Ashis Parida October 17, 2017NLC India Limited, a government of India owned coal mining company, recently completed auction for a 20 MW solar project integrated with 28 MWh storage capacity in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. This is the first utility scale storage tender in India to announce results. The tender includes provision of complete EPC and O&M services for twenty-five years.
Mahindra Susten won the auction with a final all-in price of INR 2.99 bn (USD 46 mn).Andaman & Nicobar Islands is a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal with a total population of 400,000 and aggregate peak demand of 67 MW.
The islands get their power mainly from diesel gensets and replacing them with integrated solar cum storage plants is highly desirable from an economic and environmental perspective. As seen in the US, Australia and elsewhere, replacement of diesel fired power is the most obvious application for solar cum storage plants. High cost of storage is not a deterrent because of the very high cost of diesel fired power of about INR 15/ kWh (USD 0.23).
Source: http://asian-power.com/project/news/indias-first-utility-scale-storage-project-takes-off
