Modhera Sun Temple And Town Is Now Solar Powered, Thanks To 18 MWh BESS

The Integrated Solar Energy Project at Sun Temple Town of Modhera, Gujarat, has been successfully executed. This is India’s first integrated state-of-the-art Solar Project and features a battery energy storage system (BESS), which is one of the largest till date under operation in the country.

The Project was awarded by GPCL to Mahindra Susten as an EPC and it was fully commissioned on 26th August 2021, having been completed within 1 year.

The inverters for this BESS system have come from Italian and global inverter and mobility major Fimer. Fimer supplied its 1MVA inverters to Mahindra Susten for the BESS system at Modhera. The project has rendered Modhera Sun temple and Modhera town self-reliant and self-sustainable for their power requirement through solar energy.

The project features a 6 MW grid connected system with 6MVA BESS system with 18 MWh Battery energy storage system.
Additionally, the town is solar-powered by 100 kW rooftop system on govt buildings, 50 kW Solar parking infrastructure, 271 nos X 1Kwp solar systems on residential buildings and 150 kWh Battery storage for solar charging system.

FIMER supplied PCS of rating 1 MVA x 6 nos for BESS application: during solar hours the solar inverter powers the load, and the excess power charges the batteries; additionally, PCS can also support load demand during solar deficit conditions. FIMER PCS is also equipped with Black Start Mode / Grid Forming Mode, during grid failure conditions; FIMER PCS can form the Grid in V/F mode and other sources (inverters) can synchronize to AC bus and start supporting load or charge batteries. If grid comes back, PCS can operate in grid following mode and act as back-up whenever required. This is the first-time a bidirectional converter of 1 MW has been supplied to Indian market.

KN Sreevatsa, Country Managing Director at FIMER India said: “At FIMER, we believe not only in providing tailormade solutions for the customer’s maximum benefit, but we also like to “Make a difference” to their lives. We fully support our PM’s vision of making small towns and cities self-sustainable and we are glad to be a part of this remarkable project.

Pramod Kalyanshetti, Chief Commercial Officer of Mahindra Susten, commented: “Modhera Project is one of the prestigious and highly innovative integrated projects executed in the country. Susten is privileged to be the EPC for this project of national importance. The project has a complexity of integrating the solar generation ranging from 1 KW to 6 MW and Battery system of 18MWh. Susten design team had analysed each design aspect thoroughly while running various generation model simulations and concluded on final design. All the equipment’s used in the project were analysed considering the reliability and long-term service. FIMER had provided us their best service with supply of inverters in our previous projects. Considering the best design fit and their reliability the FIMER PCS of size 6MW is used for our prestigious Modhera project.”

In recent time, plans have been drawn up to make cities having religious significance reliant on green energy. For instance, Ayodhya, Mathura, Varanasi, Prayagraj and Gorakhpur will have clean and green energy by 2024, according to the UP government’s plans.