October 21, 2021: The Solar Energy Corporation of India on October 14 invited expressions of interest for the installation of 1GWh of battery storage in a step towards the ultimate aim of achieving 50GWh by 2030, media reports said.

The SECI, which comes under India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, is also working with the Ministry of Power to draw up a plan to get battery storage installed along with 450GW of renewable energy.

Guidelines will be published in November after the plans are discussed in two weeks’ time, on October 28.

They will detail the applications to be targeted for energy storage – including balancing and stabilizing the electric grid, improving the efficiency of the transmission system and allowing more flexibility.

The Indian government is serious about a storage future, putting up billions of dollars in cash to offer incentives to battery firms (see our latest issue of ESJ, News section).

Debi Prasad Dash, executive director of the India Energy Storage Alliance, said major companies such as Exicom, Tata Chemical, Amara Raja and TDSG were already planning to set up new cell manufacturing plants in India.

“ACC battery storage manufacturers will be selected trough a transparent competitive bidding process,” he said. “The market looks quite promising for international and domestic players.”