Industry Forum: Paving the Path for LDES in India

International collaboration remains a crucial mainstay for state and industry leaders to promote technology innovation and explore the right mix of policy and market settings to decarbonize the economy. For the last eight years, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Wadhwani Chair in U.S.-India Policy Studies has tracked state-level issues and shaped subnational engagements with India. CSIS has successfully brought together U.S. and Indian state governments, research institutions, and industry to support Indian states on emergent energy transition issues.

Per the International Energy Agency, India will require a substantial increase in its power system flexibility to meet its decarbonization goals. By 2040, India is expected to have a storage capacity in the range of 140 – 200 GW. India’s flexibility portfolio will undoubtedly require a diverse range of storage technologies to allow multiple pathways to a successful energy transition. Long-duration energy storage (LDES) could play a critical role in unlocking these pathways. LDES could enable widescale renewable energy (RE) deployment over a longer period by levelling seasonal variations in RE generation. It’s a critical tool to time-shift the RE supply flexibly to match the demand. However, the relatively higher cost and varying market maturity of LDES makes it the least considered tool among the Indian policymakers at the central and state level. In addition, there remains limited know-how of LDES’ applications and value streams in the Indian storage value chain. To reach its full technological potential in building a decarbonized power sector, LDES needs to be scaled up dramatically. This implies that in the short term, the industry will need to support policymakers in building market designs that allow early deployment of LDES. Thus, de-risking the investors and creating a conducive environment for achieving scale.

To address these challenges, Indian industry can leverage the learning curve of peers from the United States to understand technological uncertainties, supportive policies, and market initiatives for wider policy consideration and at-scale deployment of LDES. In this context, CSIS proposes to host a U.S-India Industry round-table on LDES to foster a deep conversation between the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) and its U.S. counterparts. IESA is a leading industry alliance focused on developing advanced energy storage, green hydrogen, and e-mobility technologies in India. This round table will explore policy and private interventions to support the market development of LDES in India.

1. Raise awareness on the challenges, needs, and opportunities merits of LDES technologies to foster efficient market development of LDES in India.
2. Identify actionable, short, and medium-term policy and private initiatives to support LDES deployment.
3. Identify emerging trends shaping the global storage market that present new business opportunities for storage companies.
4. Create a dependable network for sharing homegrown, contextually appropriate solutions in the spirit of mutual respect and understanding.

Participants will include a leadership team from IESA, select U.S. Industry Association, U.S. National Labs, Indian policymakers, and CSIS experts on Energy and India. The roundtable will be virtual, private, and invite-only. Participation will be limited to 15-20 people.

Agenda Total Duration: 60 min