What is Grid Integration of Renewable Energy?
Historical Background
Key Points
8 points- 1.
Intermittency & Variability: Solar and wind power generation fluctuates with weather conditions, posing challenges for maintaining a constant supply-demand balance.
- 2.
Forecasting: Accurate weather and generation forecasting is crucial for grid operators to anticipate renewable output and plan for backup power.
- 3.
Grid Modernization: Upgrading to smart grids with advanced sensors, communication, and control systems to manage distributed generation and demand-side response.
- 4.
Energy Storage Solutions: Deployment of battery energy storage systems (BESS), pumped hydro storage, and other technologies to store excess renewable energy and release it when needed.
- 5.
Flexible Generation: Making conventional thermal power plants more flexible to ramp up and down quickly to balance renewable fluctuations.
- 6.
Transmission Infrastructure: Building dedicated Green Energy Corridors and strengthening existing transmission and distribution networks to evacuate renewable power from remote locations.
- 7.
Ancillary Services: Services like frequency regulation, voltage support, and reactive power compensation provided by various grid assets to maintain grid stability.
- 8.
Demand-Side Management: Encouraging consumers to shift their electricity consumption to periods of high renewable generation.
Visual Insights
Managing Intermittency: Grid Integration of Renewables
This mind map outlines the challenges and solutions associated with integrating variable renewable energy sources into the national electricity grid, a critical aspect of India's clean energy transition.
Grid Integration of RE
- ●Challenges
- ●Solutions & Technologies
- ●Infrastructure & Policy
- ●Benefits of Effective Integration
India's Green Energy Corridors & Major Renewable Energy Zones
This map illustrates the key states with high renewable energy potential and the routes of the Green Energy Corridors (GECs), which are vital for evacuating renewable power to the national grid.
- 📍Rajasthan — High Solar & Wind Potential
- 📍Gujarat — High Solar & Wind Potential
- 📍Karnataka — High Solar & Wind Potential
- 📍Tamil Nadu — High Wind Potential
- 📍Maharashtra — Growing RE Capacity
- 📍Andhra Pradesh — Growing RE Capacity
- 📍Madhya Pradesh — Growing RE Capacity
Recent Developments
5 developmentsImplementation of Green Energy Corridors project (Phase I & II) to facilitate renewable power evacuation.
Establishment of Renewable Energy Management Centres (REMCs) at national and state levels for better forecasting and scheduling.
Policy push for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), including a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme for BESS projects.
Development of pumped hydro storage projects to provide large-scale, long-duration energy storage.
Mandates for flexible operation of thermal power plants to support grid integration of renewables.