SEOUL, KOREA - Samsung SDI said on November 28 that it signed an agreement with Acme Group, an Indian energy management vendor, to supply 110-MWh energy storage systems for two years.

 

Acme is a company specializing in solar power solutions and telecom equipment. As many as 150,000 mobile communications base stations out of 400,000 throughout India are using equipment manufactured by Acme.

 

The Indian company will replace all its lead-acid batteries used for base stations with Samsung SDI-supplied lithium-ion battery-based energy storage systems. In addition, it will soon install the systems in its solar power stations as well.

 

A Samsung SDI official said, "In countries like India where climate is warm and humid, lead-acid batteries last only 12 to 18 months. If the companies opt to replace the batteries with lithium-ion ESS, they can use the systems up to ten years and recoup their investment within the first two years."

 

India is considered a promising market for energy storage systems as large parts of the country still suffer from frequent power outages and the government is keenly interested in renewable energy and ESS-based distributed power generation.

 

According to an estimate, the global market for energy storage systems is forecast to grow to US$40 billion by 2020 from $16 billion this year.