Through its Ministry of Heavy Industries, the Government of India has invited bids to select manufacturers for setting up production capacities for at least 5 GWh and totaling up to 50 GWh of Advanced Chemistry Cells (ACC) for energy storage under the production-linked incentive (PLI) program.

The last date to submit the bids is December 31, 2021, and bids will be opened on January 3, 2022. The pre-bid meeting will take place on November 12.

The successful bidder to be eligible for the subsidy will have to commit to set up an ACC manufacturing facility of a minimum 5 GWh capacity and with value addition of a minimum of 25% within two years from the appointed date and a minimum of 60% value addition within five years from the specified date.

The amount of subsidy quoted by the bidder should be subject to a ceiling of ₹2,000 (~$26.63)/KWh. Any bid that will quote a subsidy of over ₹2,000 (~$26.63)/kWh will be rejected.

The successful bidder should furnish a bid security amount of ₹10 billion (~$133.14 million) in favor of the Government of India as bid security in the form of a bank guarantee from any nationalized bank or a scheduled bank in India.

In June this year, the Department of Heavy Industry, Government of India, issued a notification for the PLI program ‘National program on Advanced Chemistry Cell battery storage’ to implement ACC manufacturing facilities for electric vehicles.

Last November, the central government had approved the PLI plan in ten critical sectors to enhance India’s manufacturing capabilities and exports under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. The program’s total five-year incentive payout is ₹181 billion (~$2.47 billion) to support 50 GWh of domestic ACC manufacturing.

The bidder may be a sole firm, single entity, or group of entities coming together to implement the project. The bidder may be a person, private entity, public sector undertaking, or any combination with a formal intent to enter into an agreement or under an existing contract to form a consortium.

If the bidder is not an alternative investment fund (AIF) or foreign investment fund, the bidder should have a minimum net worth of ₹2.25 billion (~$29.96 million)/GWh. Alternatively, if the bidder is an AIF or a foreign investment fund, the bidder should have a minimum ACI of ₹2.25 billion (~$29.96 million)/GWh at the end of the last financial year. The bidder may bid for any capacity if such bidder has a net worth of at least ₹15 billion (~$199.71 million) per this request for proposal.

Recently, Bharat Heavy Electricals invited bids to select partners to set up a gigawatt-scale ACC battery storage facility through a special purpose vehicle.

Subscribe to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker to stay on top of tender activity in real-time.