Dipak Sen Chaudhuri
Bio
Dipak has a PhD in Chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and has been associated with the ‘energy storage industry’ for more than 40 years. His initial training started with the then ‘Chloride Group’, Manchester, UK, where he developed various motive power batteries, including those for the propulsion of ‘Submarines’ used today by Indian Navy amongst others across the globe. Since then he has worked in close cooperation with specialists from the erstwhile Shin Kobe Battery – a part of the Hitachi Group, Japan and R&D teams of East Penn Manufacturing, USA. He has been a part of the emergence of his company Exide Industries Limited from a level of annual business of $ 40 million in the eighties to close to $ 2.0 Billion in the last financial year. His current research interests include Bipolars, Ultra technology and ‘BMS’. Also, in the upcoming involvements of his company in lithium and other chemistry space. He is also a regular contributor to the quarterly journal; ‘Battery & Energy Storage’ – BEST magazine published from UK Dipak is currently VP, R&D of company Exide Industries Limited, India.
India proposes to install 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power generation by 2030. Renewable power with BESS can ensure both peak-time and round-the-clock power supply and the government has come out with a series of incentives to encourage major investments into storage. In one of the estimates, the cumulative BESS capacity required by 2031-32 is 236 GWh. The planned investments in lithium and other alternate chemistry cells in the country over next five years would barely reach 50-60 GWh and this will include serving the country’s growing appetite for electric 2 and 3 wheelers and cars. There would hardly be much left for stationary applications unless the country continues to heavily depend on imports from abroad, which is certainly not a favoured option.
Across the country, roof-top solar both with and without storage is steadily becoming a preferred configuration for reliable, round-the-clock power supply for both residential as well as commercial and industrial applications. In this segment the lead battery has a majority presence together with a credible track-record established over decades. However, the economics of the lead battery solution needs further improvement and manufacturers in the country are focussed on footprint, charging efficiency and cycle-life improvements to make it more competitive to the other chemistries on offer. Given the inherent unreliability of the Indian grid, diesel generators (DG) are a standard accessory in many residential, office as well as small industrial establishments. Entrepreneurs have built a DG offset solution, with a lead battery bank, which eliminates the need for a DG and delivers silent power on time-shifting duty. The payback of such systems can be as low as 2-3 years.
Finally, for a vast and diverse geography country like India, microgrids are a very logical solution instead of having grids crisscrossing the whole country across difficult terrains. Till some years back this was a focus of government attention, and funds were available for projects across the country. Of late, this has been taken over by the government’s intent to go for large MW solar parks and MWh storages which invariably has taken the storage to lithium and even to pumped storage. Microgrids are expected to make a come back as India’s distribution network remains inadequate to reach the remote, less-populated small villages of the country. Lead-acid gel, with some improvements, would be the preferred storage technology to be used in such condition.
