India's Effort on Round-The-Clock (RTC) Clean Power to Green Hydrogen Production: Complex Auctions Driving the Transition

India is rapidly advancing its green energy revolution, with Round-The-Clock (RTC) clean power playing a pivotal role in the country’s decarbonization strategy. A key aspect of this transition is the use of complex auctions to ensure that renewable energy is reliable, available 24/7, and increasingly integrated with green hydrogen production. These auctions have significantly expanded in recent years, marking a major shift towards more firm and stable renewable power sources.

Complex Auctions: Securing Reliable Renewable Power

India's renewable energy sector is evolving from simple, intermittent generation projects to complex auctions that focus on firm power supply. These auctions are critical for integrating renewable energy into industries that require consistent energy availability, including the production of green hydrogen—a key vector for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors like steel, cement, and transport.

One of the most significant challenges for renewable energy is its intermittency—wind and solar are only available when the weather permits. Complex auctions, particularly those for RTC power, ensure that renewable energy projects provide continuous power supply, addressing the intermittency challenge by integrating energy storage and innovative technologies.

Round-The-Clock Clean Power Auctions: The Backbone of Green Hydrogen Production

Round-the-clock auctions are a type of complex auction designed to ensure that renewable energy is available on an annual or monthly basis, allowing for the integration of renewable power into critical sectors like green hydrogen production. These auctions specify minimum availability requirements, ensuring that clean energy can be used to power hydrogen production plants consistently, without the need to revert to fossil fuels during periods of renewable energy shortfalls.

1. Technologies Involved: RTC auctions integrate wind, solar, and energy storage systems. By combining various renewable sources with battery or other storage technologies, the projects can meet the demand for 24/7 energy, a key prerequisite for running electrolysers, the machinery used in green hydrogen production.
2. Key Supply Conditions: For RTC projects, a minimum availability and capacity factor on an annual or monthly basis is mandated. This is vital for hydrogen production plants, which require constant power to produce hydrogen efficiently through electrolysis. Interruptions or variability in power supply can negatively impact the economics and viability of green hydrogen production.
3. Sizing Flexibility: There are no restrictions on the proportions of wind, solar, or storage components in RTC auctions, offering flexibility to developers to optimize their projects based on site-specific conditions. This flexibility is crucial for scaling green hydrogen production, which may have varying energy demands depending on the scale and location of the plant.
4. Third-Party Transactions: The ability to sell excess generation to third parties or in the wholesale market allows Independent Power Producers (IPPs) involved in RTC auctions to manage their energy output efficiently. This also opens opportunities for green hydrogen producers to source power from diverse suppliers or even become power suppliers themselves by participating in energy markets during surplus periods.

Scaling Green Hydrogen with Firm Renewable Power

Green hydrogen production requires vast amounts of energy, and its success depends heavily on the availability of low-cost, round-the-clock clean power. As India scales up its green hydrogen ambitions—aligned with its National Hydrogen Mission—the importance of RTC clean power auctions grows.

India’s approach to green hydrogen is multi-faceted, with RTC auctions forming the backbone of its energy strategy. RTC projects ensure that green hydrogen electrolysers can operate continuously, providing hydrogen for use in industries such as:

• Steel and Cement: Green hydrogen can be used as a direct replacement for fossil fuels in these industries, significantly reducing their carbon emissions.
• Transportation: Hydrogen-powered fuel cells can decarbonize long-haul transportation, including trucks, buses, and potentially even aviation.
• Ammonia Production: Green hydrogen is a key input for green ammonia, which is used in fertilizers and can also serve as a zero-carbon fuel.

Key Benefits of RTC Power for Green Hydrogen Production

1. Energy Reliability: By ensuring a 24/7 power supply, RTC auctions eliminate concerns about intermittency, making green hydrogen production more predictable and reliable. This ensures that electrolysis units can run smoothly without interruptions, improving operational efficiency.
2. Cost Reduction: Stable, round-the-clock renewable energy helps drive down the cost of hydrogen production. This is particularly important for industries aiming to transition from grey or blue hydrogen to green hydrogen, which is currently more expensive but critical for achieving net-zero targets.
3. Enhanced Grid Stability: Integrating storage into renewable energy projects for RTC power improves overall grid stability, which in turn ensures that hydrogen production plants do not face downtime due to grid imbalances. This supports the long-term scalability of hydrogen as a viable energy source for industrial and transportation sectors.

India's Growing Leadership in RTC Auctions and Green Hydrogen

India’s leadership in complex auctions, particularly RTC auctions, is positioning the country as a global pioneer in the integration of renewable energy with green hydrogen production. The growth in auction volumes, as shown in the image, highlights India’s strong commitment to creating a firm clean power supply that can support industrial decarbonization through green hydrogen.

India’s efforts align with its broader climate goals, including achieving 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030 and transitioning to a net-zero economy by 2070. By combining RTC auctions with large-scale green hydrogen production, India is not only addressing its domestic energy needs but also paving the way to become a global hub for green hydrogen exports, particularly to markets like Europe and Japan, which are investing heavily in hydrogen as a future fuel.

In this bold transition, Round-The-Clock auctions are more than just a solution for intermittency—they are a crucial tool in building a sustainable green hydrogen economy that can drive India's clean energy future and set an example for the world to follow.

Dr Mayilvelnathan Vivekananthan M.Eng.,PhD

Strategy Advisor - Green Hydrogen Value Chain

Director, Cipher Neutron Inc

[email protected] / [email protected]

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