Saurabh Kumar, Vice President – India at GEAPP

June 13, 2025. By Abha Rustagi

As India accelerates its energy transition, adopting next-generation storage solutions will be essential for maintaining grid stability and effectively integrating large volumes of renewable energy, said Saurabh Kumar, Vice President – India, GEAPP, in an interview with Abha Rustagi, Associate Editor, Energetica India.

Que: Could you share the key technical and strategic highlights of the Kilokari 33/11 kV BESS project?

Ans: The recently commissioned Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project in Kilokari, Delhi – developed jointly by IndiGrid, AmpereHour, BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL), and Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), is India’s first utility-scale, standalone project. Installed at BRPL’s 33/11 kV Kilokari substation in South Delhi, the 20 MW/40 MWh facility spans roughly 2,500 m² and is engineered to deliver at least 85 percent round‑trip efficiency in its first year (gradually tapering to 82 percent by year twelve), with guaranteed annual availability of 95 percent. By offering dispatchable power, it bolsters grid flexibility and enables a higher penetration of low‑cost variable renewable energy into Delhi’s mix, benefiting around 12,000 consumers with more reliable electricity supply.

Que: What role is GEAPP playing in this project, and how does it align with your goal of deploying 1 GW of BESS for DISCOMs by 2026?

Ans: GEAPP is playing a pivotal role in facilitating this project by offering both technical expertise and financial assistance throughout the project lifecycle—from the pre-feasibility stage and regulatory submissions to project commissioning and post-commissioning support for a period of three years. The primary goal is to showcase the value of BESS at the DISCOM level, allowing the project to be replicated by all the DISCOMs in the country.

One of GEAPP’s key interventions was providing a concessional loan covering 70 percent of the project cost, while the remaining 30 percent equity was contributed by the winning bidder, Indigrid. This financial structure ensured that the tariff discovered through the RFP process remained attractive to the state regulator. As a result, the regulator approved a 12-year capacity-based, levelised tariff for the project. This guarantees Indigrid a stable revenue stream over the project’s life, decoupled from actual capacity utilisation—which remains the responsibility of BRPL.

Recently, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) noted that India would require 47 GWh of BESS deployment by 2032 to integrate the 500 GW of renewable energy that is being targeted by the government. In support of this, GEAPP has committed to deploying 1 GW of BESS for DISCOMs for 2026. The Kilokari BESS project provides a template for such projects in the future, and sets an important precedent for other DISCOMs to integrate BESS into their power grids. The project’s business model can be replicated in other regions, especially those with limited BESS experience.

Que: How do you assess the current maturity of the BESS ecosystem in emerging markets like India?

Ans: The BESS market in India is on the cusp of unprecedented growth, driven by the country’s ambitious renewable energy goals and the critical need for grid stabilisation as large-scale solar and wind capacities come online. By the end of 2021, India had just 20 MW of battery storage capacity, but significant efforts have been made to expand this. The government has introduced policies and incentives to promote BESS, including financial support and regulatory measures. Investments from both domestic and international players have surged, leading to partnerships and joint ventures that bring in essential capital and technological expertise. While India is in early stages of BESS adoption across its electricity delivery infrastructure, we have seen a flurry of BESS tenders (over 31 GWh) being released in public domain in the past 3 years. While bulk of these tenders are for co-located RE+BESS to procure round-the-clock power from renewables, there are also a few large stand-alone BESS tenders at the transmission and distribution end as well.

Utility-scale storage will be indispensable for integrating renewables, while decentralised solutions will gain traction among commercial, industrial, and residential users seeking energy independence. Additionally, the integration of BESS with electric vehicle charging infrastructure will catalyse urban storage demand, reinforcing India’s clean energy transition. Technological advancements in battery chemistry, coupled with local manufacturing supported by production-linked incentives, will further enhance cost-efficiency and scalability.

Que: What practices should stakeholders follow while planning, financing, and operating battery storage systems at scale?

Ans: To successfully plan, finance, and operate battery storage systems at scale, a system-oriented approach that aligns storage deployment with broader grid needs and renewable integration goals needs to be adopted. Planning should be grounded in robust data, including resource adequacy studies and grid simulations, to identify optimal storage size, duration, and siting. The value streams and use-cases identified in these studies should be incorporated in the tender documents, ensuring that the developers are designing the right systems, along with the right safety standards. Financing strategies should leverage blended capital to de-risk early projects, supported by clear revenue frameworks that allow storage to monetise multiple value streams such as arbitrage, resource adequacy, and ancillary services. During operations, maintaining performance through rigorous O&M protocols, battery health monitoring, and integration with dispatch optimisation systems is essential to maximise the value the system provides to the grid and thereby the end-consumers.

Que: Beyond lithium-ion, which emerging battery technologies do you see gaining traction?

Ans: We are witnessing a growing momentum around ‘non-lithium’ technologies like Sodium-ion, Iron-air, Redox Flow, and Nickel-Hydrogen batteries. These alternatives are being tested in various international markets, specifically for their potential to meet the demands of grid-scale applications. Given their promise, I believe that some of these technologies will reach commercial viability within the next 3 to 5 years. As India accelerates its energy transition, adopting next-generation storage solutions will be essential for maintaining grid stability and effectively integrating large volumes of renewable energy. These technologies also help ease supply chain pressures related to lithium and other critical minerals, which are becoming increasingly scarce on a global scale.

While lithium-ion batteries currently dominate the market with over 90 percent share, the future of energy storage will depend on innovations that go beyond current limitations—especially those that offer longer-duration storage capabilities of 6 to 10 hours or more and rely on more abundant raw materials.

Que: How is GEAPP supporting long-duration energy storage (LDES) development, and what role does it play in DISCOM-level grid reliability?

Ans: While short-duration energy storage (SDES) like the Kilokari project typically addresses intraday grid fluctuations and short peak loads, long-duration energy storage (LDES) plays a critical role in enhancing DISCOM-level grid reliability by enabling deeper integration of renewables. LDES can shift excess solar generation from mid-day to supply evening and overnight demand, effectively turning variable renewables into a stable baseload source. LDES solutions will also be critical to manage the seasonality of renewable generation, such as shifting generation from days with high-wind generation to days with low-wind. As the renewable penetration of the grid increases, LDES offers DISCOMs the pathway to meeting its demand reliably and in a cost-effective manner.

Recognising the pivotal role of LDES as a system-wide enabler for flexible, resilient, and clean grids, GEAPP and its alliance partners are working to develop an enabling environment and monetisation frameworks for LDES, while also testing the market readiness of various LDES technologies.

Que: What are the top 2–3 policy interventions needed from the Indian government to accelerate BESS deployment?

Ans: The Government of India (GoI) has taken several policy steps laying the groundwork for an enabling environment for energy storage. The National Framework for Promoting Energy Storage Systems released by the Ministry of Power (MOP) in August 2023 details these policies and is a step towards creating a comprehensive national roadmap for accelerating storage development in the coming years.

A critical next phase is to operationalise the policy framework through building institutional knowledge capacity, and the adoption and enforcement of regulation for state-level entities, including Discoms, State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs), and State Load Dispatch Centres (SLDCs). The Forum of Regulator’s Report on Regulatory Frameworks for Energy Storage and Electric Vehicles, issued in November 2022, is a critical start to preparing regulators and Discoms for integrating necessary energy storage technologies into the power system. Further regulatory considerations will help prepare stakeholders to successfully plan, evaluate, integrate, and operate energy storage technologies in the pace and volume necessary to maintain a cost effective and reliable power system. We also foresee new policies and regulations that will enable BESS to participate in the existing and upcoming ancillary markets. Lastly, the development of robust sub-national and national resource adequacy (RA) plans, as stipulated in the Grid Code will be critical for advancing holistic, long-term investments for energy storage in general.

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