Over the next 15 years, electricity demand from the key residential and commercial appliances is projected to be nearly 300 GW or ~65% of India’s total peak demand. The objective of this study is to characterize appliance level demand and temporal variation, and identify the overall DR potential in India. We use Bangalore Electricity Supply Company territory (peak load of 3,505 MW in 2016) as a case study, using actual one-minute resolution load data for 2,979 distribution feeders and a detailed load survey. Our results show that agricultural pumping and space cooling (residential, commercial, and industrial) are the main contributors to the peak demand – with shares of 23-27% and 14-23%, respectively. Both sectors have about 1,000 MW of DR potential – agricultural pumps offering load shifting service while space cooling offering shimmy service that is capable of dynamically adjusting to react to short-run ramps and grid disturbances. Residential electric water heaters contribute nearly 18% of the winter morning peak demand and can also offer about 500 MW in shimmy service. Overall, we find that shifting and shimmy services offer 1,199 MW and 1,511 MW total DR potential, respectively.

As California seeks to meet its ambitious goals for carbon reduction and support of an electric grid with high levels of renewable energy supply, there is a growing need for large amounts of flexibility from the demand side. This report outlines a system architecture and technology infrastructure to enable dynamic pricing to be used to finely tune coordination between the grid and its customers. Taking a cue from the success of internet architecture, this system — Price-Based Grid Coordination — emphasizes simplicity and universality. It enables a wide variety of ways for prices and other signals to pass from the grid to individual flexible loads and other devices, including multiple possible locations for the intelligence that combines price signals with device functional needs. The report includes a reference data model to knit together information at the utility level, communication protocols, and customer devices, to be independent of any particular protocol. The report also contains a roadmap for technology standards development needs, and a review of the current California policy developments that intersect dynamic pricing.

This study aims to assess the techno-economic potential of biomass and hybrid biomass-RE systems for India’s evolving grid by considering the biomass supply chain, fuel availability, and technical operation constraints. It estimates the potential value of biomass-based power plants to the Indian grid in 2030, with high RE penetration, and evaluates the capability of biomass-based power plants to provide the necessary grid balancing services that would be required. We conclude that biomass plants can add significant value to the system in terms of capacity and energy while improving the overall affordability, stability, and reliability of grid power. Biomass-based systems would significantly improve the capacity value of India’s 2030 projected RE resource mix (450 GW of solar-plus-wind installed capacity). However, the total value to the grid would be lower than the levelized cost of new systems without accounting for environmental and waste management benefits. If streamlining the supply chain could reduce biomass fuel costs, and hence variable costs, the economics could be more favorable.

In this policy brief, we summarize insights from recent studies on decarbonization pathways for the transportation sector in South Asia, particularly India. Lithium-ion battery prices have declined sharply over the last ten years. Therefore, in the short-to-medium term, battery-electric drivetrains are a cost effective alternative to petrol and diesel combustion engines. Electrification of transport would have immense environmental benefits for South Asia, which is home to 42 out of the top 50 world's most polluted cities. Given that oil consumption in India is dominated by heavy-duty-vehicles (HDVs), we focus on techno-economics of trucks and buses, along with high-mileage commercial vehicles such as app-based taxi services. We conclude that truck, intra-city and inter-city buses are already cheaper on the basis of total cost of ownership (TCO) over the lifetime of the vehicle. We describe the current policy scenario, challenges and outline recommendations for accelerating deployment of electric vehicles.

Zero emission freight trucks are needed to both improve public health and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions but at the same time are generally believed to be uneconomical. However, recent dramatic declines in battery prices and improvement in their energy density have created opportunities for battery-electric trucking today that were seldom anticipated just a few years ago. At the current global average battery pack price of $135 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (realizable when procured at scale), a Class 8 electric truck with 375-mile range and operated 300 miles per day when compared to a diesel truck offers about 13% lower total cost of ownership (TCO) per mile, about 3-year payback and net present savings of about US $200,000 over a 15-year lifetime. This is achieved with only a 3% reduction in payload capacity. Even this small penalty can be reversed cost-effectively through light-weighting, in any case, only matters for a small fraction of trucks which regularly utilize their maximum payload. Electric trucks appear poised to also meet the performance demands for a large share of regional and long-haul trucking today. The estimated average distance traveled between 30- minute driver breaks is 150 miles and 190 miles for regional-haul and long-haul trucks respectively in the US. Thirty minutes of charging using 500 kW or mega-Watt scale fastchargers would add sufficient range without impairing operations and economics of freight movement. However, as with almost any clean technology, higher upfront capital costs of both vehicles and charging infrastructure are major barriers when electric trucking is in its infancy. Without strong policy support, coordinated investments in both vehicle manufacturing and fuel infrastructure will not be forthcoming on the scale needed to harness the true potential of battery electric trucks.

Indian cities are struggling to keep the air breathable for inhabitants, due in part to emissions from diesel buses. While the case for electric buses, and more generally, zero emission buses, has always been clear from an urban air pollution perspective, the economic case depended strongly on their environmental benefits. However, the situation seems different today. We illustrate that when the benefits of recent dramatic declines in Lithium battery prices are fully realized, the total cost of ownership of urban (intra-city) electric buses is lower than that for diesel buses in India even without subsidies. Factoring in the air quality benefits, projected reductions in the cost of batteries and solar electricity, it becomes evident that transitioning to an all-electric bus fleet presents an enormous opportunity for India to reduce urban air pollution while improving the finances of urban bus transit agencies. The policy ecosystem that delivered substantial price reductions and large-scale rapid deployment of solar PV and LEDs is a model to achieve similar outcomes for battery electric buses. Well-designed high volume auctions and clear long term ambitious targets could achieve rapid electrification with little net public subsidy in the long-run.

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