The government released the final guidelines last month to promote development of pumped storage projects in the country. The guidelines have been formulated with inputs received from stakeholders, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Power (MoP).
As per the guidelines, the state governments may allot project sites to developers through various ways, which would include competitive bidding, tariff-based competitive bidding process and on nomination basis to central public sector units (CPSUs) and state public sector units (PSUs).
The notification mandates the construction work to start within a period of two years from the date of allotment of the project, failing which allotment of the project site will stand cancelled. However, a one-year relaxation may be granted on a conditional basis.
Pumped storage projects (PSPs) allow the necessary scale of storage and have a long service life exceeding 40-50 years, and incur a low-cost of delivered energy over the life of the projects. PSPs are also non-polluting and are more environmentally-friendly, and account for over 95 percent of installed global energy storage capacity, as per the notification.
Moreover, pumped hydro projects are estimated to store up to 9,000 GWh of electricity worldwide.
Certain possible relaxations may include exempting land acquired by off-the-river PSPs from payment towards stamp duty and registration fees, and providing a concessional rate to the developers on an annual lease rent basis on government land, if any.
