December 4, 2025: Regulators in India have issued draft rules that would allow utilities to recover investment and costs for battery storage projects.

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission said on December 1 the move would mean regulated utilities could claw back investment and certain operating costs for battery storage alongside power generation and transmission facilities.

The move aims to establish a tariff mechanism, defining how BESS projects are evaluated, run and compensation is awarded.

Under the proposals, a normative round-trip efficiency (RTE) of 85% would be introduced, alongside a normative availability of 90% and auxiliary consumption capped at 5%. RTE is a key performance metric for energy storage systems to evaluate the energy losses incurred during a full charging and discharging cycle.

Comments on the proposals must be submitted by December 30, ahead of an online public hearing to be held on January 2, 2026.

Batteries International reported last July that tenders for a cumulative 171GWh of energy storage capacity has been launched in India over the past seven years — including more than 55GWh issued in the first half of this year alone.

The figures, published by the India Energy Storage Alliance, indicated 118 energy storage-linked tenders, including renewable energy-plus-storage hybrids and standalone energy storage, had been held since the first in 2018.