Behind the storage gains at Mulleria: the stalled 125 MW battery plant at Mylatti and the 5 lakh units it is to give at peak

Background

The first battery storage project Keralam approved and began was not the one at Mulleria but the larger plant at Mylatti.
That plant is rated at 125 MW and is to supply 5 lakh units during the evening peak once it is working.
Work on it has stopped about halfway, and the delay is put at a cost of more than Rs 30 lakh a day to KSEB.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission has recorded strong displeasure at the slow progress.
Meanwhile the smaller 15 MW plant at Mulleria was finished first and is already feeding the grid.
The point of both plants is the same: hold cheap power through the day and release it when demand peaks in the evening.
Without storage, the Board has to buy evening power at more than Rs 16 a unit, and market rates have at times reached Rs 22.
Storage therefore works as a tool of tariff control as much as of grid stability.