Technical training program on electricity storage as part of Indian Technical and Economic Co-operation (ITEC) with Africa, organized by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of the Government of India, and conducted at the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) at Gurgaon, HR, India on January 16, 2020. Repeated on February 19th and on March 11th.

1. Electricity Storage:
Challenges & Opportunities
Anirudh Ramesh
Co-founder and CTO
Irasus Technologies
National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gurgaon, HR, India
January 16, 2020

2. Visualizing Electricity
Storage

3. Visualizing Electricity

4. Market Opportunities for Storage
● Renewable energy, specifically solar PV, is more
affordable than ever
○ Rising popularity of nanogrids/microgrids and off-grid systems
● Renewable energy is not a dispatchable electricity source
○ No known means for 24x7x365 electricity generation
● Electrochemical energy storage increasingly viable,
particularly in comparison with gravitational potential
energy storage

5. Grid Balancing with Solar PV
[Interactive]
● Delhi SLDC Electricity Dashboard
○ Delhi’s Distribution Companies’ Load - Time
○ Delhi’s Substations’ Load - Time
○ Delhi Grid Frequency - Time
● Other Power - Time Plots
○ Rajasthan State Consumption
○ Kota Residential Rooftop Solar PV Generation

6. Recap: Energy Time Shift
● Scheduled charging during high generation and
discharging during high consumption
● Compensate for temporal shortfall in renewable energy
● Grid Resilience & Islanding

7. Recap: Frequency Regulation
● Smoothening of a load brought online or taken offline
● Smoothening of a source e.g. peaker power plant brought
online or taken offline
● Grid Resilience & Islanding

9. Gravitational Energy Storage
Advantages
● Massive scale and concentration
● Availability of power infrastructure onsite
● High longevity (40+ years)

10. Gravitational Energy Storage
Disadvantages
● Heavy capital expenditure = sunk
● Significant negative environmental and social impact
● Slow response time

11. Dispatching Hydroelectricity
[Interactive]
● Delhi SLDC Electricity Dashboard
○ CGS Supply - Time

12. Electrochemical Energy Storage
Factors driving adoption
● Lead-acid batteries are very inexpensive
● Lithium-ion batteries are well established for
portable/mobile use-cases e.g. consumer electronics and
EVs
● Exotic chemistries e.g. vanadium oxides approaching
viability

14. Battery Safety & Reliability
● Design of batteries is a complex engineering process
● Migration to lithium-ion has been a turbulent journey
○ Ban on the shipment of lithium ion batteries as cargo in passenger
aircraft by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
● Batteries can have an unpredictable lifespan

17. Charging & Discharging
Characteristics
[Interactive]
● Battery Intelligence System

18. Thank you!
Anirudh Ramesh
Website: http://irasus.com/
Phone & WhatsApp: +91 77 37 48 62 23
Skype: anirudh..ra
WeChat: anirudh-ramesh