Asia builds large energy storage power stations

Sembcorp Successfully Commissions Southeast Asia's largest Energy Storage System”, December 23, 2022. Based on independent assurance provider DNV's global database of 4,210 ESS projects totalling 32GWh and publicly available information as of January 5, 2023 for a comparable size utility-scale ESS (same or higher rating and same design).

By Ganesh Padmanabhan, Head of Project Finance, Jern Siew, Executive Director, Project Finance (Australia), and Suvro Sarkar, Senior Vice President, Group Research (Energy Sector), DBS Bank. As Asia gears up for a shift to renewable energy, energy storage has come to the fore. But the transition to cleaner power can be a bumpy ride.

In the central China region, the provinces of Zhejiang, Hubei, and Hunan possess the largest prospective capacities in the pipeline, with 95 GW across 79 projects. Moreover, 13 provinces that do not presently have any operating pumped storage facilities boast over 127 GW of prospective capacity.

As Asia gears up for a shift to renewable energy, energy storage has come to the fore. But the transition to cleaner power can be a bumpy ride. To navigate the uncertain landscape, countries have to monitor trends in technology, costs and electricity markets closely.

Both China and India have now reached critical inflexion points in the deployment of grid-level energy storage options, as the proportion of generation from renewables has reached about 15% of total electricity generation, prompting policy calls for higher investments in storage to ensure grid stability.

China is leading in this area, with its gross energy storage capacity addition reaching 22GW in 2023. This makes up 36% of the world's total additions, according to BloombergNEF (BNEF). India has also launched ambitious targets for the development of battery storage, aiming for 34GW by 2030 to power the electric vehicle sector in particular.