Issues and Challenges with Integration of Renewables

with Grid in India

Dissertation

Submitted to the

UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM AND ENERGY STUDIES

In partial fulfilment of the requirements of the award of degree of

MBA-POWER MANAGEMENT

By

AASHUTOSH

SAP No. 500073994

Under the Supervision of

Dr. Anil Kumar
Guide
Professor & Head
Department of Energy Management
UPES – Dehradun

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It gives us a great sense of pleasure to present Summer Internship Project on “Issues and
Challenges with Integration of Renewables with Grid in India” Undertaken during the
fourth semester. We owe a special debt of gratitude and like to thank Dr. Anil Kumar,
Professor, Head Department of Energy Management, School of Business, UPES,
Kandoli Campus, Dehradun, for his constant guidance and great support with all the help
he has to provide us with theory and practical implication on our projects. His sincerity,
Thoroughness, and Perseverance have been a constant source of inspiration for us.

We would like to thank Dr. Mohammed Yaqoot and Mr. Avishek Ghosal for being the
backbone for the successful completion of the project and for always providing guidance
whenever required.

Our sincere thanks to all the friends, teaching and non-teaching staff members of Power
Management Department for their Kind cooperation and guidance.

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 DECLARATION

I, Aashutosh, Roll No. R130219001, MBA (Power management), batch 2019-21 of

University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, hereby declare that the summer
internship report on “Issues and Challenges with Integration of Renewables with Grid in
India” is a bonafide record of work carried out under my guidance and supervision.

Aashutosh

Countersigned

Prof. (Dr.) Anil Kumar

H.O.D Energy management

UPES Dehradun

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 Table of Content

Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................... 2

Declaration ............................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 6

Justification of Project........................................................................................................... 11

Business Problem ................................................................................................................... 13

Literature Review .................................................................................................................. 15

Research Gap ......................................................................................................................... 22

Research Problem .................................................................................................................. 24

Research Question ................................................................................................................. 24

Research Objective ................................................................................................................ 24

Research Methodology .......................................................................................................... 25

Data Analysis and Findings .................................................................................................. 27

Recommendation & Conclusion ........................................................................................... 51

Limitations.............................................................................................................................. 52

Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 53

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 List of Figures

Figure 1- RES Installed Capacity (MW) in India ...................................................................... 7

Figure 2- HVDCs in Indian power system. (For colour version of this figure, the reader is

referred to the online version of this book.) ............................................................................. 31

Figure 3- Twenty-first-century Indian power system. (For colour version of this figure, the

reader is referred to the online version of this book.) ............................................................. 32

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Introduction

India has prioritised increasing the share of renewable energy (RE) based power generation
capacity for several years. A supporting policy and regulatory framework have ensured an
exponential growth in RE capacity, reaching an all-time high of 42.6 GW, or 14.1% of the
total generation capacity by March 2016. This share is set to increase even more rapidly in
the coming six years, given the national RE target of 175 GW (100 GW solar and 60 GW
wind) of RE by 2022 (Mint, 2015). It could reach as high as 32.2% by 2022, considering the
175 GW in place. In terms of electricity generation, while the present share of RE is ~ 6%,
the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is hoping to push it to 17% by 2022, of
which 8% is targeted to come from solar alone.2 Renewable energy deployment is mainly
concentrated in the Southern and Western Indian states (80% of total). Several states such as
Tamil Nadu (37%), Maharashtra (17%) and Gujarat (18%) have a much higher share of RE in
their generation capacity mix compared to the national share (CEA, 2016).

Just to give a few instances, between 2005 and 2021, generation capacity (inclusive of
renewable capacity) has gone up by about 251 GW, renewable generating capacity has gone
up to 94 GW (from wind, solar, small hydro and biomass) from almost nothing, leading to
about 10% of generation from renewable sources, an additional 2.5 lakh circuit-km of
transmission lines (above 220 kV) added, per capita consumption has almost doubled from
630 units to approximately 1,200 units today, peak and energy shortages have come down
from double digit figures to about half a percentage point, and rural electrification is almost
complete with near 100% electricity access to households (not necessarily 24 hours supply).

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 RES Installed Capacity (MW)
4786.81

40085.37
39247.05

10314.56

Small Hydro Power Wind Power Bio-Power Solar Power

Figure 1- RES Installed Capacity (MW) in India

Renewable energy generation, especially from wind and solar power, is variable in nature,
given its dependency on the weather. In addition, due to the diurnal and seasonal variations
(more pronounced in the case of wind power given the Indian monsoon) in generation, its
shorter time scale (minutes to hours) impacts on the grid are much higher than perceived
impacts considering only the lower annual average values. For example, penetration of wind
power in energy terms in Tamil Nadu in 30-35 % from June to September and 5-10% during
other months (CEA, 2013). Grid operators do not have visibility with respect to wind and
solar power generators3, because until recently they were exempt from any scheduling
responsibilities which were applicable to conventional generators. Maintaining constant
frequency is important for the reliable and secure operation of the grid. Deviation in
frequency can occur due to instantaneous differences between generation and demand, which
grid operators apprehend would exacerbate due to higher penetration of renewables.

This coupled with problems of the relatively weak Indian grid such as high line losses, load
shedding, low voltages at the distribution tail end, high variation in frequency, lack of
adequate reserves, flexible generation and effective demand forecasting makes reliable and
effective grid integration of renewables even more challenging. Hence, policy-regulatory
officials and grid operators fear that such a steep and rapid increase in ‘infirm’ or ‘non-
dispatchable’ renewables will affect the electricity grid and make grid operation far more
complex and difficult to deal with.

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Various European countries and some regions in the United States have reliably integrated
high levels of variable renewables in their generation mix, and it is important to learn from
their experiences.4 However, several learnings may not be fully or immediately relevant in
the Indian context because of differences in the grid infrastructure, and more importantly, in
the regulations and policies governing grid planning and operation. Hence, it is important to
understand the concerns of grid operators when it comes to integrating high levels of variable
renewables.

This report is an attempt in that direction. We begin with an explanation of the structure of
the Indian power grid, its institutional setup as well as its daily operations. With increasing
renewables, we examine the potential rise in challenges to grid operation at the transmission
level, and ways to mitigate such challenges through effective grid integration of renewables.
This report does not look at the operational issues at the transmission planning or distribution
system levels.

The focus of the report is on forecasting and scheduling of renewable power, one of the key
starting points to minimise grid imbalance and aid effective integration. The report analyses
the various steps at the Central and State levels towards initialising forecasting and
scheduling of renewables in the country. It also examines the various supporting initiatives
adopted by ERCs and policy makers towards easing grid integration. This analysis is also
informed by focused discussions with a key sector stakeholder, notably grid operators. We
conclude by outlining some potential suggestions and ideas for easing the challenges of grid
integration. This report is being released as a working paper given the various changes which
are underway in the regulations and policies related to grid operation.

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The Indian Power System

Structure of the Indian Power Grid

The Indian Electricity Grid Code (IEGC) defines the power system as all aspects of
generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity.5 The transmission network in
India consists of the inter-regional networks, the inter-state networks which connect two
states, and the intra-state networks which exist within a particular state. The Power Grid
Corporation of India (PGCIL) is the Central Transmission Utility (CTU) that owns, operates,
maintains and plans the inter-regional and inter-state transmission networks, whereas the
intra-state transmission networks are owned, operated, maintained and planned by the State
Transmission Utilities (STU). As of April 2016, India had about 330,000 circuit kilometres
(ckm) of AC and High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) lines.6 At the end of the 12th five-
year plan, transmission lines are expected to expand to about 348,000 ckm of AC and HVDC
lines.

For operational and planning purposes, the transmission network is divided into five regions,
namely Northern (NR), Eastern (ER), North Eastern (NER), Southern (SR) and Western
(WR). While four regions were interconnected with each other over time from 1991 to 2006,
the southern grid was fully connected to the rest of the grid in January 2014 (Power grid).
This integration has made the Indian grid one of the largest operating synchronous grids in
the world, with about 300 GW (April 16) of installed power capacity. In general, all the state-
owned generating stations are connected to the intra-state transmission network (InSTS), and
the centrally owned inter-state generating stations (ISGS) are connected to the interstate
transmission system (ISTS). The ISGS can have shares of their capacity allocated to different
states. Distribution of the electricity to end consumers is carried out by the distribution
utilities connected to the intra-state network.

Institutional Framework for Management of Grid Operation

The PGCIL established the Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) of India in
2010 for the purpose of power management and an efficient operation of the grid. This apex
body for power system operation consists of the National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) and
five Regional Load Dispatch Centres (RLDCs) which coordinate electricity dispatch across
the country. For operational and planning purposes, each RLDC controls each regional grid
formed by the ISTS. Each state grid formed by ISTS is controlled by the State Load Dispatch
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Centre (SLDC). While SLDCs are independent organisations, they work in close
coordination with their respective RLDCs for ensuring optimal operations and take directives
from the RLDCs.

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) is the apex body involved in
framing various operational and commercial rules and regulations at the central level which
apply to the ISTS. Important amongst these are the Indian Electricity Grid Code (IEGC) and
the Deviation Settlement Mechanism (DSM) regulations. State Electricity Regulatory
Commissions (SERC) formulate the rules for operation of the grid within the state using
CERC laid norms as guidelines.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is responsible for defining standards for operation of
the transmission system, power plants, and safety requirements for operation and
maintenance of the electrical transmission system and plants. For each region, a Regional
Power Committee (RPC) is formed by the CEA. The RPC analyses the performance of the
transmission system and generation stations, plans the inter-state and intra-state transmission
systems, carries out stability studies, and is responsible for the commercial accounting of
electricity at the regional level.

Operation of the Grid

The grid operation in India over an entire day is divided into 96 blocks of 15 minutes each,
starting from 12:00 am to 11:45 pm. Grid operation is based on the operation codes
mentioned in the IEGC and State Grid Codes with an aim to increase the overall operational
reliability and economy of the entire grid. The operation codes contain guidelines and rules
for controlling voltage levels and frequency within acceptable limits. Deviation limits for the
voltage levels (765KV to 33KV) are stated in the grid codes in order to avoid unwanted
disconnection of the network and voltage collapse in view of the security of the grid.

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Justification of Project

The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the operation of India’s power grid with 175 GW
of RE to identify potential grid reliability concerns and actions needed to cost-effectively
integrate this level of wind and solar generation. For example, can the future power system
provide 24 x 7 power throughout the year with 175 GW of RE without significant new
infrastructure investments (beyond those anticipated already)? How can the cost of operating
a system with high RE be reduced through alternative operating procedures or technologies?
What characteristics of thermal plant flexibility would help reduce RE curtailment? Are
batteries essential for balancing 175 GW of RE?

Our primary tool is a production cost model, which simulates optimal scheduling and
dispatch of available generation by minimizing total production costs subject to physical,
operational, and market constraints. Production costs are the variable costs incurred to
generate electricity, which are largely fuel costs but also include start-up and some
maintenance costs. We treat fixed costs as sunk investment costs when comparing scenarios
and sensitivities; savings come from minimizing the production costs of installed capacity.
This may seem paradoxical, but the objective is to mimic the scheduling and dispatch
decisions that are based on variable or production costs.

Using detailed data for India’s power system and for wind and solar generation, we identify if
and how the Indian power system is balanced every 15 minutes in a future year (2022). The
model calculates the impact of operations on RE curtailment (wind and solar energy that is
available but not used), changes in the way conventional power plants are dispatched,
whether the existing flexibility of thermal generation is sufficient to balance the system at all
times, and potential periods of stress on the system. All simulations observe the physical
constraints and limits of the grid, including flow constraints on major corridors. We use these
results to inform regulatory and policy decisions, including potential actions to improve
system flexibility.

This grid integration study is intended to be complementary to other analyses that are also
critical to meeting the 175-GW targets. A complete set of analyses would include capacity
expansion, to evaluate optimal growth in generation and transmission investments (types,
locations, timing), as well as power flow analysis and stability studies to address other
operational concerns (e.g., real and reactive power flow; contingency response). Our study
provides an empirical basis that can inform the value of policy, regulatory, and investment
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decisions; however, we do not discuss the trade-offs in how to implement RE integration
strategies. These issues will be addressed, in part, in other components of Greening the Grid.
In addition, this analysis informs but does not directly address ancillary market designs, the
overall cost-effectiveness of RE, policies to improve investor confidence in RE, or retail tariff
implications. Our analysis seeks solutions that minimize electricity production costs in an
already built system. Optimizing the build-out of a system with high levels of RE, and thus
minimizing fixed costs, is beyond the scope of our study.

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Business Problem

Energy is the most important issue that is being discussed throughout the world. The key
differentiating factor in the use of energy sources is environment friendliness. Growth of
renewable energy (RE) in developed nations is mainly driven by environmental concerns of
fossil fuel-based projects. In developing nations, RE projects are adopted to decrease the
demand supply-gap and to boost rural electrification and off-grid electrification. But for
countries like India, an optimal energy mix of both kinds of energy sources is essential to
have a sustainable energy system.

Challenges: One of the biggest challenges in RE development is the high initial cost of
installation. While development of a coal-based power, plant requires around Rs 4 crore per
MW, the investment required for wind and solar power-based plants is significantly higher. A
wind-based plant, with capacity utilisation of 25%, requires an investment of Rs 6 crore per
MW. The actual investment, at more efficient capacity utilisation of 80%, works out to Rs 18
crore per MW. Similarly, the investment in a solar based plant, with a capacity utilisation of
15%, is Rs 18 crore. The actual investment, at 80% capacity utilisation, is around Rs 98
crore.

High cost associated with RE projects necessitates further research and technological
developments in this area. A comprehensive policy framework is necessary for accelerated
growth of renewable energy in India.

Proper system planning and integration is another important aspect. Knowing the
decentralised nature of RE projects, the capacity and type of project is to be decided where
availability of the energy source can be ensured. Most RE systems are weather dependent;
thus, factors like number of sunny days, wind condition, monsoon, tide level, supply of
biomass, etc play an important role in feasibility of the system. Plant availability is not
predictable as in case of conventional plants.

Social acceptance of renewable-based energy system is still not very encouraging in urban
India. Despite heavy subsidy being provided by the government for installation of solar
water-heaters and lighting systems, its penetration is still very low. Manpower training is
another grey area. Currently, the Indian power sector is facing severe trained manpower
shortage. Skill upgradation of the existing manpower and training of new professionals are
essential to achieve the goal of “power to all” by 2012.

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Opportunities: Despite having an installed capacity of over 167 GW, India is facing an
energy deficit of 8% and peak deficit of 12%. So far, only 4.5% of renewable energy
potential has been explored in India. To reduce the demand-supply gap, the renewable energy
development is the need of the hour.

Renewable energy certificate (REC NSE 1.76 %) is also being increasingly used and traded
at various power exchanges around the world. RECs are considered as important tool for
renewable energy promotion. Indian power exchanges are also going to introduce trading of
these certificates very soon.

Electrification of remote areas and inaccessible terrains where grid connectivity is not
feasible is only possible through renewable energy sources. Renewable energy sources are
abundant and inexhaustible and are also import independent. Thus, renewables help address
energy security concerns better than conventional energy sources.

Today, climate change is the most serious concern being discussed around the world.
Development of renewables is arguably one of the most effective options to mitigate climate
changes. Renewable development contributes to overall development of the nation. With
access to electricity, the productivity of household industries increases. India’s annual per
capital electricity consumption as per CEA report is 704 kWh and to achieve set target of
1000 kWh, full-fledged exploration of renewables is necessary.

An interesting research by Political Economy Research Institutes shows that investment in

renewable power generation provides much more employment opportunities than investment
made in conventional sources-based power projects. Besides, renewable project development
involves local people and operation and maintenance is carried out with the help of locally
available manpower. With renewed focus on renewable and clean energy development, it is a
high time for seeking business and entrepreneurship opportunity in this field.

Conclusion: Based on the present global economic growth rates, fossil fuel energy resources
may last a generation or two, at the most, before they are exhausted. Therefore, the future of
our energy needs lies in renewable energy resources. The use of these resources, rather than
an increase in fossil fuel supplies, should be encouraged through new diplomacy that takes
into account the needs and resources of all concerned. Given the vast potential of renewables
in India, all it needs is comprehensive policies and a investor friendly regime to be global
leader in clean and green energy.
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Literature Review

Er. Mamatha Sandhu and Dr.Tilak Thakur said that the renewable energy sources have
increased significantly due to environmental issues and fossil fuels elevated cost. Integration
of renewable energy sources to utility grid depends on the scale of power generation. Large
scale power generations are connected to transmission systems whereas small-scale
distributed power generation is connected to distribution systems. There are certain
challenges in the integration of both types of systems directly. Due to this, wind energy has
gained a lot of investments from all over the world. However, due to the wind speed ‘s
uncertain behaviour it is difficult to obtain good quality power, since wind speed fluctuations
reflect on the voltage and active power output of the electric machine connected to the wind
turbine. Solar penetration also changes the voltage profile and frequency response of the
system and affects the transmission and distribution systems of utility grid.

Issues of Renewable Energy Sources Systems – Grid Integration

Wind Energy System

Wind energy penetration is limited by ATC (available transfer capability) of the system. High
penetration of wind energy creates stability problem, and possible blackouts. New wind farms
must be able to provide voltage and reactive power control, frequency control and fault ride
through capability. For the existing wind farms with variable speed, double-fed induction
generators (DFIG) and synchronous generators (SG) can be incorporated by a software
upgrade.

Solar Energy System

Constraints of solar generation are: high installation cost of solar panels, low generation
capacity, uncertainty of solar irradiance, and power fluctuation due to intermittency behavior
of sunlight. A European consortium called distributed generation with high penetration of
renewable energy sources examined many different types of DG in many configurations. The
report describes the Power Quality Management System (PQMS), which uses TCP/IP as its
protocol and Ethernet cables as the physical communications channel. Initial field tests
appear to be promising, according to a European consortium. It was found that the maximum
tolerable system level penetration level of PV was approximately 5%, the limit being
imposed by the transient following capabilities (ramp rates) of conventional generators.

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Study examined probability distributions of voltages in a simulated 11 kV distribution system
with varying levels of PV penetration. Researchers found that PV causes the distribution to
shift toward higher voltages, but only by a small amount.

Salma Rehman and Zaki Hussain discussed that in India has set colossal renewable energy
(RE) targets (achieving 175GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022) which need a clear
strategy roadmap, integrated planning and a whole-of-system approach. However, the
loopholes in institutional mechanisms are bound to hinder the process of policy formulation
and implementation for the aspired quantum leap. This paper is an attempt to observe
governance of renewable energy in India while exploring the issues and challenges that have
been stalling the process of clean energy uptake. The paper finds that despite the
comprehensive policy and regulatory frameworks, the large disconnect between the central
policies and regional needs has created barriers for deployment of renewable technologies.

The paper emphasizes the provision for clean energy financial support to be made available
to the states for addressing the disparities between RE potential and the development cost,
and planning for better grid management systems. The RE targets also demand an intensive
capital market development and innovative financial support mechanisms and products.
While aligning itself with the clean energy goals, India needs to focus significantly on the
energy needs of the rural population which has been grappling with electricity cuts and
brownouts. For regions with limited or no electricity supply, the government should
aggressively promote the ideas of off-grid solar power and micro grids. The paper also
recommends the possibilities for private sector investments, rural entrepreneurship and
public- private ventures for filling in the gaps, and thus harnessing the potential of RE-rich
states.

Review of International Practices for Large Scale Renewable Energy Integration

Renewable Energy sources are characterized by inherent issues like variability, intermittency
and fast ramping. Various countries have been facing concerns with respect to the increasing
proportion of renewable energy sources in the grid. Countries such as the US and Germany
have innovated technical and procedural solutions that enable their grids to accommodate
increasing volumes of RE.

Insights from grid operational practices from advanced nations like Germany and U.S. can
provide significant inferences. Germany and United States are using various tools and
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techniques to manage the variability of the grid. Grid frequency is an indicator of demand
generation imbalance. Solar and wind energy sources are having less inertia as compared to
the conventional energy sources. Germany developed ancillary (balancing) market, in order
to introduce the synthetic inertia to respond to the increased variability due to variable
renewable generation. In United States, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)
carries out RE forecasting.

Market rule and design, improved the flexibility and opened market to more participants.
Under the demand response program, variability is induced on the demand side to manage
supply side.

Jami Hossain in his case study of high wind penetration in the Tamil Nadu Electricity
Utility discussed that Conventional power generating systems/devices are associated with
harmful environmental impacts. One of the ways of avoiding these impacts is the integration
of renewables into the conventional power systems of developing countries. In the long term
at least a quarter of the overall energy supply can be met by renewable energy in most of the
large power systems in developed countries. Very little is known about the realizable levels
of penetration of renewables in the electricity grids of the developing world. The opportunity
to plan and control the evolution of the system with a reasonable component of renewables is
therefore still open.

There is little data on the operation of the grid or the nature and resource availability of
renewables in these regions. Some windfarms have been installed in India and China. The
performance of some of the sites is comparable to the best wind farming sites in California or
parts of Western Europe. Wind electric generation is perhaps the only renewable energy
technology which requires further detailed examination of the implications of its high
penetration in the conventional system. Other renewables either do not pose a challenge in
grid integration (e.g., micro hydro) or fail the test of technoeconomic viability and significant
potential. Realizable potential for economically viable windfarms in India by 2000 AD has
been estimated at 17000MW corresponding to an assumed penetration level of 15%.

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V. Mohanapriya, V. Manimegalai, B. Indurani, P.Sritha discussed how Control of Grid
Interfaced Renewable Energy Source to Improve Power Quality. The present-day
demand due to the depletion of fossil fuel resources on a worldwide basis has forced an
urgent seek for alternative energy sources a well-known as renewable energy source. In
distributed systems, renewable energy sources are gently integrated by power electronics
interfaces. Substantial handle of power electronics devices generates harmonic current and
may minimize power quality. Integration of renewable energy sources and nonlinear loads
installed to utility grid has virtually effect on power quality of the system. This power quality
problem should be addressed so incidentally provide proper & quality power at the same time
integrating renewable energy sources.

The renewable energy source hand me down here is photovoltaic (PV) system. This paper
presents renewable energy source interfacing mutually the grid that compensates power
quality problems by a grid interfacing inverter control. The grid interfacing inverter gate
pulse is generated by a hysteresis current control method and it has the power to (1) minimize
harmonics current (2) improve power factor (3) compensate reactive power and (4) supply
active power to the load in DG. Total Harmonics Distortion (THD) of the grid installed
system is analysed. This work is modelled and simulated in MATLAB/ Simulink.

Eric Martinot from Beijing Institute of Technology said that the electric power sector
around the world is undergoing long-term technical, economic, and market transformations.
Part of these transformations is the challenge of integrating high shares of renewable energy,
particularly variable wind and solar. The concept of flexibility of a power system is key in
terms of balancing these variable sources while keeping the lights on. On the supply side,
flexibility arises from innovations in flexible coal and gas power plants, energy storage, and
renewables. On the demand side, many distributed resources—generation, flexible demand,
storage, and electric vehicles—can also contribute, and likewise transmission and distribution
networks, grid operations, and market designs. Experience with measures and innovations for
grid integration in all these categories is given, from several jurisdictions like Germany,
Denmark, and California, where renewables already provide 20–40% shares of electricity and
plans to reach 50% exist. Questions point to areas of technology, economics, planning,
operations, business, and policy that need further understanding and learning from
experience.

P a g e 18 | 54
More than 160 countries globally have future targets for renewable energy. The "global
energy transition" is a phrase heard increasingly, not just in countries that have committed to
it explicitly, such as Germany. Another key element is the design of electricity markets
themselves, in ways that aid grid integration, writes John Defterios. The concept of flexibility
of a power system is key, in terms of balancing variable wind and solar resources in
particular, he says. In 2015, wind and solar power made up more than 90% of total global
investment in all forms of renewable energy. This article looks at the flexibility or balancing
the challenge of ensuring that "the lights stay on" in the face of high shares of variable
renewables.

IEEE- Emerging Power Quality Challenges Due to Integration of Renewable Energy

Sources

Renewable energy becomes a key contributor to our modern society, but their integration to
power grid poses significant technical challenges. Power quality is an important aspect of
renewable energy integration. The major power quality concerns are: 1) Voltage and
frequency fluctuations, which are caused by noncontrollable variability of renewable energy
resources. The intermittent nature of renewable energy resources due to ever-changing
weather conditions leads to voltage and frequency fluctuations at the interconnected power
grid. 2) Harmonics, which are introduced by power electronic devices utilized in renewable
energy generation. When penetration level of renewable energy is high, the influence of
harmonics could be significant. In this paper, an extensive literature review is conducted on
emerging power quality challenges due to renewable energy integration. This paper consists
of two sections: 1) Power quality problem definition. Wind turbines and solar photovoltaic
systems and their power quality issues are summarized. 2) Existing approaches to improve
power quality.

G. V. Brahmendra Kumar, Ratnam Kamala Sarojini, K. Palanisamy, Sanjeevikumar

Padmanaban, and Jens Bo Holm-Nielsen had a view on Large Scale Renewable Energy
Integration: In recent years, many applications have been developed for the integration of
renewable energy sources (RES) into the grid in order to satisfy demand requirement of a
clean and reliable electricity generation. Increasing the number of RES creates uncertainty in
load and power supply generation, which also presents an additional strain on the system.
These uncertainties will affect the voltage and frequency variation, stability, protection, and
safety issues at fault levels. RES present non-linear characteristics, which requires effective
P a g e 19 | 54
coordination control methods. The large-scale integration of RES into the power grid will
have an impact on the stability of the power system. Both the frequency and voltage stability
are highly affected by integrating large scale RES into the grid.

Abdulhakim Khalaf Alsaif in his American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER)

discussed about the Challenges and Benefits of Integrating the Renewable Energy
Technologies into the AC Power System Grid. In the recent decent, renewable energy has
been becoming one of the independent energy sources in human life, and it will be a major
resource for the future generation of power. Today, some people tend to use renewable
energy in their home or land such as solar or wind energy. Most of those have two inputs of
the power source; the utility power supply and renewable energy power supply, so the
integration of renewable technologies variable generation sources within Ac grid has been
made, but this connection is not easily reachable.

Forecasting of renewable energy such availability of power at any time, the amount of
variation in power output, the speed of variation, and the location of RE source are other
challenges that may obstruct the successful incorporation of renewable energy and the grid.
Finally, advantages of the integration for both the power utility and the green energy owner
will be present, and how this integration can affect our environment. Solar energy and wind
energy will be used in this paper as examples of renewable energy

The impacts of CO2 emission and global warming result in wildly speared of renewable
energy technologies in the recent years, and this expansion helps to increase the integrations
of RE sources to the system grid. The incorporation has been facing some difficulties to
achieve the connection in the correct form. This paper has discussed the most challenges as:
power quality issues, availability, variation, and speed of power, generation forecast, and RE
plants’ location.

Xiaodong Liang Senior Member, IEEE Memorial University of Newfoundland

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering discussed on the Emerging Power
Quality Challenges Due to Integration of Renewable Energy Sources. Renewable energy
becomes a key contributor to our modern society, but their integration to power grid poses
significant technical challenges. Power quality is an important aspect of renewable energy
integration. The major power quality concerns are: 1) Voltage and frequency fluctuations,
which are caused by non-controllable variability of renewable energy resources. The

P a g e 20 | 54
intermittent nature of renewable energy resources due to ever-changing weather conditions
leads to voltage and frequency fluctuations at the interconnected power grid. 2) Harmonics,
which are introduced by power electronic devices utilized in renewable energy generation.
When penetration level of renewable energy is high, the influence of harmonics could be
significant. In this paper, an extensive literature review is conducted on emerging power
quality challenges due to renewable energy integration.

Ahmed Sharique Anees of Department of Electrical Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia

discussed on the Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Sources: Challenges, Issues and
Possible Solutions. As India is considering renewable energy resources (RES) like solar and
wind as alternative for future energy needs. As on March 31, 2012 the grid interactive power
generation from RES is 24914 MW i.e., around 12.1 % of the total installed energy capacity.
Further Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India is targeting
to achieve 20000 MW grid interactive power through solar and 38500 MW from wind by
2022. However, there are various issues related to grid integration of RES keeping in the
view of aforesaid trends it becomes necessary to investigate the possible solutions for these
issues. Integration of renewable energy sources to utility grid depends on the scale of power
generation. Large scale power generations are connected to transmission systems whereas
small scale distributed power generation is connected to distribution systems. There are
certain challenges in the integration of both types of systems directly.

P a g e 21 | 54
Research Gap

Some major questions that affect policymakers, practitioners and researchers alike when it
comes to the integration of renewables at the order envisaged. Some issues are theoretical,
i.e., there is not universal agreement on optimal pricing signals or market design. Other issues
are more practical or case-specific, such as the contracting norms, e.g., treating RE with a
single tariff differently than thermal plants with two-part tariffs in PPAs, separately fixed and
variable costs. There is also an issue in terms of data availability and access–certainly
scholars do not have open access to sufficient data, even if such data are available with the
government, utilities, or grid operators. Instrumentation of grid-scale RE is relatively easy–
rooftop or behind-the-meter PV is especially hard to measure and disseminate.

A few additional unknowns include:

1. Technical unknowns of RE performance and supply/demand, including spatial

and temporal heterogeneity
a. Where will the added capacity be located?
b. How much will be grid-scale versus end-user (behind-the-meter) RE?
c. What will be the expected performance (output) of RE?
d. How much and where does transmission need to be augmented to mitigate
balancing risks and curtailment risks?
e. What will be the utilisation factor for the new transmission capacity?
f. How will the load (demand) curve evolve? Will the peak demand shift? Will the
peak grow faster? than the average? How will mid-day demand grow vis-à-vis
overall and peak growth?
g. What are the reductions in emissions from thermal units due to higher RE? Would
we witness higher emissions due to partial load operations and frequent ramping
of thermal units?
2. Grid Balancing and management unknowns
a. What are the non-internalised (system-level) costs of higher RE? How do the costs
of RE integration vary as RE’s share increases (the “RE integration curve”)?
b. What are grid integration costs for all forms of generation, with a breakdown by
type of generation and some measure of location? A better framing might be how
will the balancing and management costs of higher RE evolve? How will these
change over time (based on assumptions of what the rest of grid looks like and

P a g e 22 | 54
 applicable frameworks)? What is the value of flexible generation and of broader
ancillary services (beyond frequency support ancillary services)?
c. What is the technical capability and economic as well as environmental
implications of flexing thermal units? How does this vary?
d. What is the role of energy storage and of demand response to meet flexing and
peak management?
e. Will load-shedding continue or be allowed? What additional planning and system
changes are required to better handle higher RE in a manner that doesn’t increase
the risk.
f. If RE curtailment is either cost-effective and/or unavoidable, what are the
quantum and cost implications? How are these to be borne by RE generators (or
the Discoms)?
g. To what extent can or will 5-minute dispatch and Wide Area Management
Systems (WAMS) help RE integration?
3. Contractual, regulatory, and policy unknowns
a. How will the costs of higher RE be shared across states? Will costs of supply and
tariffs go up in some states more than others due to RE generation?
b. Will the current norm of PPAs continue, or how will more flexible instruments
evolve, including market mechanisms? Will there be a continuation of single part
(for RE) versus two-part tariffs for thermal generators (fixed and variable)? What
are the options for modifying and/or renegotiating PPAs?
c. Will there be a time-varying price for power procurement? Will this extend to
retail consumers? (Note: The two can be undertaken independently, and we
believe wholesale ToD pricing is easier infrastructure-wise than retail ToD
pricing. The latter need not be real-time or near-real-time, relying instead on time
blocks or periods.)
d. Will the grid evolve to signal local and near-instantaneous pricing, for example,
through Locational Marginal Pricing (which blends supply, demand, and
transmission states into location-specific pricing signals)?
e. Will RE continue as a “must-run” resource?
f. How might environmental emissions norms and corresponding equipment impact
thermal unit costs, operations, and merit order?

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Research Problem

The new operating strategies for environmental compliance, when combined with our aging
transmission and distribution infrastructure, challenge the security, reliability, and quality of
the electric power supply. Hence the designing and proper integration of renewable sources
without a stress on existing grid infrastructure is an important point for the utility as well as
consumers. We need better grid reliability while dealing with an aging infrastructure. And we
need improved operational efficiencies and customer service. The power distribution grid
must respond quickly to shifting demand and continuously generate and route electricity to
where it's needed the most.

Research Question

RO1: What are the obstacles and limitations in the implementation and integration of
renewable energy such as solar, wind etc. with the grid.

A) Grid availability and grid code norms

(B) POSOCO role in managing new systems with adequate metering infrastructure;

(C) Base of financial and technical loss allocation.

RO2: What is the level and degree of readiness renewable power availability and the existing
transmission and distribution system and the adequacy of its infrastructure (current level of
losses, new metering network).

Research Objective

RO1: To Find out the obstacles and limitations in the implementation and integration of
renewable energy such as solar, wind etc. with the grid.

A) Grid availability and grid code norms

(B) POSOCO role in managing new systems with adequate metering infrastructure;

(C) Base of financial and technical loss allocation.

RO2: To explore the level and degree of readiness renewable power availability and the
existing transmission and distribution system and the adequacy of its infrastructure (current
level of losses, new metering network).

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Research Methodology

Research is a scientific process that conducts systematic investigations in order to discover a

new knowledge. Research motivation is to discover a truth which has not yet been
discovered. Every research done has its own goal, goal, challenges and implications.
Research value does not depend on the subject of the study but it depends on how well the
research is being designed and planned.

Research design involves different scientific concepts in collecting and analysing data in a
phased way. Research design combines the importance of the purpose of the research with an
economic theory. A research design provides the conceptual and structural framework for the
data collection, measurement and analysis. It is thus always recommended that a suitable
research design be developed to follow.

Research Methodology is the way to scientifically conduct research. Research methodology

employed in research systematically solves the research problem. Research methodology
contains various research steps that are applied along with a defined logic in research study. It
is necessary for the researcher to know not only the research methods or techniques used in a
research but also the research methodology, i.e. the researcher must know which research
method or technique is best suited for his analysis and what is the reason for the best fit.
Methodology of research used in different studies may differ by the nature of the problem.
The term “Research Methodology” has wider scope than the term “Research Methods”.

Qualitative research:

Qualitative work is a study that is mainly exploratory and consists of a collection of content
and interpretive approaches to make this environment accessible. The world's analyst resides
in the qualitative analysis. Qualitative research practices turn every aspect of behaviour into a
sequence of representations. Memos, recordings, photographs, conversations, interviews or
field notes can make these representations. The qualitative research is involved in a
naturalistic, interpretive approach for the world. That concludes that the researchers who
conduct the qualitative research; study the specifics in the natural setting and interpret the
particulars through meaningful inputs given by different people.

P a g e 25 | 54
Quantitative research:

Quantitative research approaches use instruments of computational, mathematical, or

statistical analysis to solve a problem. The data are collected in quantitative methods through
surveys, questionnaires and polls. Qualitative research also consists of various methods to use
statistical techniques to manipulate pre-existing data.

Difference between Quantitative and Qualitative Research:

Flexibility is the main difference between quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative
methods are usually relatively inflexible. Researcher asks all participants in the same order
with identical questions in quantitative method. The question posed in this approach is
closed, so a fair comparison of responses can be made across all participants. This method,
however, requires a deep understanding both of the statistical tools to be used and of the
questions to be asked.

On the other hand, there is more flexibility in Qualitative methods. Qualitative methods
enable more freedom to answer a question as open-ended questions are used in this method.
In qualitative research, respondents respond in their own terms, and not necessarily to be the
same. Consequently, the responses to this methodology are considered more complex than
quantitative. The communication between the researcher and respondent in Qualitative
Methods is less formal than quantitative. Researchers also have the opportunity, in qualitative
methods, to respond immediately to what the participant said by adding further questions.
The degree of flexibility however varies according to the method used in qualitative or
quantitative research.

P a g e 26 | 54
Data Analysis and Findings

Issues and Challenges

Renewable energy sources are intermittent in nature hence it is therefore a challenging task to
integrate renewable energy resources into the power grid. Some of the challenges and issues
associated with the grid integration of various renewable energy sources particularly solar
photovoltaic and wind energy conversion systems. Further these challenges are broadly
classified into technical and non-technical and described below.

A. Technical Issues

The following are the technical issues are described as

1. Power quality

a. Harmonics

b. Frequency and voltage fluctuation

2. Power fluctuation

a. Small time power fluctuations

b. Long time or seasonal power fluctuations

3. Storage

4. Protection issues

5. Optimal placement of RES

6. Islanding

Apart from aforesaid technical issues some of the non-technical issues are also presented in
this paper.

B. Non- Technical Issues

1. Lack of technical skilled man power

2. Less availability of transmission line to accommodate RES

3. RES technologies are excluded from the competition by giving them priority to dispatch
which discourage the installation of new power plant for reserve purpose.

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Possible Solutions

The renewable energy sources such as solar, wind etc. has accelerated the transition towards
greener energy sources. The increasing number of renewable energy sources and distributed
generators requires new strategies for the operation and management of the electricity grid in
order to maintain or even to improve the power-supply reliability and quality. Keeping in
view of the aforesaid some of the possible solutions have been proposed by researchers.

1. The power-electronic technology plays an important role in distributed generation and

in integration of renewable energy sources into the electrical grid, and it is widely
used and rapidly expanding as these applications become more integrated with the
grid- based systems. During the last few years, power electronics has undergone a fast
evolution, which is mainly due to two factors. The first one is the development of fast
semiconductor switches that are capable of switching quickly and handling high
powers. The second factor is the introduction of real- time computer controllers that
can implement advanced and complex control algorithms. These factors together have
led to the development of cost- effective and grid-friendly converters.
2. Intermittence of power generation from the RES can be controlled by generating the
power from distributing the RES to larger geographical area in small units instead of
large unit concentrating in one area. For example, output power of large solar PV
system with rating of tens of megawatt can be change by 70% in a five to ten minutes
of time frame by the local phenomenon like cloud passing etc therefore large number
of small solar PV system should be installed in larger geographical area. The
fluctuation of total output power can be minimized because of local problem can
affect only small unit power not the total output power.
3. In case of irrigation load the load is fed during the night time or off-peak load time
and this is fed by conventional grid. On other hand power generated by RES like solar
PV is generated during day time so we can use this power for irrigation purposes
instead of storing the energy for later time which increases the cost of the overall
system. Using the solar water pumping for irrigation gives very high efficiency
approx. 80% to 90% and the cost of solar water pumping is much lesser than the
induction motor pumping type.
4. In large solar PV plant output power is fluctuating during the whole day and this
power is fed to the grid and continuously fluctuating power gives rise to the security

P a g e 28 | 54
 concern to the grid for making stable grid. Solar PV plant owner have to install the
different type of storage system which gives additional cost to the plant owner. Once
the storage system is fully charged then this storage elements gives no profit to the
system owner. Therefore, solar based water pumping system may be installed instead
of storage system.

Grid management initiatives

Power System Operation Corporation Ltd. (POSOCO) is an inter-state power system

operator, consisting of the NLDCs and five RLDCs in each of India's 5 electrically bounded
regions. The intrastate power grid is controlled by the respective State Load Despatch Centres
(SLDCs). The system operators take the following initiatives:

Upgrading of control centres and REMCs: all the country's provincial control centers were
updated to take account of the challenges of the future in 2016. In order to handle the RE
generation under their authority with the newest technologies for RE prediction, visualization
and management, REMCs is undertaken in eleven sites - namely Tamil Nadu, AP, Karnataka,
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, MP SLDCs, SRLDC (Bangalore), WRLDC (Mumbai),
NRLDC (Delhi) and NLDC (Delhi).

Large scale deployment of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs): The project "Unified Real
Time Dynamic State Measurement" was conducted (URTDSM). In order to increase viewing
and PMU analytics in the control centres, more than 1600 PMUs will be deployed throughout
the world. The use of PMUs near wind farms / solar parks is also envisaged.

RE Integration Studies: A key component to the size of renewable electricity in the grid is
to ensure that this large and accelerated expansion in renewable energy is absorbed by the
power systems themselves. This electricity is distributed without jeopardizing Grid Stability
and Efficiency to Indian utilities and final customers. As such, India and USA collaborated to
determine the effect on power systems of large-scale RE generation. RE integration analysis
was carried out. This includes the All-India Power System modelling and simulation. In
collaboration with the grid operators and transmission system planners in India the research is
being conducted by the US National Laboratories (NREL/LBNL). LBNL also released a
similar report titled 'Steeling 175 GW Renewable Energy Integration into Indian Grid by
2022,' which considers 175 GW RE reliable in the Indian grid by 2022.

P a g e 29 | 54
Pumped storage: Energy storage is seen as a significant option for balancing. The most used
technology for electrical power storage is pumped storage hydro (PSH) power stations. India
has 96 GW pumped hydro storage capacity, of which 4.7 GW of pumped hydro storage
capacity has been installed. The machine operator uses these tools to balance in real time.

Big data analytics: Archiving data and extracting wisdom from the same is important in
making informed decisions by policymakers, planners, regulators, and system operators. All
these actors play important role in integrating large RE in any grid. POSOCO has come out
with report titled “Electricity Demand Pattern Analysis,” “Electricity Load Factor in Indian
Power System,” “Flexibility requirement in India Power System” to give a deep insight into
the past patterns and provide a basis for future projections and decisions.

Capacity building: at all levels has also been identified as a key step in fulfilling the
challenges posed by large RE integration. Accordingly, collaboration with national
(NPTI/NIWE/IIT) and international (GIZ/USAID/NREL/LBNL) agencies has been done to
make latest technical knowledge available to all stakeholders.

All the above initiatives have led to minimum curtailment of RE in last high wind season
with Tamil Nadu meeting 27% of its energy in August 2016 through wind generation.

Transmission initiatives

Larger footprint is a key aspect in integrating large scale RE resources. Till 2013, two grids
namely Northern-Eastern-Western (NEW) grid and Southern Region (SR) grid were in
existence. The synchronization of SR with NEW grid was done on December 31, 2013.
Cooperation with the neighbouring countries has also been strengthened over the years.
Bhutan operates in synchronous mode with India since long. Nepal is connected to India
radially at present and expected to be connected in synchronous mode soon. Recently, in
October 2013, Bangladesh was asynchronously connected to India through 500 MW HVDC
while March 2016 saw 132 kV double circuit radial AC connection to Bangladesh. Second
500 MW HVDC block is also expected to be in operation soon. Radial feed to Myanmar also
exists (Figure 4).

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Figure 2- HVDCs in Indian power system. (For colour version of this figure, the reader is
referred to the online version of this book.)

Green Energy Corridors: In order to facilitate integration of envisaged renewable

generation capacity addition in 12th Plan, a comprehensive scheme covering transmission
system strengthening at intrastate and interstate level has been evolved under “Green Energy
Corridors (GEC)”. As part of GEC, ISTS is being implemented by respective State
Transmission Utilities (STU) and ISTS is being implemented by PowerGrid. The ISTS GEC
are scheduled for commissioning progressively from April 2017 onwards (Figure 5).

P a g e 31 | 54
Figure 3- Twenty-first-century Indian power system. (For colour version of this figure, the
reader is referred to the online version of this book.)

National Electricity Plan: As per Electricity Act 2003, Central Electricity Authority (CEA)
released “Draft National Electricity Plan (Volumed I, Generation and Volumed II,
Transmission)” in December 2016 [27,28], which covers the generation and transmission
plan for the 13th Plan period (i.e., 2017-2018 to 2021-2022) and perspective plan for period
beyond 2021-2022 for stakeholder consultations. The projected peak demand is 235 GW and
energy requirement are 1611 TWh at the end of year 2021-2022. The study result for the
period 2017e2022 indicated that no coal-based capacity addition is required. The renewable
energy generation may contribute about 20.3% and 24.2% of the total energy requirement in
2021-2022 and 2026-2027, respectively.

Technical standards for RE connectivity to the grid: CEA has also floated draft
amendments in the provisions related to connectivity requirement for RE in technical
standards for connectivity to the Grid, Regulations, 2007 for stakeholder consultations. These

P a g e 32 | 54
amendments include provisions related to frequency response, HVRT, LVRT, ramping
requirements, voltage regulations requirements, compliance monitoring, etc.

Regulatory initiatives

Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) at the central level and SERCs at the
state level are mandated to provide the regulatory framework. The regulatory initiatives taken
to facilitate integration of RE are as follows:

Intrastate Balancing and Settlement System in some form has been introduced only in six
states/UTs. Forum of Regulators (FOR) constituted a technical committee in November 2015
to evolve the Scheduling, Accounting, Metering, and Settlement of Transactions in Electricity
(SAMAST) for India. The report also suggests the action plan for implementation in all the
states. The recommendations covered, inter alia, facilitating economic despatch, ensuring
interface meter adequacy, implementation of scheduling mechanism, real-time generation
dispatching, implementation of energy accounting system, implementation of settlement
system, transparency, integrity and probity of accounts, HR skill development, human
resource and logistics. Twenty-six states participated in the survey for benchmarking and
scale of operations. FOR has put forth draft model DPR, model regulations, and model
procedures for the states/UTs and coordinates the roll out of the uniform accounting and
settlement system across all states/UTs. FOR has also brought out Model Regulations on
Forecasting, Scheduling and Deviation Settlement of Wind and Solar Generating Stations at
the state level in November 2015. These model regulations have recognized the need for a
separate institutional entity, i.e., Qualified Coordinating Agency (QCA) to undertake various
activities associated with scheduling/commercial/settlement/depooling/communication/data
consolidation, management and coordination, etc. Eight states have floated draft regulations.
Karnataka state has notified the final regulations.

The Central Regulator has provided the regulatory framework for Forecasting, Scheduling,
and Imbalance Handling for Wind and Solar at Interstate Level in August, 2015, which has
led to amendments in several regulations.

Amendments to Indian Electricity Grid Code (IEGC), 2010, issued by CERC has special
provisions for connection, operation, forecasting, scheduling, and commercial settlement for
wind and solar generating plants. Following are the important provisions related to RE
integration:
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Forecasting: The Central Regulator has mandated that forecasting may be done both by the
wind/ solar generator(s) and the concerned Regional Load Despatch Centre (RLDC). The
forecast by RLDC forms basis for secure grid operation and forecast by wind/solar energy
generator(s) forms the basis of scheduling. The choice is given to wind/solar energy generator
to carry out own forecast or take the forecast given by concerned RLDC. However, the
commercial impact of deviations from schedule shall be borne by the respective wind/solar
energy generator(s).

Scheduling: Wind/solar generators at the interstate level whose scheduling is done by the
RLDCs may be scheduled like any other generator and are to be paid as per scheduled
generation. A maximum of 16 revisions for each one and half hour time slot in a day starting
00:00 h is allowed to the wind/solar generators to revise their schedules.

Incentivizing flexibility: Additional compensation for degradation of Station Heat Rate has
been allowed along with defining 55% of installed capacity as the technical minimum
considering the flexibility requirements of conventional plants in high RE scenario. Plant
load factor of conventional plants has also seen a decline over the years

DSM for imbalance pricing has been introduced in India by the Central Regulator since
February 2014, with amendments in November 2015/May 2016 for RE. In case of deviations
from the schedule, the Central Regulator has fixed a percentage of error in a 15-min time
block and charges for deviation payable/receivable to/from regional DSM pool by the
renewable generators. These charges for deviations by renewable generators have been
delinked from the frequency. When the error is less than or equal to 15%, the charges for
deviation are computed at a fixed rate for the shortfall energy for absolute error up to 15%.
When the error is more than 15%, there are additional charges for deviation along with the
fixed rate. The methodology for computation of fixed rate has been specified by the Central
Regulator in the regulations.

The Central Regulator took note of the concerns in handling interstate deviations for large
and high renewable penetration states. In order to address the stakeholder concerns,
“renewable-rich state” has been defined as a state that has 1000 MW or more of installed
wind/solar capacity. Two categories of RE-rich states have been created taking into account
the quantum of renewable penetration in the state grid.

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Ancillary Services Operations utilizing undespatched surplus in pan-India regulated
generating stations was launched in April 2016. There is a regulatory framework for both
regulation up and regulation down service by Reserves Regulation Ancillary Services
(RRAS) providers. National Load Despatch Center (NLDC), designated as the Nodal agency,
in coordination with RLDCs, operates these services in events as unprecedented weather
events, tripping of generating unit or transmission line outage, and load generation
imbalance. It is a layer of Centralized Ancillary Despatch over Decentralized layer of
generating station scheduling process. The generating stations are also incentivized for
participating in Ancillary Service framework.

Interconnection of RE generators to the grid: Central Transmission Utility (CTU) has

been mandated to carry out the transmission planning process including renewable capacity
addition plan issued by MNRE. The RES generating stations have been given a must-run
status. The Central Regulator has mandated that RE projects having an aggregate installed
capacity of 50 MW and above may seek connectivity to the interstate transmission system
(ISTS) network with a provision for one player acting as the lead generator to discharge all
operational and commercial responsibilities.

Changes in market design: The introduction of sub-hourly bidding in power exchanges in

2012 has facilitated consistency with scheduling, metering, and accounting time frames
leading to better portfolio management by utilities. The issue of providing flexibility in terms
of market participation to renewable sources of energy is largely addressed by sub-hourly
market as it enables them to bid with more precision on the day-ahead market in power
exchange(s). Sub-hourly bidding has impacted the scheduling pattern, ramping behavior,
portfolio management of state utilities, price discovery, and helped in integration of
renewable energy in the Indian electricity market. Also, regulatory framework for more
opportunities to trade in electricity market has been provided through the power exchanges
with 24x7 extended market sessions from July 2015.

Reserves: Central Regulator has also provided for operationalizing reserves in the country. It
mandated secondary reserves corresponding to the largest unit size in the region. It also
mandated tertiary reserves in decentralized fashion by each state control area for at least 50%
of the largest generating unit available in the state control area. All the generating stations
that are regional entities have been directed to operationalize Automatic Generation Control
(AGC) along with reliable telemetry and communication.
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Transmission planning: Reform in transmission planning is required considering the
requirement of RE integration. The Central Regulator constituted a task force for formulating
regulatory framework for transmission planning. The task force recommended objectives and
principles to be adopted for planning and developing an efficient, reliable, and economical
system of ISTS and associated intrastate systems.

Electricity storage: A staff paper on “Introduction of Electricity Storage System in India”

has also been issued by CERC discussing the possibilities and future course of action
regarding storage systems in India.

Data telemetry and communication: Central Regulator has floated draft regulation for
stakeholder consultations on communication system for interstate transmission of electricity
in September 2016 to improve the visibility at the control centres including RE generation.

Challenges faced by renewable energy in India

The MNRE has been taking dedicated measures for improving the renewable sector, and its
efforts have been satisfactory in recognizing various obstacles.

Policy and regulatory obstacles

 A comprehensive policy statement (regulatory framework) is not available in the

renewable sector. When there is a requirement to promote the growth of particular
renewable energy technologies, policies might be declared that do not match with the
plans for the development of renewable energy.
 The regulatory framework and procedures are different for every state because they
define the respective RPOs (Renewable Purchase Obligations) and this creates a higher
risk of investments in this sector. Additionally, the policies are applicable for just 5 years,
and the generated risk for investments in this sector is apparent. The biomass sector does
not have an established framework.
 Incentive accelerated depreciation (AD) is provided to wind developers and is evident in
developing India’s wind-producing capacity. Wind projects installed more than 10 years
ago show that they are not optimally maintained. Many owners of the asset have built
with little motivation for tax benefits only. The policy framework does not require the
maintenance of the wind projects after the tax advantages have been claimed. There is no
control over the equipment suppliers because they undertake all wind power plant

P a g e 36 | 54
 development activities such as commissioning, operation, and maintenance. Suppliers
make the buyers pay a premium and increase the equipment cost, which brings burden to
the buyer.
 Furthermore, ready-made projects are sold to buyers. The buyers are susceptible to this
trap to save income tax. Foreign investors hesitate to invest because they are exempted
from the income tax.
 Every state has different regulatory policy and framework definitions of an RPO. The
RPO percentage specified in the regulatory framework for various renewable sources is
not precise.
 RPO allows the SERCs and certain private firms to procure only a part of their power
demands from renewable sources.
 RPO is not imposed on open access (OA) and captive consumers in all states except three.
 RPO targets and obligations are not clear, and the RPO compliance cell has just started on
22.05.2018 to collect the monthly reports on compliance and deal with non-compliance
issues with appropriate authorities.
 Penalty mechanisms are not specified and only two states in India (Maharashtra and
Rajasthan) have some form of penalty mechanisms.
 RPO targets and obligations are not clear, and the RPO compliance cell has just started on
22.05.2018 to collect the monthly reports on compliance and deal with non-compliance
issues with appropriate authorities.
 Penalty mechanisms are not specified and only two states in India (Maharashtra and
Rajasthan) have some form of penalty mechanisms.
 RPO targets and obligations are not clear, and the RPO compliance cell has just started on
22.05.2018 to collect the monthly reports on compliance and deal with non-compliance
issues with appropriate authorities.
 Penalty mechanisms are not specified and only two states in India (Maharashtra and
Rajasthan) have some form of penalty mechanisms.
 The parameter to determine the tariff is not transparent in the regulatory framework and
many SRECs have established a tariff for limited periods. The FiT is valid for only 5
years, and this affects the bankability of the project.
 Many SERCs have not decided on adopting the CERC tariff that is mentioned in CERCs
regulations that deal with terms and conditions for tariff determinations. The SERCs have

P a g e 37 | 54
 considered the plant load factor (PLF) because it varies across regions and locations as
well as particular technology. The current framework does not fit to these issues.
 Third party sale (TPS) is not allowed because renewable generators are not allowed to sell
power to commercial consumers. They have to sell only to industrial consumers. The
industrial consumers have a low tariff and commercial consumers have a high tariff, and
SRCS do not allow OA. This stops the profit for the developers and investors.

Institutional obstacles

 Institutes, agencies stakeholders who work under the conditions of the MNRE show poor
inter-institutional coordination. The progress in renewable energy development is limited
by this lack of cooperation, coordination, and delays. The delay in implementing policies
due to poor coordination, decrease the interest of investors to invest in this sector.
 The single window project approval and clearance system is not very useful and not
stable because it delays the receiving of clearances for the projects ends in the levy of a
penalty on the project developer.
 Pre-feasibility reports prepared by concerned states have some deficiency, and this may
affect the small developers, i.e., the local developers, who are willing to execute
renewable projects.
 The workforce in institutes, agencies, and ministries is not sufficient in numbers.
 Proper or well-established research centres are not available for the development of
renewable infrastructure.
 Customer care centres to guide developers regarding renewable projects are not available.
 Standards and quality control orders have been issued recently in 2018 and 2019 only,
and there are insufficient institutions and laboratories to give standards/certification and
validate the quality and suitability of using renewable technology.
 Financial and fiscal obstacles
 There are a few budgetary constraints such as fund allocation, and budgets that are not
released on time to fulfil the requirement of developing the renewable sector.
 The initial unit capital costs of renewable projects are very high compared to fossil fuels,
and this leads to financing challenges and initial burden.
 There are uncertainties related to the assessment of resources, lack of technology
awareness, and high-risk perceptions which lead to financial barriers for the developers.

P a g e 38 | 54
 The subsidies and incentives are not transparent, and the ministry might reconsider
subsidies for renewable energy because there was a sharp fall in tariffs in 2018.
 Power purchase agreements (PPA) signed between the power purchaser and power
generators on pre-determined fixed tariffs are higher than the current bids (Economic
survey 2017–2018 and union budget on the 01.02.2019). For example, solar power tariff
dropped to 2.44 INR (0. 04 USD) per unit in May 2017, wind power INR 3.46 per unit in
February 2017, and 2.64 INR per unit in October 2017.
 Investors feel that there is a risk in the renewable sector as this sector has lower gross
returns even though these returns are relatively high within the market standards.
 There are not many developers who are interested in renewable projects. While newly
established developers (small and local developers) do not have much of an institutional
track record or financial input, which are needed to develop the project (high capital cost).
Even moneylenders consider it risky and are not ready to provide funding. Moneylenders
look exclusively for contractors who have much experience in construction, well-
established suppliers with proven equipment and operators who have more experience.
 If the performance of renewable projects, which show low-performance, faces financial
obstacles, they risk the lack of funding of renewable projects.
 Financial institutions such as government banks or private banks do not have much
understanding or expertise in renewable energy projects, and this imposes financial
barriers to the projects.
 Delay in payment by the SERCs to the developers imposes debt burden on the small and
local developers because moneylenders always work with credit enhancement
mechanisms or guarantee bonds signed between moneylenders and the developers.

Market obstacles

 Subsidies are adequately provided to conventional fossil fuels, sending the wrong
impression that power from conventional fuels is of a higher priority than that from
renewables (unfair structure of subsidies)
 There are four renewable markets in India, the government market (providing budgetary
support to projects and purchase the output of the project), the government-driven market
(provide budgetary support or fiscal incentives to promote renewable energy), the loan
market (taking loan to finance renewable based applications), and the cash market

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 (buying renewable-based applications to meet personal energy needs by individuals).
There is an inadequacy in promoting the loan market and cash market in India.
 The biomass market is facing a demand-supply gap which results in a continuous and
dramatic increase in biomass prices because the biomass supply is unreliable (and, as
there is no organized market for fuel), and the price fluctuations are very high. The type
of biomass is not the same in all the states of India, and therefore demand and price
elasticity is high for biomass.
 Renewable power was calculated based on cost-plus methods (adding direct material cost,
direct labour cost, and product overhead cost). This does not include environmental cost
and shields the ecological benefits of clean and green energy.
 There is an inadequate evacuation infrastructure and insufficient integration of the grid,
which affects the renewable projects. SERCs are not able to use all generated power to
meet the needs because of the non-availability of a proper evacuation infrastructure. This
has an impact on the project, and the SERCs are forced to buy expensive power from
neighbour states to fulfil needs.
 Extending transmission lines is not possible/not economical for small size projects, and
the seasonality of generation from such projects affect the market.
 There are few limitations in overall transmission plans, distribution Capex plans, and
distribution licenses for renewable power. Power evacuation infrastructure for renewable
energy is not included in the plans.
 Even though there is an increase in capacity for the commercially deployed renewable
energy technology, there is no decline in capital cost. This cost of power also remains
high. The capital cost quoted by the developers and providers of equipment is too high
due to exports of machinery, inadequate built-up capacity, and cartelization of equipment
suppliers (suppliers join together to control prices and limit competition).
 There is no adequate supply of land, for wind, solar, and solar thermal power plants,
which lead to poor capacity addition in many states.

Technological obstacles

 Every installation of a renewable project contributes to complex risk challenges from

environmental uncertainties, natural disasters, planning, equipment failure, and profit
loss.

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 MNRE issued the standardization of renewable energy projects policy on the 11th of
December 2017 (testing, standardization, and certification). They are still at an
elementary level as compared to international practices. Quality assurance processes are
still under starting conditions. Each success in renewable energy is based on concrete
action plans for standards, testing and certification of performance.
 The quality and reliability of manufactured components, imported equipment, and
subsystems is essential, and hence quality infrastructure should be established. There is
no clear document related to testing laboratories, referral institutes, review mechanism,
inspection, and monitoring.
 There are not many R&D centres for renewables. Methods to reduce the subsidies and
invest in R&D lagging; manufacturing facilities are just replicating the already available
technologies. The country is dependent on international suppliers for equipment and
technology. Spare parts are not manufactured locally and hence they are scarce.

Awareness, education, and training obstacles

 There is an unavailability of appropriately skilled human resources in the renewable

energy sector. Furthermore, it faces an acute workforce shortage.
 After installation of renewable project/applications by the suppliers, there is no proper
follow-up or assistance for the workers in the project to perform maintenance. Likewise,
there are not enough trained and skilled persons for demonstrating, training, operation,
and maintenance of the plant.
 There is inadequate knowledge in renewables, and no awareness programs are available
to the general public. The lack of awareness about the technologies is a significant
obstacle in acquiring vast land for constructing the renewable plant. Moreover, people
using agriculture lands are not prepared to give their land to construct power plants
because most Indians cultivate plants.
 The renewable sector depends on the climate, and this varying climate also imposes less
popularity of renewables among the people.
 The per capita income is low, and the people consider that the cost of renewables might
be high and they might not be able to use renewables.
 The storage system increases the cost of renewables, and people believe it too costly and
are not ready to use them.

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 The environmental benefits of renewable technologies are not clearly understood by the
people and negative perceptions are making renewable technologies less prevalent among
them.

Environmental obstacles

 A single wind turbine does not occupy much space, but many turbines are placed five to
ten rotor diameters from each other, and this occupies more area, which include roads and
transmission lines.
 In the field of offshore wind, the turbines and blades are bigger than onshore wind
turbines, and they require a substantial amount of space. Offshore installations affect
ocean activities (fishing, sand extraction, gravel extraction, oil extraction, gas extraction,
aquaculture, and navigation). Furthermore, they affect fish and other marine wildlife.
 Wind turbines influence wildlife (birds and bats) because of the collisions with them and
due to air pressure changes caused by wind turbines and habitat disruption. Making wind
turbines motionless during times of low wind can protect birds and bats but is not
practiced.
 Sound (aerodynamic, mechanical) and visual impacts are associated with wind turbines.
There is poor practice by the wind turbine developers regarding public concerns.
Furthermore, there are imperfections in surfaces and sound—absorbent material which
decrease the noise from turbines. The shadow flicker effect is not taken as severe
environmental impact by the developers.
 Sometimes wind turbine material production, transportation of materials, on-site
construction, assembling, operation, maintenance, dismantlement, and decommissioning
may be associated with global warming, and there is a lag in this consideration.
 Large utility-scale solar plants require vast lands that increase the risk of land degradation
and loss of habitat.
 The PV cell manufacturing process includes hazardous chemicals such as 1-1-1
Trichloroethene, HCL, H2SO4, N2, NF, and acetone. Workers face risks resulting from
inhaling silicon dust. The manufacturing wastes are not disposed of properly. Proper
precautions during usage of thin-film PV cells, which contain cadmium—telluride,
gallium arsenide, and copper-indium-gallium-diselenide are missing. These materials
create severe public health threats and environmental threats.

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 Hydroelectric power turbine blades kill aquatic ecosystems (fish and other organisms).
Moreover, algae and other aquatic weeds are not controlled through manual harvesting or
by introducing fish that can eat these plants.

Discussion and recommendations based on the research

Policy and regulation advancements

 The MNRE should provide a comprehensive action plan or policy for the promotion of
the renewable sector in its regulatory framework for renewables energy. The action plan
can be prepared in consultation with SERCs of the country within a fixed timeframe and
execution of the policy/action plan.
 The central and state government should include a “Must run status” in their policy and
follow it strictly to make use of renewable power.
 A national merit order list for renewable electricity generation will reduce power cost for
the consumers. Such a merit order list will help in ranking sources of renewable energy in
an ascending order of price and will provide power at a lower cost to each distribution
company (DISCOM). The MNRE should include that principle in its framework and
ensure that SERCs includes it in their regulatory framework as well.
 SERCs might be allowed to remove policies and regulatory uncertainty surrounding
renewable energy. SERCs might be allowed to identify the thrust areas of their renewable
energy development.
 There should be strong initiatives from municipality (local level) approvals for renewable
energy-based projects.
 Higher market penetration is conceivable only if their suitable codes and standards are
adopted and implemented. MNRE should guide minimum performance standards, which
incorporate reliability, durability, and performance.
 A well-established renewable energy certificates (REC) policy might contribute to an
efficient funding mechanism for renewable energy projects. It is necessary for the
government to look at developing the REC ecosystem.
 The regulatory administration around the RPO needs to be upgraded with a more efficient
“carrot and stick” mechanism for obligated entities. A regulatory mechanism that both
remunerations compliance and penalizes for non-compliance may likely produce better
results.

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 RECs in India should only be traded on exchange. Over-the-counter (OTC) or off-
exchange trading will potentially allow greater participation in the market. A REC
forward curve will provide further price determination to the market participants.
 The policymakers should look at developing and building the REC market.
 Most states have defined RPO targets. Still, due to the absence of implemented RPO
regulations and the inadequacy of penalties when obligations are not satisfied, several of
the state DISCOMs are not complying completely with their RPO targets. It is necessary
that all states adhere to the RPO targets set by respective SERCs.
 The government should address the issues such as DISCOM financials, must-run status,
problems of transmission and evacuation, on-time payments and payment guarantees, and
deemed generation benefits.
 Proper incentives should be devised to support utilities to obtain power over and above
the RPO mandated by the SERC.
 The tariff orders/FiTs must be consistent and not restricted for a few years.

Transmission requirements

 The developers are worried that transmission facilities are not keeping pace with the
power generation. Bays at the nearest substations are occupied, and transmission lines are
already carrying their full capacity. This is due to the lack of coordination between
MNRE and the Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) and CEA. Solar Corporation of
India (SECI) is holding auctions for both wind and solar projects without making sure
that enough evacuation facilities are available. There is an urgent need to make
evacuation plans.
 The solution is to develop numerous substations and transmission lines, but the process
will take considerably longer time than the currently under-construction projects take to
get finished.
 In 2017–2018, transmission lines were installed under the green energy corridor project
by the PGCIL, with 1900 circuit km targeted in 2018–2019. The implementation of the
green energy corridor project explicitly meant to connect renewable energy plants to the
national grid. The budget allocation of INR 6 billion for 2018–2019 should be increased
to higher values.
 The mismatch between MNRE and PGCIL, which are responsible for inter-state
transmission, should be rectified.

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 State transmission units (STUs) are responsible for the transmission inside the states, and
their fund requirements to cover the evacuation and transmission infrastructure for
renewable energy should be fulfilled. Moreover, STUs should be penalized if they fail to
fulfil their responsibilities.
 The coordination and consultation between the developers (the nodal agency responsible
for the development of renewable energy) and STUs should be healthy.
 Financing the renewable sector
 The government should provide enough budget for the clean energy sector. China’s
annual budget for renewables is 128 times higher than India’s. In 2017, China spent USD
126.6 billion (INR 9 lakh crore) compared to India’s USD 10.9 billion (INR 75500 crore).
In 2018, budget allocations for grid interactive wind and solar have increased but it is not
sufficient to meet the renewable target.
 The government should concentrate on R&D and provide a surplus fund for R&D. In
2017, the budget allotted was an INR 445 crore, which was reduced to an INR 272.85
crore in 2016. In 2017–2018, the initial allocation was an INR 144 crore that was reduced
to an INR 81 crore during the revised estimates. Even the reduced amounts could not be
fully used, there is an urgent demand for regular monitoring of R&D and the budget
allocation.
 The Goods and Service Tax (GST) that was introduced in 2017 worsened the industry
performance and has led to an increase in costs and poses a threat to the viability of the
ongoing projects, ultimately hampering the target achievement. These GST issues need to
be addressed.
 Including the renewable sector as a priority sector would increase the availability of credit
and lead to a more substantial participation by commercial banks.
 Mandating the provident funds and insurance companies to invest the fixed percentage of
their portfolio into the renewable energy sector.
 Banks should allow an interest rebate on housing loans if the owner is installing
renewable applications such as solar lights, solar water heaters, and PV panels in his
house. This will encourage people to use renewable energy. Furthermore, income tax
rebates also can be given to individuals if they are implementing renewable energy
applications.

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Improvement in manufacturing/technology

 The country should move to domestic manufacturing. It imports 90% of its solar cell and
module requirements from Malaysia, China, and Taiwan, so it is essential to build a
robust domestic manufacturing basis.
 India will provide “safeguard duty” for merely 2 years, and this is not adequate to build a
strong manufacturing basis that can compete with the global market. Moreover, safeguard
duty would work only if India had a larger existing domestic manufacturing base.
 The government should reconsider the safeguard duty. Many foreign companies desiring
to set up joint ventures in India provide only a lukewarm response because the given
order in its current form presents inadequate safeguards.
 There are incremental developments in technology at regular periods, which need capital,
and the country should discover a way to handle these factors.
 To make use of the vast estimated renewable potential in India, the R&D capability
should be upgraded to solve critical problems in the clean energy sector.
 A comprehensive policy for manufacturing should be established. This would support
capital cost reduction and be marketed on a global scale.
 The country should initiate an industry-academia partnership, which might promote
innovative R&D and support leading-edge clean power solutions to protect the globe for
future generations.
 Encourage the transfer of ideas between industry, academia, and policymakers from
around the world to develop accelerated adoption of renewable power.

Awareness about renewables

 Social recognition of renewable energy is still not very promising in urban India.
Awareness is the crucial factor for the uniform and broad use of renewable energy.
Information about renewable technology and their environmental benefits should reach
society.
 The government should regularly organize awareness programs throughout the country,
especially in villages and remote locations such as the islands.
 The government should open more educational/research organizations, which will help in
spreading knowledge of renewable technology in society.
 People should regularly be trained with regard to new techniques that would be beneficial
for the community.
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 Sufficient agencies should be available to sell renewable products and serve for technical
support during installation and maintenance.
 Development of the capabilities of unskilled and semiskilled workers and policy
interventions are required related to employment opportunities.
 An increase in the number of qualified/trained personnel might immediately support the
process of installations of renewables.
 Renewable energy employers prefer to train employees they recruit because they
understand that education institutes fail to give the needed and appropriate skills. The
training institutes should rectify this issue. Severe trained human resources shortages
should be eliminated.
 Upgrading the ability of the existing workforce and training of new professionals is
essential to achieve the renewable goal.
 Hybrid utilization of renewables
 The country should focus on hybrid power projects for an effective use of transmission
infrastructure and land.
 India should consider battery storage in hybrid projects, which support optimizing the
production and the power at competitive prices as well as a decrease of variability.
 Formulate mandatory standards and regulations for hybrid systems, which are lagging in
the newly announced policies (wind-solar hybrid policy on 14.05.2018).
 The hybridization of two or more renewable systems along with the conventional power
source battery storage can increase the performance of renewable technologies.
 Issues related to sizing and storage capacity should be considered because they are key to
the economic viability of the system.
 Fiscal and financial incentives available for hybrid projects should be increased.

Emerging Best Practices

Despite these grid integration challenges, many countries have integrated high levels of
variable RE as a share of annual electricity generated. In these systems the impact of variable
RE has not compromised reliability because policy makers, planners, and system operators
have made changes to regulations, market designs, and system operations to address the grid
integration challenges. While there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach, these experiences have
informed a set of best practices that address the grid integration challenges. These best

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practices include improving integrated planning methodologies and increasing system
flexibility.

Improve Integrated Planning Methodologies

Coordinated and integrated planning allows decision makers to anticipate how variable RE
might impact the power grid and its operations, and evaluate options that could minimize
costs across a system. Planning that is segregated by type (e.g., generation, transmission, and
system performance each evaluated separately) or restricted to a small geographic scale
adversely impacts the ability to employ best practices to accommodate RE, including
diversifying RE locations and enlarging balancing authorities (Cochran et al. 2012). For
example, the addition of new physical generation capacity can be minimized if considered in
coordination with improvements to system operations that increase access to existing
flexibility. Also, co-optimized development of transmission and RE generation can reduce
overall costs of transmission, and facilitate lower-cost access to high-quality RE resources.

Increase System Flexibility Across All Elements of the Power System

Although simple-cycle natural gas plants, which can be designed to change output quickly,
are frequently viewed as a natural pairing with variable RE, other sources of flexibility may
already exist across the power system: operations, demand, energy storage, generation, and
transmission.

Flexible system operations and markets: Two central components to system operation are
unit commitment and dispatch. Unit commitment is the scheduling of generators to be
available, typically day-ahead. Dispatch is the method by which system operators choose
among available generators to deliver energy at least operating cost. The system operator
seeks to access the physical system (e.g., generators) in the most flexible manner. But access
to the physical system is mediated by the institutional framework, namely the rules for how
decisions are made in scheduling and dispatch. Changes to system operation practices and
markets can allow access to significant existing flexibility, often at lower economic costs than
options requiring new sources of physical flexibility.

As another example, incorporating renewable supply forecasting into unit commitment and
dispatch can improve the scheduling of other generators to reduce reserves, fuel consumption,
and operating and maintenance costs (Lew et al. 2011). Regulations increasingly require

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variable RE generators to forecast power output and the potential for forced outages (FERC
2012). Integrating these data into market operations can help variable RE plants participate
efficiently in electricity markets (Reisz and Milligan 2014).

Additional examples of operational changes that improve access to flexibility include a

higher dispatch frequency (the timeframe over which a generator must follow a specified
output level) and use of smart network technologies and advanced network management
practices that minimize bottlenecks and optimize transmission usage.

Flexible demand and energy storage: Demand response increasing the responsiveness of
electricity demand to operator controls and/or price signals improves flexibility by enabling
or encouraging consumers, particularly in the industrial and commercial sectors, to vary their
demand in response to system events or economic conditions (Hummon and Kiliccote 2013).
Demand response mechanisms include automated load control by the system operator, real-
time pricing, and time-of-use tariffs. A typical response time for automated demand response
is seconds to minutes (Watson et al. 2012). Although participation by individual customers
might be limited in duration (e.g., a few hours a year), aggregating participation over a broad
customer class can provide a reliable source of system flexibility.

Additionally, energy storage technologies—including pumped hydroelectric, compressed air,

thermal storage, and batteries also hold value at high penetrations of variable RE (Denholm et
al. 2013). Storage can absorb energy when its value is low, reduce RE curtailment, and
provide additional operational flexibility through its fast response time. Many storage
technologies (e.g., batteries, flywheels, supercapacitors) have fast response rates (seconds to
minutes) available over a short timeframe; other storage technologies, such as pumped hydro
energy storage and compressed air energy storage, are better suited to offering flexibility in
the time frame of hours to days (Miller et al. 2013). Several thermal storage technologies also
can provide flexibility, such as end-use thermal storage, which can shift demand for heating
and cooling, or concentrating solar power, which can use highly efficient thermal storage and
become a dispatchable resource with high-capacity value (Denholm et al. 2014). Many
available storage technologies have a higher capital cost relative to other options for
flexibility currently available. In most power systems, further technology improvements will
be needed for storage to be cost competitive with other flexibility options.

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Flexible conventional generation: Conventional power plants and dispatchable, non-variable
RE generators such as biomass or geothermal plants provide flexibility if they have the ability
to rapidly ramp-up and ramp-down output to follow net load; quickly shut-down and start-up;
and operate efficiently at a lower minimum level during high RE output periods (IEA 2014).
New and retrofitted large-scale power plants, as well as smaller-scale distributed generation
(e.g., micro combined heat and power units), can supply flexible generation (Holttinen 2013).
Examples of flexible thermal generation include aeroderivative turbines and reciprocating
engines, as well as older power plants that are operated flexibly, such as coal plants in
Germany.

Flexible variable RE: Technology advancements now enable wind plants to provide the full
spectrum of balancing services (synthetic inertial control, primary frequency control, and
automatic generation control), an increasingly common requirement for systems with high
levels of RE generation.

Interconnected transmission networks: Transmission capacity is often considered an integral

part of system flexibility as it offers an alternative to using variable RE generation only
locally. Transmission capacity allows variable RE to instead be transmitted to other regions
where the energy can be used. In addition, improving connections with neighboring
transmission networks, including extending existing lines, provides the power system greater
access to a range of balancing resources.

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Recommendation & Conclusion

The renewable sector suffers notable obstacles. Some of them are inherent in every renewable
technology; others are the outcome of a skewed regulative structure and marketplace. The
absence of comprehensive policies and regulation frameworks prevent the adoption of
renewable technologies. The renewable energy market requires explicit policies and legal
procedures to enhance the attention of investors. There is a delay in the authorization of
private sector projects because of a lack of clear policies. The country should take measures
to attract private investors. Inadequate technology and the absence of infrastructure required
to establish renewable technologies should be overcome by R&D. The government should
allow more funds to support research and innovation activities in this sector. There are
insufficiently competent personnel to train, demonstrate, maintain, and operate renewable
energy structures and therefore, the institutions should be proactive in preparing the
workforce. Imported equipment is costly compared to that of locally manufactured; therefore,
generation of renewable energy becomes expensive and even unaffordable. Hence, to
decrease the cost of renewable products, the country should become involve in the
manufacturing of renewable products. Another significant infrastructural obstacle to the
development of renewable energy technologies is unreliable connectivity to the grid. As a
consequence, many investors lose their faith in renewable energy technologies and are not
ready to invest in them for fear of failing. India should work on transmission and evacuation
plans.

Inadequate servicing and maintenance of facilities and low reliability in technology decreases
customer trust in some renewable energy technologies and hence prevent their selection.
Adequate skills to repair/service the spare parts/equipment are required to avoid equipment
failures that halt the supply of energy. Awareness of renewable energy among communities
should be fostered, and a significant focus on their socio-cultural practices should be
considered. Governments should support investments in the expansion of renewable energy
to speed up the commercialization of such technologies. The Indian government should
declare a well-established fiscal assistance plan, such as the provision of credit, deduction on
loans, and tariffs. The government should improve regulations making obligations under
power purchase agreements (PPAs) statutorily binding to guarantee that all power DISCOMs
have PPAs to cover a hundred percent of their RPO obligation. To accomplish a reliable
system, it is strongly suggested that renewables must be used in a hybrid configuration of two
or more resources along with conventional source and storage devices. Regulatory authorities
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should formulate the necessary standards and regulations for hybrid systems. Making
investments economically possible with effective policies and tax incentives will result in
social benefits above and beyond the economic advantages.

Limitations

India has embarked on a path to become a low carbon economy. Renewable energy may
constitute as much as ~44% of the installed energy capacity mix by 2027, with the share of
renewables in the electricity generation mix increasing to 23% by 2027. two keys challenges
faced by the Indian power system: higher flexibility requirements for higher renewable
energy penetration and potential stranding of existing coal-based power plants. Both of these
can be addressed in a cost-effective manner in the short-to-medium term by converting
existing baseload coal plants to flexible plants. However, this transition will require
compensation to existing plants in the order of 5-10% of total baseload cost in NPV terms.

The large-scale integration of RES into the power grid will have an impact on the stability of
the power system. Both the frequency and voltage stability are highly affected by integrating
large scale RES into the grid. To minimize frequency and voltage related issues, the several
control techniques that are applied to wind and solar based generators has to precisely
implemented in order to avoid any discrepancies in future with the grid stability.

Design of policy pathways and frameworks to facilitate this transition is the most important
next step in this process. This would include regulations that support adequate compensation
to coal power plants that are used as flexible resources. A further welcome step would be
development of a capacity market to ensure cost-effective procurement of flexible capacity,
including from coal and other sources.

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