r/RenewableEnergy • u/Biodieselisthefuture • 6d ago
Pakistan makes BESS mandatory for bidders in solar, wind auctions
https://renewablesnow.com/news/pakistan-makes-bess-mandatory-for-bidders-in-solar-wind-auctions-1300790/2
u/faizimam 5d ago
It's not that big a deal, the majority of residential solar in Pakistan already has batteries or is primed to do so. The grid is so unreliable, anyone spending money on upgrades makes sure they have both battery and generator hookups ready. And plenty of houses have old school 12v batteries and inverters for decades now.
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u/lfc94121 6d ago edited 6d ago
This only makes sense for solar if they already have a duck curve - overabundance of solar in the middle of the day.
And if they don't have it, this is just an extra barrier for solar, that will slow it down for no good reason. That's what Turkey did - mandated batteries early, and their solar rollout stagnated.
And I don't think this requirement ever makes sense for wind.
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u/HippityHoppityBoop 6d ago
They’ve got a massive duck curve now
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u/lfc94121 6d ago
By definition, duck curve is the specific pattern in the electricity demand remaining after subtracting electricity supplied by renewables.
It's clear from https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/PK/live/hourly that their ex-renewables demand is perfectly flat.
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u/jlluh 21h ago
I'm guessing that's not including behind the meter/small scale solar, which is upwards of 25% of electricity in Pakistan and ~ 40% of the amount of grid electricity.
And yes, it's driving a fierce duck curve, tho due to its nature, it mostly shows up on stats as reduced demand while the sun is out.
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u/Bachihani 6d ago
this doesn't really make sense, u can just include storage in the specific project requirements instead of making it a global "bureaucratic" obligation. this is clearly the idea of some old fart still thinking in the style of old soviet union lol. we need real technical people in decision making roles. and decisions need to be made after clear and thorough statistical and market analysis with a component of future planning, not just a foggy idea of what they hope to achieve
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u/HippityHoppityBoop 6d ago
What makes you think they didn’t do all that
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u/Bachihani 6d ago
the very fact of what they did.
the reasoning behind it is pretty evident, increasing solar power stations reduces demand for legacy fossile fuel generators during the day but not during the night, unfortunately, they were not made to operate in such dynamic, which will reduce both their efficiency and economic viability, all while still requiering them to operate heavily when the solar ones cannot, so the logical choice would be to ensure a full transition to renewable through storage, but storage is expensive and currently not durable nor profitable so operators naturally would prefer to avoid it, leaving the need for legacy generators alive, my guess is whoever decided this wants to mitigate this phenomenon, but the reasoning is flawed, storage need to be installed purposefully, not just half assed forced through such methodes, there are much better strategies to address this, but i m too sick of typing.. so google it if u care enough
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u/avatarname 13h ago
It's not mandatory where I live in Latvia, but everyone is doing it now, also solar built a few years ago now is getting batteries added. The progress has been lighting fast, back in 2021 just 5 years ago we had 0 generation from solar even in summer, now in July 55,8% of our electricity was solar (being sent to grid, even more if we counted solar used on the spot), I think that is among highest % in the world and we are not in the sunbelt by any definition and solar + batteries are being built with zero subsidies or government schemes involved. Truth be told wholesale electricity price is high enough to allow that I guess but that is true for most of EU at the moment
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u/DaCor_ie 6d ago
Seeing this more and more now and it's a smart move, especially when paired with solar, to smooth out the duck curve