NTPC awards India’s first green hydrogen microgrid project

The project would be a test case to assess the potential of solar-powered hydrogen to displace costly and polluting diesel-based energy generation systems in far-off regions of the country like Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir.

December 16, 2021 Uma Gupta

The NTPC project would rely on electrolysis for carbon-free hydrogen production from solar power.

Image: NTPC

State-owned power producer NTPC Limited has awarded the contract to build a standalone micro-grid project with hydrogen storage at its Simhadri thermal station in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

“This will be India’s first green hydrogen-based energy storage project. It would be a precursor to large-scale hydrogen energy storage projects and would be useful for studying and deploying multiple microgrids in various off-grid and strategic locations of the country,” stated NTPC.

The hydrogen would be produced using the advanced 240 kW solid oxide electrolyzer by taking input power from a floating solar PV project on the reservoir of Simhadri thermal station. The hydrogen produced during sunshine hours would be stored at high pressure and electrified using a 50 kW solid oxide fuel cell. The system would work in a standalone mode from 5 PM to 7 AM.

The project configuration is designed in-house by NTPC. This unique project for India would open doors for decarbonizing the far-off regions of the country like Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), etc., hitherto dependent on costly and polluting diesel-based energy generator systems.

The project is in-line with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making India carbon neutral by 2070 and making Ladakh a carbon-neutral territory.

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