Chennai: In a first in India, NTPC Limited, formerly known as National Thermal Power Corporation Limited, has awarded the country's first green hydrogen microgrid project to the Simhadri plant in Andhra Pradesh. The project has been launched at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for becoming a carbon neutral region by 2070.
In a tweet, NTPC Limited said, "India’s first and one of the world’s largest #GreenHydrogen Microgrid Projects to be set up at NTPC Simhadri, Visakhapatnam."
The energy storage project is expected to help with large-scale hydrogen storage and to deploy multiple microgrids in various off-grid and strategic locations across India.
A press release on the launch said, "NTPC has awarded a project of “Standalone Fuel-Cell based Micro-grid with hydrogen production using electrolyzer in NTPC Guest House at Simhadri (near Visakhapatnam)”.
“It is 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," it said.
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"The hydrogen would be produced using the advanced 240 kW Solid Oxide Electrolyser by taking input power from the nearby Floating Solar project. The hydrogen produced during sunshine hours would be stored at high pressure and would be electrified using a 50 kW Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. The system would work in standalone mode from 5 PM in the evening to 7 AM in the morning," the release said.
Further, the release said, the unique project was designed by NTPC and the project would open doors for decarbonising the far-off regions of the country like Ladakh, J&K etc., which are until now dependent on diesel generators.