A 20 megawatt (MW) Grid-Scale Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) was inaugurated in Amaury on Tuesday. This project, at a cost of Rs 700 million, should make it possible to increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix. The main objective of this BESS is, in fact, to stabilize the frequency of the electricity network by integrating more renewable energy. Renewable sources such as solar and wind, which are intermittent in nature, can create instabilities on the electricity grid when connected in large quantities.
Present at the event, the Minister of Energy, Joe Lesjongard, recalled that this project is in line with government policy which aims to encourage the use of renewable and clean energies. This is to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. Joe Lesjongard affirmed that green energy will become a new pillar of the economy, with 60 % of the country's energy needs coming from renewable sources by 2030. The use of coal will also be phased out by 2030, he added. Rajden Chowdharry, the General Manager of the CEB, for his part specified that with the entry into service of the new 20 MW BESS, the CEB will have a total of 38 MW of storage systems on a network scale. He emphasized the main objective of ensuring sufficient electricity supply to meet the needs of the population. He also spoke of the need to increase the exploitation of renewable energy sources while diversifying the energy mix and reducing dependence on coal.
The 20 MW BESS was supplied, installed and commissioned by SIEMENS France, a world leader in industrial electrical and electronic systems, including large-scale battery storage. This system includes the latest high-efficiency lithium-ion battery module technologies, with an extremely low response time of less than twenty milliseconds. They adopt the “containerized” format, that is to say they are enclosed in standard-sized containers, but personalized in terms of structure, soundproofing, protection against bad weather and reinforcements.
