Guidelines to Implement Battery Energy Storage Systems Under PPP Structures
In recent years, the role of battery storage in the electricity sector globally has grown rapidly. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 3 GW of battery storage capacity was being commissioned each year. About half of these additions were utility-scale front-of-meter projects; the remaining half being behind-the-meter projects addressing individual customer requirements. However, these projects have mostly been commissioned in developed countries, despite it being clear that batteries can deliver substantial benefits in less developed countries. This is part of the technology’s appeal, but it also adds to complexity in project development. In developed countries, markets often already exist for many of the services that a battery can provide (for example, frequency response and other ancillary services). In less developed markets, such markets do not normally exist. Public-private partnership (PPP) structures to overcome these barriers have not yet been widely deployed. The objective of this report is to provide guidance on how such structures can be implemented to grow the role of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in developing countries.