ViZn Energy Systems, a provider of energy storage systems for utility, C&I, and microgrid applications, won a 1 MWh utility energy storage contract to ensure electrical grid stability in India.
ViZn’s systems will be installed and integrated by Raychem RPG at Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) facilities in Puducherry, India.
The country of India is projected by Mercom Capital Group to install over 9 GW of new solar power capacity in 2017, which will make it one of the largest solar markets in the world along with China, the United States, and Japan. India is already the fourth largest wind market in the world (behind China, the United States, and Germany) according to the Global Wind Energy Council with over 25 GW of installed wind power generation capacity.
PGCIL is an Indian public limited company that has the mandate for planning, coordination, supervision and control over the inter-state transmission systems and the national and regional power grids. The company plans to use energy storage to play a crucial role in ensuring stability of the grid and providing balancing mechanisms.
The ViZn flow batteries are housed in shipping containers that do not require cooling systems and are easily interconnected to meet a project’s power and energy requirements. ViZn Energy’s flow batteries experience zero capacity fade over 20 years and they have full access to 100 percent of their state of charge, giving them more useable output than competitive batteries.
They are also capable of performing both rapid, high-power discharges and slower, long-duration releases at lower power (unlike other storage technologies that can only do one or the other). This enables utilities, C&I customers, and other end users to stack applications and incorporate multiple value streams. The zinc-iron chemistry uses globally abundant materials and is non-flammable, non-toxic and easily recyclable at the end of life.
