Indo-German Energy Programme – Green Energy Corridors (IGEN-GEC)

Project description

Title: Indo-German Energy Programme – Green Energy Corridors (IGEN-GEC)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: India
Lead executing agency: Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India
Overall term: 2015 to 2020

Context

India possesses a wealth of diverse renewable energy (RE) resources which could be sustainably harnessed for the generation of electricity and several other energy applications. India’s RE agenda, while addressing the issue of climate change, also provides solutions on energy security and the accessing of energy. In the last five years, the RE capacity has grown manifold, largely due to a favourable policy environment in India.

The Government of India has set a target of 175 GW of installed RE capacities by 2022. While the increased share of variable RE generation in the electricity generation mix is a welcomed step, the move also poses fresh challenges to India’s grid operators. In order to be able to evacuate electricity from these RE capacities, an expansion and modernisation of the existing distribution and transmission grid is required. 

This is owed largely to the geographical distance between the centres of production and consumption, as well as due to the intermittent availability of RE sources and their necessary measures for grid stabilisation. The installation time of remotely located RE projects is significantly lower than developing the grid infrastructure. Hence, the evacuation of RE generation is becoming a bottleneck. Moreover, intermittency of RE generation causes frequency and voltage disturbances in the grid. Additionally, in the absence of state-of-the-art technology and skills on RE integration, grid operators have to frequently back-down these ‘must run’ generators. 

Objective

The Indo-German Energy Programme – Green Energy Corridors (IGEN-GEC) project is designing and developing a concise set of recommendations for decision makers and implementation agencies in India to assist them in achieving their targets of bringing in more RE electricity to the electricity network. 

Approach

The basic approach is to identify RE grid integration challenges and provide implementable solutions. The IGEN-GEC project includes diverse strategies to achieve its objectives, this includes:

  • Devising a methodology for assessment and enhancing balancing capability with more renewable energy in each state/control area.
  • Developing indigenous model for solar generation forecasting.  
  • Designing of the Renewable Energy Management Centres (REMCs), identifying their functional mandate and infrastructural requirements.
  • Designing the markets, including ancillary and capacity markets with emphasis on increased share of RE in the overall power sector.
  • Analysis and recommendations on the regulatory measures and technical standards in India which enable larger penetration of variable RE generation into the mainstream power network.
  • Developing human capacity and skills to better integrate RE into the grid.
  • Building the capacity of grid operators, regulators and policy makers at central as well as at state level on large scale RE grid integration.
  • Creation of a discussion platform for the sharing of international experiences and best practices in the integration of RE. 

GIZ is implementing Technical Cooperation in this field in close collaboration with KfW Development Bank in charge of Financial Cooperation. KfW is providing concessional loans of more than 1.4 billion euros for strengthening the central and state transmission infrastructure for evacuating renewable energy.

Results

  • Seven Renewable Energy Management Centres (REMCs) in RE rich states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, three in northern, southern and western regions and one on the national level have been conceptualised as nodal institutions for addressing operational issues on RE grid integration and will be operational by end of 2019.
  • The first International Conference on Large-Scale Grid Integration of RE in India was held from 6 to 8 September 2017 in New Delhi. It was successfully concluded with more than 350 participants from 18 countries and a total of 113 oral and 33 poster presentations. The purpose of the conference was to create a discussion platform for sharing international experiences and best practices in RE grid integration. 
  • A Blended certificate programme for training grid operators on RE grid integration was launched in November 2018. This programme has been designed as a three month online and six days classroom programme. 
  • An indigenous solar power forecasting model has been developed along with researchers from the National Institute of Wind Energy, NIWE. Intensive trainings have been given to NIWE staff to run this model sustainably in longer terms.