NTPC India Ltd, the country’s top power producer, is contemplating building a 3 GW pumped hydro storage project in Tamil Nadu.
“After going through all the studies and analysis and the interaction, right now, we are aiming at about 8 GW capacity,” the company management said during its Q3FY24 earnings call.
The company, had earlier said it was planning about 14 GW of pumped storage projects across nine states.
Now, it is seeing prospects for 8 GW projects, with 3 GW of storage projects in Tamil Nadu, for which NTPC is at the advanced stages of signing an agreement with the state government.
It is also planning 1,200 MW of storage capacity in Chhattisgarh, 1,000 MW in Gujarat, and 1,000 MW in Meghalaya.
Discussing the timeline for the storage projects, the NTPC management said it would take about two years for the detailed project report, while construction would take 5-6 years.
Currently, pumped hydro storage (PHS) and battery energy storage system (BESS) are reported to be commercially viable. However, PHS is attracting investments.
Pumped hydro storage is described as a gravity-based energy storage technology. It consists of two water reservoirs at different elevations. When there is excess power on the grid and demand for electricity is low, the power is used to pump water from the lower to the upper reservoir using reversible turbines. When demand is high, the water is released into the lower reservoir, driving the turbines in the other direction to generate electricity.
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PHS accounted for most of the grid-scale energy storage tender issuance (about 56 per cent) in 2023. Madhya Pradesh issued the largest-ever tender in June 2023 for 16.4 GW PHS capacity spread across 14 sites, according to a recent report by IEEFA & JMK Research.