Reliance Industries has secured 10 GWh of Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery storage manufacturing capacity under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) program by the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI).

Besides Reliance, MHI had received bids from six other companies — ACME Cleantech Solutions, Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies, Anvi Power Industries (Gensol Group), JSW Neo Energy, Lucas TVS, and Waaree Energies – for a total capacity of 70 GWh.

After evaluation, six companies were shortlisted for financial review based on the tender’s criteria. The final selection was made using the quality and cost-based selection method, ranking bidders according to their combined technical and financial scores. Reliance Industries emerged with the highest overall score and was awarded the 10 GWh PLI ACC capacity.

The remaining shortlisted bidders were placed on a waitlist in order of ranking, starting with ACME Cleantech Solutions, followed by Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies, Waaree Energies, JSW Neo Energy, and Lucas TVS.

The ministry issued the tender in January this year following MHI’s announcement that it would re-issue the tender for the unallocated 20 GWh capacity under the ‘National Program on ACC Battery Storage.’

The budget for the capacity tendered is ₹36.2 billion (~$435.63 million).

In 2021, the government approved the technology-agnostic PLI program to implement 50 GWh of ACC manufacturing with an outlay of ₹181 billion (~$2.18 billion).

The initial bidding for the ACC Energy Storage PLI Program concluded in March 2022, with Ola Electric Mobility, Hyundai Global Motors, Reliance New Energy, and Rajesh Exports securing bids to set up 50 GWh capacity. However, Hyundai Global Motors withdrew from bidding, leaving behind an unallocated capacity of 20 GWh.

Once selected, bidders must commit to setting up an ACC manufacturing facility with value addition of a minimum of 25% within two years and a minimum of 60% value addition within five years.

They must also establish a manufacturing capacity of 5 to 10 GWh within five years. Based on their technical score, the bidders will be ranked from the highest to the lowest.