Commercial-scale battery energy storage systems being installed at 16 electricity transmission substations across Sri Lanka are expected to be connected to the national grid in early September, officials say.
The installations are in the final stages of construction. The battery units were shipped into the country through the Colombo Port in three consignments during May and June.
Each project will add 10 megawatts of capacity to the national system. The project being built by WindForce PLC near the Anuradhapura substation is around 85 percent complete, according to officials.
Storing solar by day, releasing it at night
The systems are designed to absorb surplus electricity generated by solar plants during daylight hours and release it back to the grid at night as demand requires.
Officials said that will serve two purposes: stabilising the national grid, and cutting the volume of electricity that must be generated by diesel-fired plants after dark. Reducing nighttime diesel generation lowers fuel consumption and improves the overall efficiency of the system.
Operations and expansion
Control and management of the battery systems will rest with National System Operator Ltd. (NSO), which comes under the Ministry of Energy. Maintenance will be handled by the respective developer companies.
Procurement is already under way to install similar battery storage at a further 23 substations.
Officials of WindForce PLC and Galilee Bess said stored electricity could begin flowing to the national grid from the beginning of September.
Context
The rollout follows a 250 MW battery storage tender floated in mid-July and forms part of a broader push to raise the share of renewables on the grid. Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya has said energy storage is central to the government’s target of 70 percent renewable generation by 2030.
Storage is the missing piece in that plan: solar output peaks in the middle of the day, while Sri Lanka’s demand peaks in the evening, leaving the gap to be filled by expensive thermal plants. WindForce, one of the developers involved, secured an 18 million dollar IFC loan for battery capacity earlier this year.
Sources: NewsFirst, Ada Derana, Daily Mirror.
