Shri Manohar Lal Inaugurates India’s 1st MWh-Scale Vanadium Flow Battery at NTPC NETRA

Shri Manohar Lal, Minister of Power and Housing & Urban Affairs, inaugurated India’s first and largest MWh-scale Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFB) system with a capacity of 3 MWh at NTPC’s NETRA R&D Centre in Greater Noida. The milestone marks a significant leap in India’s pursuit of long-duration energy storage (LDES) solutions, enabling greater renewable energy integration and strengthening national grid resilience.

The inauguration was attended by Shri Pankaj Agarwal, Secretary (Power), Additional Secretary Shri Piyush Singh, and senior officials from the Ministry of Power. Shri Gurdeep Singh, CMD of NTPC, along with NTPC’s leadership team, welcomed the Minister.

The Vanadium Redox Flow Battery is a contemporary technology that has the potential to emerge as one of the alternatives for more traditional lithium ion-based batteries. The development of this advanced battery system will widen the pool of elements that can be sourced and used for making battery systems.

The Minister commended the NETRA team for developing solutions that address the energy transition and energy security challenges. He emphasized that India’s capabilities in innovation and technology are setting new benchmarks for sustainable development and energy transition.

Shri Manohar Lal was also briefed about NTPC’s pioneering R&D work in the domain of Carbon Capture, Green Hydrogen, Energy Storage and Waste-to-Energy Technologies.

The Minister visited following demonstration plants at NTPC NETRA: (i) Green Hydrogen Mobility Plant, (ii) STP Water-based Green Hydrogen Plant, (iii) Solid Oxide-based High-Temperature Steam Electrolyzer, (iv) MSW-RDF based enhanced Steam Gasification Plant, (v) AC Microgrid (4 MWp & 1 MWh Li-NMC BESS) alongside state-of-the-art NABL-accredited laboratories.