Mumbai: Tata Power is set to invest Rs 300 crore in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) as part of a wider push to strengthen Mumbai’s power infrastructure and support the city’s rapidly growing electricity demand.The company plans to deploy 100 MW/200 MWh of battery storage capacity across generation, grid-level and consumer-end applications. The initiative is aimed at enhancing grid reliability, improving demand-side flexibility, and optimising power procurement costs while enabling a more resilient power network, said Nilesh Kane, Chief – Transmission and Mumbai Distribution, Tata Power.The storage systems will play a critical role in supporting three major demand drivers emerging across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. These include the rapid expansion of data centres requiring high-reliability extra-high-voltage connections, the growing Metro rail network across the city and suburbs, and large-scale urban redevelopment projects that are driving a surge in high-rise residential developments.To address increasing load density in land-constrained urban areas, Tata Power is also focusing on space-efficient infrastructure solutions. These include vertical substations with reduced footprints, high-rise consumer substations, underground submersible substations and tower-mounted substations.A senior company official said Tata Power’s Mumbai distribution network currently serves more than 8 lakh consumers through a network spanning 5,911 km and is expected to cross the 9-lakh consumer mark in the coming years.As part of its expansion roadmap, the utility plans to increase the number of distribution substations in Mumbai from 37 to 50. Consumer substations are projected to rise from 1,227 to 1,507, while the high-tension cable network will expand from 3,040 circuit km to 3,590 circuit km. The low-tension cable network is also slated to grow from 2,872 circuit km to 3,472 circuit km.The battery storage deployment forms part of Tata Power’s broader infrastructure expansion programme, described as the most extensive in its Mumbai operations history. Over the next five years, the company will scale up transmission and distribution assets to meet rising urban demand and support a projected peak load of 2,000 MW on its Mumbai network. The expansion is aligned with estimates that Mumbai’s overall power demand could touch 6,500 MW by 2031, underscoring the need for future-ready and resilient grid infrastructure.
