The Govt document duly signed dated 28 June 2023 for Electrolyser PLI is available in public domain. copy link given below.
Subsequently , SECL had invited tenders and a pre- bid meeting was held The last date of tender was 5th Sept. Results are yet to be announced.
https://www.seci.co.in/whats-new-detail/2463
In the mean time , there was a report that excess renewable energy generated from installed capacities of renewable energy from Solar / wind during peak day time is going waste at some places due to absence of grid connectivity.
Whatever installed electrolyser manufacturing capacities available in India and some imported - perhaps these are going for green hydrogen manufacturing and Green hydrogen is primarily required by fertilizer plants , petroleum refineries and other industries.
Moreover for Grid connectivity , apart from Electrolyser , you need fuel cell for conversion from hydrogen to Electricity at night hours. Currently fuel cells are imported and expensive and indigenous capacities would take time
So , we are in a fix. Renewable capacities are coming up very fast , but electrolyser , Fuel cell capacities are not in place.
While we have enough coal to power our thermal power to feed to the grid , but our very purpose of Decarbonisation would be hampered.
Therefore, to feed renewable energy for grid , alternate ways of renewable energy storage from day time for use in night hours has been found in the interim, though these may have their own limitations:
(1)Hydro electric pump storage : During day time when sun light is plenty , the excess electric energy is used to pump water from a lower/ underground reservoir to a higher elevated reservoir. During night , when renewable is not available , the water from the higher reservoir is allowed to flow in gravity to the lower tank through a turbine which could generate electricity …it is hydro electric.
It has already been implemented in a couple of places.
The disadvantage is that we don’t have water bodies every where to source water requirement which need to be topped up.
The advantage is that it is simple , cheaper.
(2) Battery storage solution :
This is easily available option , though bulky and equally expensive lithium ion battery pack. Cheaper version Sodium ion versions are also being explored.
So there is a PLI recently being announced for Battery storage solution.
Announcement in this regard is given in the link below this post- mostly govt looking for Greenfield Projects …not brown field.
Currently, a lot of companies such as Exide , Amar Raja etc are coming up with huge capacities of lithium ion batteries , but meant for mainly for Automobiles.
Grid scale Lithium ion batteries are planned by Reliance , Adani and few others , but will take time. However can be imported at short notice.
(3) Compressed air storage solution.
Day time renewable energy is used to compress air and kept in a air tank and later inthe night air is allowed to escape and fall on a turbine to generate electricity. This is also being explored.