Bengal comes up with battery energy storage system to check overloading
Kolkata: The West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL) has roped in the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) for a pilot project in Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in some areas of Barasat, Bidhannagar and Behala to check overloading during peak hours in summer and thereby preventing the transformer from becoming defunct.
“The places that have been identified hardly have any space to undertake replacement of distribution transformers. Moreover, the cost for replacing a transformer if it goes defunct is also very huge. The BESS system will prevent overloading during peak hours in summer particularly in the evening. TERI has already started their feasibility study and will submit their findings in six to eight months. If feasible, we will implement it,”a senior official of WBSEDCL said.
Ganthi Paulpara in Barasat, Hatiara Uttarmath in Bidhannagar and Srijani Ranjit Park area in Behala are the areas where it has been found that some transformers associated with electricity supply to residential consumers face huge overload during the summer months. There is significant voltage drop and the residents had submitted mass petition to the WBSEDCL pointing out their difficulty and urging the state distribution company to come up with some solution. However, there is no space for putting up distribution transformers to tackle the problem in these areas.
A senior official of TERI said that such BESS pilot project in Bengal is the first of its kind in the country. “We are searching for strategic locations where we can put up this system,” the official said. WBSEDCL has also identified certain areas in Burdwan rural Garia and Barasat where there is requirement of such infrastructure to meet agriculture as well as domestic consumer requirement. Transformers in Nischintapur and Khandakosh in Burdwan , Bidhanpally and Kalibazar in Garia, Sadanpur and Jeerat in Barasat suffers due to huge load from the month of December to February – March when farmers take up Boro cultivation. TERI has already studied some distribution transformers in Bidhannagar and Barasat that supply electricity for domestic consumers and face enormous overloading during summer. “We will soon take up study in those areas with a mix of agriculture and domestic consumers,” the TERI official said. TERI may also integrate the Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahaabhiyan (KUSUM) scheme launched in February for promotion of solar farming with the BESS project for those areas with a mix of agriculture and domestic consumers.
Source: millenniumpost.in
