With an eye on both clean energy and security, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has sanctioned a 250 MW venture at Sitapur in UP that will include a Battery Energy Storage System. NTPC is on board to see this through as the first of its kind from the Ministry of Defence on military land, and they are touting it as a source of steady power and some hard-earned savings for our facilities. It is a move to wean off old-fashioned power and put in something you can count on. The thinking is that you can have your national and energy security and be good to the environment all at once. It’s about sidestepping the cost and continuity headaches that have been a fact of life for some of these places for too long.
What has been approved and why it matters
You’ll find the new solar-plus-storage set-up on some 850 odd acres of open ground at the old Sitapur Cantonment. With the batteries to back it up, it should mean there is no shortage of clean power for the various defence outposts in the state, day or night. The MoD puts it simply: you will see a reduction in the electricity bill over time and a more sure-footed supply. It is part of a wider plan to make the most of any unused land for the sake of sustainability.
How NTPC will go about it
NTPC Ltd will be running the show, and they will be using a competitive bid to make sure the pricing is right. The whole point is to get the best value from the start and let the savings add up for the defence side of things. They will be in close touch with the Integrated Headquarters of the MoD (Army) and the Directorate General Defence Estates to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. The Ministry wants to see a cooperative effort to hit the mark and have results to show for it.
Battery storage at the core
You can’t have the kind of reliability we’re after without the battery storage. It lets you put aside the sun’s energy during the day and have it when you need it, say after dark or if the grid goes down. It is what makes the infrastructure resilient.
Scale, signal, and precedent
Come 250 MW, the one in Sitapur will be among the bigger renewable plays on defence land in India. It is a statement piece: you can run a military site on solar and still meet the high bar for dependability. We expect the Ministry to hold it up as an example for others to follow. Put it on some of the other empty parcels and you could be looking at even more savings, less emissions, and a standard for how to handle power in key spots around the country.
Impact on costs and operations
The word from the top is that the bottom line for electricity will improve over the life of the project. That gives you some breathing room in the budget for other things and takes the sting out of tariff changes or blackouts. When you can’t afford to be without power, the battery is what you want. It is a matter of having a supply you can predict, which in the end means you are not left scrambling and you are always ready to go. The Ministry has put three things at the top of the list: – See to it the work gets done on time with everyone on board – Make the most of the vacant land for clean energy – Get the best price through the bidding process – Put energy security in place for the establishments in UP
Why now, and what comes next
This is in step with the government’s drive to build up our renewables and have some fortitude in our strategic assets. By making storage part of the package, you solve the problem of having to trust an intermittent source to be there when the chips are down.
The Ministry says all parties will be working in concert to get this over the line. If we do it the way we have in mind, Sitapur will be the model for the rest of the defence estate in no time.
