Our Bureau
New Delhi, January 15
The government on Saturday said that a total of 10 bids with capacity of 130 Gwh have been received under the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery storage and companies include Reliance New Energy Solar, Hyundai Global Motors Company, Ola Electric, Mahindra & Mahindra, Lucas TVS and Amara Raja Batteries.
Other companies include Exide Industries Limited, Rajesh Exports, Larsen & Toubro and India Power Corporation.
“The scheme received an encouraging response from local as well as global investors as bids received is 2.6 times the manufacturing capacity to be awarded i.e. 50 Gwh,” the Ministry of Heavy Industries, said in a statement.
The request for proposal (RFP) was released by the Ministry on October 22, 2021 and was open for receiving applications till January 14 (Friday), and the technical bids were opened on Saturday.
“The manufacturing facility would have to be set up within a period of two years. The incentive will be disbursed thereafter over a period of five years on sale of batteries manufactured in India,” it said.
ACC battery manufacturing
The government had approved the PLI scheme 'National Programme on ACC Battery Storage’ for achieving manufacturing capacity of 50 Giga Watt Hour (GWh) of ACC for enhancing India’s manufacturing capabilities with a budgetary outlay of ₹ 18,100 crore.
“Under the said initiative the emphasis of the government is to achieve greater domestic value addition, while at the same time ensure that the levelised cost of battery manufacturing in India is globally competitive,” the Ministry said.
The programme is designed in such a manner that it is technology agnostic. The beneficiary firm would be free to choose suitable advanced technology and the corresponding plant and machinery, raw material and other intermediate goods for setting up cell manufacturing facility to cater to any application, it said.
It envisages an investment which will boost domestic manufacturing and also facilitate battery storage demand creation for both electric vehicles (EVs) and stationary storage along with development of a complete domestic supply chain and foreign direct investment in the country.
ACC PLI scheme is expected to result in saving to the nation on account of reduction in import of crude-oil to a significant extent and increase the share of renewable energy at the national grid level, it said.
This PLI scheme for ACC (₹18,100 crore) along with the already launched PLI scheme for automotive sector (₹25,938 crore) and Faster Adaption of Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) (₹10,000 crore) will enable India to leapfrog from traditional fossil fuel-based automobile transportation system to environmentally cleaner, sustainable, advanced and more efficient E) based system, it added.