IIT Kanpur inaugurates Thermal Energy Storage System at CESE building

IIT Kanpur inaugurated a thermal energy storage system of capacity 775 TR HR at the Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering (CESE) building.

The institute is leading a joint Indo-US project called UI-ASSIST on Smart Grid and Storage Technology, funded by the Department of Science and Technology, through Indo US science and technology forum New Delhi.

Under this project five demonstration pilot units are being set up in rural, semi-urban, and urban/institutional settings. The project at CESE building is a part of its urban pilot.

“This technology is quite effective in reducing the building air conditioning load and minimizing peak electricity demand in the system. This thermal storage system utilizes the latest concept of the use of phase change material with a Brine solution as coolant which takes low-cost energy during off-peak period to achieve the coolant temperature up to (-) 4 degree Celsius and supports the air conditioning load during peak period to the tune of 77.5 TR for 10 hours,” an official statement said.

The technology also results in significant energy saving that can be adopted in smart city and data center applications. The project is led by Prof. S. C. Srivastava, Prof. Santanu Mishra, and Prof. Ankush Sharma from the Electrical Engineering department of IIT Kanpur and primarily executed by Vinay Kumar Tiwari, Executive engineering IWD and Shiv Kumar Singh, Research Establishment Officer, Electrical Engineering Department IIT Kanpur, with Kehems Technologies Indore as a service provider.

Prof Sameer Khandekar from Mechanical Engineering Department has provided periodic guidance for the selection of the technology.