The Government of India has the target of installing 40 GW of grid connected rooftop solar PV by 2022 as part of the 100 GW target for solar energy resources. The rooftop solar target will be mainly achieved via connections to the distribution grid (33 kV and below). Therefore, distribution companies have an important role and must prepare for the expected PV deployment including coordination of grid support services from rooftop solar PV and battery energy storage systems.

Energynautics together with the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) were commissioned by GIZ to analyse the services which can be provided by solar rooftop PV and battery storage to support the distribution grid in India and propose technical solutions for integrating decentralised photovoltaic systems and battery storage.

First, Energynautics estimated the benefits of the identified grid supporting services for the national Indian scenario. In a second step, a case study for one distribution company in New Delhi was performed in order to investigate the impact of the present as well as the targeted rooftop PV share on the distribution grid, and to analyse the impacts from the provision of solar rooftop PV and battery storage grid support services from a technical and economic perspective.

The key finding of this study is that the grid support services analysed have shown to provide revenue and technical support to the distribution grid. However, establishing business cases remains challenging in the current scenario. Recommendations have been provided to support further PV integration as well as the establishment of batteries in India.