A proposal by NTPC Ltd to establish a grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) at NTPC facility at Kayamkulam in Alappuzha district is under the active consideration of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB).
The proposed BESS, which would be the seventh in the State and the second in south Kerala, will initially have a capacity of 250 MW/1000 MWh (250 MW for four hours), an NTPC official said.
‘MW’ denotes the maximum amount of power that the system can deliver at a given moment, and ‘MWh,’ the amount of energy that the battery can store. The existing transmission lines of the NTPC unit can be used for the BESS project for evacuating electricity, the official said. The proposal was submitted in December 2025, and the modalities are being worked out.
Kerala is focusing heavily on BESS projects, given the rapid increase in solar power capacity and the absence of storage for the surplus generated during the solar hours for meeting the evening peak demand.
At present, BESS projects are under progress at the KSEB substations in Mylatti (125 MW/500MWh, Sreekandapuram (40 MW/160 MWh), Mulleria (15 MW/60 MWh) and Areacode (30 MW/120 MWh) in north Kerala, and Pothencode (40 MW/160 MWh) in Thiruvananthapuram district in the south. The KSEB had recently informed the State Electricity Regulatory Commission that these projects would be ready by October 2026.
The Commission also had recently cleared a sixth 250MW/500MWh project at Brahmapuram in Ernakulam district. Presenting the status of the State’s power scenario in The State Legsialtiev assembly on July 1, Electricity Minister Sunny Joseph had said that the government intended to give priority to BESS for handling the peak-hour shortages.
The emphasis on BESS is also on account of the fact that the development of new hydro projects and pumped storage projects (PSP) would take more time.
Published – July 04, 2026 04:46 pm IST
