New Delhi: Tata Power Delhi Distribution (Tata Power-DDL), a leading power distribution company serving a populace of 7 million in the national capital, has been recognised in the category of ‘top 25 innovative companies’ by CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2020 for the development of South Asia’s largest grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS), in collaboration with AES and Mitsubishi.
BESS is India’s first grid-scale battery-based energy storage system, and is playing an instrumental role in modernising the city’s power system and improving grid efficiency.
In simpler terms, the 10MWh battery storage set up in Rohini is like inverters in houses, only a massive one, interconnected to a network of 200MW capacity, which can feed around 2,500 ‘special customers’ who are providing essential services, like hospitals, Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Metro, government offices, schools, etc. The stored power can also be used during any breakdown or situations like grid failure.
In the BESS, Li-ion (nickel, manganese and cobalt oxide) batteries are used with the support of Advancion technology to operate the plant seamlessly. The 10MWh system is divided into four cores of 2.5Mwh capacity and each core can be operated individually and collectively. After Rohini, a similar facility is coming up in North Delhi’s Rani Bagh and there are plans to have similar but smaller facilities in every neighbourhood in the future.
While receiving the award during the virtual ceremony, Ganesh Srinivasan, CEO, Tata Power-DDL, said, "The award reaffirms Tata Power-DDL’s commitment towards building a ‘utility of the future’ and transforming the power distribution space through innovative technology, collaborations and initiatives. Our path-breaking innovations like BESS can manage peak power demand load during summer and help balance the load curve. We are thankful to CII for recognising and honouring us. It's a proud moment for us as we strive to reach new milestones every day in the field of innovation and technology.”
The company followed the CII Enterprise Innovation Maturity Framework and showcased the innovations on tamper-evident microchip and forensic testing of meters also as part of the application submission process. Both the tamper-evident sensor and forensic testing help the utility to detect theft scientifically, thereby helping in reducing the commercial losses.
The awards evaluate all kinds of new processes, products, services, technologies and other types of innovations which have the ability to fuel growth in industry.
Tata Power-DDL has won several national and international accolades for its pioneering efforts in power distribution reforms, including national awards for 'meritorious performance in the power sector' and 'promotion / facilitation for roof-top solar', etc.
