New Delhi – Recognizing the need to address climate change, ensure mutual energy security, and build a clean energy economy; Government of India and the United States of America agreed to expand the Indo-U.S. Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC) by funding new research in two areas critical to improving the reliability, flexibility and efficiency of the electricity delivery system - Smart Grids and Energy Storage. The Union Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India today announced the selection of the winning Bilateral Consortia project in this area.
The Government of India (through the Ministry of Science and Technology) and the U.S. Department of Energy each expect to award approximately $1.5 million per year for a period of five years, with a 50% cost share requirement from the consortium partners including the private sector. The program will be administered in India by the bilateral Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) and in the U.S. by the Department of Energy.
The awarded project titled “UI-ASSIST: U.S.-India collAborative for smart diStribution System wIth Storage” is led in India by Suresh C Srivastava from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and in the United States by Noel Schulz from Washington State University, Pullman. This collaborative project with 10 Academic and 18 Private partners from India and US aims at addressing essential issues related to the adoption and deployment of smart grid concepts along with Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) including storage in the distribution network. An important objective of this proposal is to bridge the gap between smart grid, storage and renewable energy research and facilitate its subsequent adoption by distribution utilities in their systems, with the joint efforts of Indo-US consortium.
The JCERDC is part of the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy, which aims to accelerate the transition to high performing, low emissions, and energy secure economies. The activities of the JCERDC would contribute greatly to the sustainability and prosperity of not only our two countries but also the world at large by addressing global energy and environmental sustainability challenges.
Details of the winning consortium can be accessed at www.iusstf.org
