TUV Rheinland Introduces Hybrid Renewable Energy in India

Hybrid Renewable Energy Projects are being promoted and looked at as an optimal solution to fulfil clean energy commitments made by the Government. It is understood that most of the future power projects would be Renewable Energy based and in the near to medium term, these would be mostly Hybrid Energy Projects with a mix of various renewable energy technologies, which may or may not be complemented by conventional sources of energy.

TUV Rheinland, a global leader in independent technical services, has announced the introduction of a new solution for such Hybrid Energy Projects. As a Renewable Energy Advisor or Consultant, TUV Rheinland will be helping Bidders / RE and Thermal Independent Power producers / developers in preparing Project Sizing Tools, complemented with internal software to help optimise different energy generation technologies to arrive at an optimal mix for lowest cost of energy determination.

TUV Rheinland is one of the most active service providers in the Indian Renewable Energy (IRE) space. Among other services of Solar Energy and Wind Energy Consulting, TUV Rheinland primarily assists customers with Energy Yield Assessment, Owner's Engineering, Third Party Inspection, Lender's Engineering, Asset Management Services, etc.

Mr. Thomas Fuhrmann, Managing Director, TUV Rheinland India said, "We are happy to introduce our newly launched Hybrid Renewable Energy System services. TUV Rheinland has provided services equivalent to 45 GW of RE Assets and has been working with all the major IPPs, developers, OEMs, and financial institutions for several Renewable Energy projects." He added, "In recent times, the integrated renewable energy system is gaining more attention since a hybridised system can be resourcefully applied to supply high efficiency and reliable electricity to end-users, unlike a single-renewable source. Being one of the leading RE Advisory solution providers, it is our utmost responsibility to provide significant solutions which benefit all Wind, Solar, Hydro as well as Thermal Energy Generators."

One of the biggest downfalls of renewable energy is that energy supply is not constant; sources such as solar and wind power fluctuate in intensity due to the weather and seasonal changes. Therefore, to minimise this fluctuation to the maximum extent, upcoming projects are Hybrid ones allowing use of Storage Technologies and/or Thermal/Hydro with certain constraints. This in turn converts the infirm RE power into firm time bound reliable power having majority of RE mix. India is pioneering in this space while coming out with such large sized Hybrid Bids for constrained (Round The Clock, peak hours) power procurement. 

In line with the same, on 22nd July 2020, Honorable Ministry of Power has also come out with "Guidelines for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding Process for Procurement of Round-The Clock Power from Grid Connected Renewable Energy Power Projects, complemented with Power from Coal Based Thermal Power Projects.

Commenting on the new service, Mr. Ravi Kumar, Vice President, TUV Rheinland India said, "We have started providing our new services to a few of the Renewable Energy Generators as well as Thermal Generators. Additionally, we have been providing similar services for Hybrid Project Energy Assessment/ Designing/ Repowering to numerous customers across India."

Mr. Rupesh Singh, Head Energy & Environment, TUV Rheinland India said, "Appropriately sizing a Hybrid Project with constraints of capacity and supply such as Round the Clock (RTC) and complemented with Storage/Thermal/Hydro is a complex undertaking. A marginal MWs shift in any of the technology can change the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) substantially." He added, "We intend to organise a webinar shortly to showcase our capabilities in this area."