influx of more women entrepreneurs into the workforce and finally to foster women employment, increasing gender equality, developing talent across utilities for enhancing and advancing careers of high potential women professionals.

This dialogue aimed to further USAID’s commitment of having a more balanced access to opportunities to strengthen women participation across the spectrum. The panel agreed upon identifying the collaborative efforts required across power utilities, regulatory commissions, system operators and education and research institutions for a holistic development of the energy sector.

The panel also stressed on having women at decision making/leadership positions across energy ecosystem. It will enable these gender equality champions from diverse verticals of energy sector and ages to reinforce their voice and networks and make commitments towards gender empowerment across the business value chain.

Dr. Ashu VermaAssociate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi

“It’s not one institution, one organization but need to bring in societal changes to promote higher women workforce participation.”


Towards the closing of the Conference, an open house discussed the possible power market design for India to accommodate high levels of VRE into the grid. It was moderated by Mr. Soonee, Advisor, POSOCO and Dr. Chatterjee from CERC, who also set the context of the Indian experience, referring to the discussion papers published by CERC, which charts a roadmap on how the wholesale market needs to move forward. Dr. Chatterjee shared the current challenges and the need for redesigning the market, the day-ahead, RTM and the AS market in the country. He further elaborated on how CERC has proposed a centralized scheduling and dispatch through a market-based mechanism as opposed to the current practice of self-scheduling within the state control areas. Dr. Chatterjee said the commission has been able to conceive a robust wholesale market design with an ultimate objective wherein the consumers will benefit from the efficient and economical dispatch. A number of other steps have been taken, like the Security Constrained Economic Dispatch (SCED) model, and planning towards redesigning transmission planning and pricing. He also highlighted the significance of concept of contracting in future and the commission is thinking of creating a capacity market and working on resource adequacy, where forward contracts could also become a reality in power exchanges.

The succinct and focused discussion was joined by experts from developed markets, including Mr. Kaushik from Southern California Edison (U.S.), Mr. Larrieu and Ms. Sauter from FERC (U.S.), and Mr. Bautista from CAISO (U.S), who shared their experiences on safeguards and hygiene factors that India needs to adopt with least regret in limited timeframe.

Mr. Bautista from CAISO, highlighted that from base timeline to full implementation of the markets, it is important to differentiate between what it takes to implement the technical side and non-technical side. He said knowing the capabilities and feasibility, and the technical part is important, but key components beyond the technicalities of power flows, include strong regulatory framework, which is fundamental to protecting the players in the market.

Ms. Sauter and Mr. Larrieu also shared their views stressing on the relevance of regulatory prepardeness to cope with the evolving technologies and markets in the power sector.

Possible Power Market Design for the Indian Grid to support Renewable Energy Integration

Guillermo Bautista CAISO, USA

“Robust institutions like regulatory commissions need to address behavioural issues of the markets and should have expertise to evaluate efficiency of the market. For this, you need expertise not just from power system but also from law and IT technologies. Robust power markets are a complex engineering machine in which economists, lawyers, electrical engineers and IT professionals need to understand how the market actually work.”


Mr. Kaushik, sharing his views on the sequencing of initiatives for rolling out of functional markets said, “As we build a market centered on resource adequacy, if the resource is getting a resource adequacy (RA) payment through bilateral contract, it should have a must-offer obligation. Additionally, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) which monitors resource adequacy in California, created a new product called flexible resource adequacy, where all load serving entities have a resource adequacy obligation, which is 115% of peak load for every month. Then you have flexible a RA component, flexibility in those capacities which you can ramp. Hence, co-synchronizing these RA, flexi-RA and making sure there is enough resource adequacy and ensuring must-offer obligation ensures resource sufficiency. The market engine can then solve and come up with least cost unit commitment, minimizing the cost for all customers for energy and all AS, it will also create opportunities for generators by providing the most profitable solution for each individual generator for that day.”

Donna Melinda Sauter FERC, USA

“From the regulatory perspective, rules are constantly evolving. Learnings from the crisis situations in the U.S. resulted in enhanced enforcement authority for the federal commission which is required to deal with such incidents as they are constantly making changes to market in reaction to technology changes, which could lead to a lot of incidents, something we need to be prepared for.”

Jeremy Larrieu FERC, USA

“The biggest shift is moving to a centralized least cost economic optimization and everything flows from there versus the bilateral construct. There will be a strong incentive from utilities to build a hybrid model with a day-ahead exchange. To understand the market design failures, in terms of lessons learnt, we need to have access to transaction level data, unit level data and company level data that will enable us to track market design failures and manipulations in a much better way.”

Vibhu KaushikSouthern California Edison, USA

“India has a great opportunity as it looks forward to rolling out functional markets.

Although there have been varying approaches in the U.S., there is method to the madness. They all start with real-time, move to intra-day and then rolling day ahead with a full security constrained co-optimization of energy and all ancillary services. There should be the right mechanisms, like the higher authority of FERC and the department of market monitoring of ISOs for things like bid mitigation, making sure generators are asked to certify for all eligible services they can provide, etc.”

SK Soonee Advisor, POSOCO

“Strengthening of institutions are absolutely essential, wherein sustainable regulatory institutions and system operations institutions got to be built. Also, market can do miracles but market cannot substitute planning. Planning is an apparatus which the government and the planning agencies have the responsibility to take care of regarding transmission planning and transmission pricing.”


Keith Simmons Mission Director, USAID/India

“I thank you all for the great team effort from all experts from round the world to come together in building a better place for the society by use of more and more renewable energy. It is heartening to hear some of the feedbacks from the key leaders. It will be insightful to collect all of your impressions about what you learnt from this experience, how do you plan to apply some of these learnings and more importantly how do you make sure we keep this network alive and activated in the community and continue to work together to solve these problems.”

Vote of Thanks

Country representatives share their thoughts on the conference during the closing remarks. From Left to Right: Markus Wypior (Deputy Cluster Coordinator, IGEN, GIZ, India); S. K. Soonee (POSOCO, India); Keith Simmons (Mission Director, USAID/India); Anna French (Deputy Head- DFID India)


August 22 – 23, 2019: The United States Energy Association (USEA) under the USAID’s Washington Energy Utilities Partnership Program (EUPP) and USAID/India’s GTG program convened a two-day workshop on ‘Incentivizing Coal Flexing to Support VRE Integration and Grid Balancing’ in New Delhi on August 22-23, 2019. The workshop witnessed peer-to-peer dialogue on the regulatory and market mechanisms for coal flexibilization to balance VRE generation. International experts representing Public Service Commission of Utah (U.S.), Utah Governor’s Office of Energy Development, Energy-UK, Alternative Energy Solutions Ltd. (AES) UK and Ireland, Way Consulting Ltd shared global benchmarks on financial, regulatory and policy practices to incentivize and compensate coal flexing for its new role in grid stability. The workshop also provided Indian counterparts with “suggestive steps” to support the coal generators with the transition to the new, load following style to support India’s fast VRE expansion. The workshop included participation from Ministry of Power, Government of India, CEA, CERC, POSOCO, NTPC Limited, Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC), GSECL and private players from GE Power, Tata Power, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL), and academia IIT-Delhi.

December 11th, 2019: Under the USAID’s GTG-RISE Initiative a “Business Case Analysis for BESS deployment in BRPL Distribution Network” was presented before the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) officials during the roundtable meeting organized in New Delhi on December 11th, 2019. Justice Satyendra Singh Chauhan, Chairperson – DERC and Mr. Amal Sinha, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)- BRPL opened the interaction and highlighted the importance of battery storage in the context of Delhi’s load curve with increasing penetration of variable renewable energy. NREL & GTG have been supporting BRPL under a pilot initiative to establish the value of BESS and assist in deploying the same in BRPL’s distribution network. The team presented on the outcome of their modelling and analysis and also highlighted the progress on a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for deployment of 20 MW of BESS in BRPL’s network. This was well received by DERC, which advised BRPL to submit the DPR, incorporating also the lessons from the 10 MW BESS system deployed by Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL).

Workshop on “Incentivizing Coal Flexing to Support Variable Renewable Energy Integration and Grid Balancing”

Roundtable Workshop on Business Case Analysis for BESS deployment in BRPL Distribution Network

Other GTG Events


Upcoming GTG Events

Demonstration to Go Live of the BESS pilot at Puducherry

March, 2020

Release of EV White Paper and Business case study on BESS

Deployment in BRPL Network

February, 2020 Demonstration

to Go Live of the AGC pilot at Hydro

Power PlantFebruary,2020

Release of White Paper “Mechanisms to Incentivize Inter-

State Trading of Renewable Energy”

Regional Workshop on Coal Flexibility,

March, 2020

January 3, 2020: Chairperson – Mr. P.K. Pujari from the CERC released the report on “Regulatory & Market Guidelines on Key Insights and Considerations of Priority Areas for Renewable Energy integration in India” which has drawn lessons from the U.S. electricity markets & provides insights on transitioning from long term contracts to future-ready Energy Markets. The report has been developed under the “India Regulatory Partnership” and share the lessons learnt from the analysis carried out by National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), USA under the GTG Program. With increasing renewable energy (RE) portfolio the markets and regulations in India also needs to be “future-ready”. India’s electricity sector is currently transitioning from multi-decade generation contracts and limited dispatch flexibility to a greater reliance on shorter term contracts and electricity spot markets. In this transition, policymakers and regulators face questions around contract regulation, spot market design, requirements and incentives for spot market participation, potential risks and tools to hedge risk, resource adequacy, and ensuring competitive markets. Policymakers and regulators in the United States have encountered and grappled with many of these same questions in the ongoing development of U.S. electricity markets. U.S. experience may provide valuable insights for India. The purpose of this report on is to address issues around transitioning from long term bilateral contracts to energy markets in India.

Report release on “Regulatory & Market Guidelines on Key Insights and Considerations of Priority Areas for Renewable Energy Integration in India Application”


Dr. Ashu Verma Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

A 2001 B.Tech graduate in Electrical Engineering from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Hamirpur, Dr. Ashu Verma pursued her Masters in Power Systems from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi in 2002 and completed her PhD in Transmission Network Expansion Planning from Electrical Engineering Department of IIT, Delhi in 2010.

Her special interests range from understanding and tackling the challenges of large-scale integration of renewable energy (RE) sources and Electric Vehicles to future electric grids, specifically in Indian context. She has over 12 years’ experience in power system operation, analysis and optimization.

She has worked in Nathpa Jhakri Hydro Electric Project, Himachal Pradesh as Assistant Engineer/Engineering Trainee, in Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida as a lecturer and in TERI University, Delhi and Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida as an Assistant Professor. In 2012, she joined the Centre for Energy Studies (CES) IIT Delhi as faculty and pursuing her research interest in power system planning, operation and control aspects of integrated RE systems, and policy and regulatory framework for enabling large-scale integration of RE sources in India.

She has several publications in reputed international journals/conferences. She has received K.S. Prakasa Rao memorial Award at IIT Delhi for obtaining highest cumulative grade point average (CGPA) in power system group during her Masters. She has also received PES (Power & Energy Society) Outstanding Chapter Engineering Award from IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) PES-IAS (Power & Energy Society) Delhi Chapter for the year 2018. She has been listed as best reviewer for IEEE transactions on Smart Grid, 2018. She is actively involved in IEEE technical, professional and social activities conducted in Delhi under various capacities since 2012.

How have your education and career path led you to where you are now? What excites you the most about your entire journey until present date at Centre for Energy Studies (CES), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi?Ans: My basic education in science and then doing electrical engineering helped me to grow an interest in energy sector. Field experience of hydropower system helped me to strengthen my academic concepts with practical applicability. Eventually doing research in power system during Ph.D. and subsequently as a faculty lead me to my present work profile.

What excites me here, other than my research projects, is my interactions with the students. They really make me feel energetic and excited about power system research. I feel overwhelmed when I see students working in this area doing very well outside their academic degrees and working for their dream professions.

How can the educational institutions improve upon gender diversity in electrical engineering stream, resulting in more women representation in the power sector?Ans: In my opinion, to improve gender diversity, a major social transformation is necessary. Then only the effective impact of initiatives taken by educational institutes in this direction would be observed. Technical institutes are already doing their bit to improve the gender diversity in engineering streams. As per my experience, the working environment here or in any technical institute is usually women cohesive. I encourage more women and urge their families to motivate them to join in these streams. Further some special mentorship programmes may be helpful to encourage women to take lead positions in power sector.

Women Leaders in Energy


USAID/India Renewable Integration and Sustainable Energy (RISE) InitiativeDeloitte Consulting India Project503-504, Fifth Floor, DLF Place Mall Office Block, Saket, New Delhi - 110017Tel: +91-11-4045-0737/38www.gtg-india.com

Bhoopinder Singh BaliEmail: [email protected]

EDITORIAL TEAM

ADDRESS

CONTACTMonali Zeya HazraSenior Clean Energy SpecialistUSAID/IndiaEmail: [email protected]

Tushar SudChief of PartyUSAID GTG-RISE InitiativeEmail: [email protected]

Disclaimer This Newsletter is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this newsletter are the sole responsibility of Deloitte Consulting LLP., and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. This newsletter is prepared under Contract Number AID-386-TO-17-00001.

Greening the Grid (GTG) Newsletter · the key partner in various bilateral and multilateral program...

Documents

Transcript of Greening the Grid (GTG) Newsletter · the key partner in various bilateral and multilateral program...