NEW DELHI: The government’s latest tender for grid-scale energy storage shows many key changes from its 2021 version, including easier entry requirements, a shift from energy density to battery efficiency, and lower subsidies per kilowatt-hour (KWh).
The new 10 GWh tender, the final part of the larger 50 GWh initiative under the ₹18,100-crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for advanced chemistry cells (ACC), was floated on 15 July and marks a shift in policy priorities, according to tender documents reviewed by Mint.
The tender will close on 13 October, and bids will be opened on 14 October, according to the ministry of heavy industries (MHI), which administers the PLI scheme. A pre-bid conference will be held on 29 July.
In 2021, under the first bidding round of the PLI ACC scheme, the government awarded 50 GWh capacity to four bidders – Ola Electric (20 GWh), Reliance Industries Ltd (5 GWh), Rajesh Exports (5 GWh), and a company called Hyundai Global Motors (20 GWh).
However, after clarifications from automaker Hyundai Motor that ‘Hyundai Global Motors’ was not associated with the Korean manufacturer, the government rescinded the award.
Of the 20 GWh capacity that was rescinded, 10 GWh was awarded to Reliance New Energy, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, in September 2024.
The last remaining 10 GWh capacity was earmarked for grid-scale storage, and the heavy industries ministry called for bids for this capacity on 15 July, almost two years after the last award under the scheme.
“The minimum and maximum bid capacity thresholds were revised to 1 GWh and 4 GWh, respectively, to encourage wider participation and attract more bidders for the remaining 10 GWh capacity. The revised limits also retain the same 1:4 minimum-to-maximum bid capacity ratio as the earlier 5–20 GWh bidding framework, ensuring consistency with the original scheme design,” the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) told Mint in an email response to a query.
Queries emailed to the ministry of heavy industries, cell makers Amara Raj, and Reliance Industries remained unanswered till press time.
The ministry of heavy industries, in a written response to parliament in March 2026, said that unavailability of technology, skilled manpower gaps, delays in importing critical machinery, and non-availability of upstream components were the key reasons why battery capacity developers under the scheme had been unable to meet targets.
Now, under the tender earmarked for grid-scale storage, the government has made considerable changes to the original 2021 request for proposal (RFP), reducing the threshold for bidding capacity to 1-4 GWh from 5-20 GWh earlier, and cutting down the per kilowatt-hour subsidy to ₹1,500 from ₹2,000 earlier. One gigawatt-hour equals one million kilowatt-hours of energy storage capacity.
The MNRE also confirmed that the per kWh subsidy has been reduced in this tender to reflect the falling costs of cell manufacturing globally.
Another crucial change is within the bid evaluation framework, wherein the government will now consider the energy efficiency of cells instead of energy density.
The MNRE also said this change is aimed at subsidising cells which waste the least amount of energy and are used in a wide array of applications. “In addition to grid-scale stationary energy storage applications, the key technical parameters that determine the suitability and economic viability of battery technologies are cycle life and round-trip energy efficiency, as these directly influence the operational lifetime, energy throughput, reliability, and levelized cost of storage (LCOS) over the project's life cycle. Energy density is not a primary performance criterion, as such installations are generally not constrained by space or weight,” the MNRE said in its response to Mint's queries.
Experts said that while the change in parameters to accommodate energy efficiency as a criterion was welcome, other changes still mimic the 2021 tender under the PLI ACC scheme.
“In the earlier tender, the minimum and maximum capacity that companies could bid for was 5 GWh and 20 GWh, out of a total of 50 GWh; and it was allocated to 4 companies of which one company didn’t exist. Under the new tender, the threshold is 1-4 GWh for total 10 GWh, which means again 3-4 bidders can get the entire capacity. If the (10 GWh) capacity is allotted to 7-8 companies, at least 4-5 may be successful,” said Reji Kumar Pillai, president of the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF), a power ministry-backed think tank.
The 15 July tender said a bidder must submit a technical as well as financial bid for the bid to be considered. The technical bid would cover 80% of the total assessment weight, while financial bid would cover 20%.
Of the technical bid, 70% of the evaluation will be based on the domestic value addition plan of the bidder, while the remaining 30% will be based on bidder’s committed capacity.
“In the evaluation criteria, 70% weightage is for domestic content. The problem with keeping domestic value addition, or localisation, as a criteria is that India does not have locally-manufactured materials which are battery-grade. In the previous tender, a bidder’s experience in making batteries was not considered, and this was a major concern. However, this has not changed in the new tender. It is difficult to develop battery-grade materials rapidly, especially when no concrete steps are being taken towards it so far,” said Pillai.
As of February 2026, Ola Electric had developed 1 GWh cell manufacturing capacity, while the others had developed none.
Rajesh Exports’ battery manufacturing project has come under scrutiny after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) alleged in early June that the Bengaluru-based company overstated about ₹15.15 trillion in revenue over five years through unverifiable transactions and diverted company funds to promoter-linked entities.