The Ministry of Heavy Industries has signed a program agreement with Reliance New Energy Battery, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, for a capacity of 10 GWh under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Program for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC).

With this agreement, a cumulative capacity of 40 GWh has been allocated to four firms out of the total 50 GWh capacity.

The initial bidding for the ACC Energy Storage PLI Program concluded in March 2022, awarding 50 GWh capacity to Ola Electric Mobility (20 GWh), Hyundai Global Motors (20 GWh), Reliance New Energy (5 GWh), and Rajesh Exports (5 GWh). However, Hyundai withdrew, leaving 20 GWh unallocated. The remaining winners signed the program agreement in August 2022.

To allocate the remaining capacity, the Ministry issued a tender in April last year to select manufacturers for 10 GWh. Bids totaling 70 GWh were submitted by ACME Cleantech Solutions, Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies, Anvi Power Industries (Gensol Group), JSW Neo Energy, Reliance Industries, Lucas TVS, and Waaree Energies.

The budget for the capacity tendered was ₹36.2 billion (~$416.71 million).

The technology-agnostic PLI program was approved in May 2021, with the government allocating ₹181 billion (~$2.08 billion) to establish 50 GWh of ACC manufacturing capacity.

Under the program, selected bidders must commit to setting up an ACC manufacturing facility with a minimum value addition of 25% within two years from the appointed date and a minimum of 60% value addition within five years from the appointed date. They must also establish a manufacturing capacity of 5 to 10 GWh within five years from the appointed date, and only then will they be ranked from the highest to the lowest based on their technical score.

The subsidy disbursement will commence once the proposed committed capacity and value addition levels are achieved and the sale of the ACC begins. The disbursement will be phased over a five-year window, payable quarterly, as per the program agreement signed between the government and the selected bidder.