Centre has awarded Reliance New Energy Battery Limited, for a 10 GWh Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) capacity, following a competitive global tender process, making it eligible to receive incentives under India’s ₹18,100 crore production linked incentive (PLI) ACC scheme.
The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) on Tuesday confirmed that it has signed a Programme Agreement with Reliance New Energy Battery Limited (a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited) under the said Scheme.
With this, the company has been selected for a total of 15 GWh capacity to receive incentives under the Scheme.
MHI had already completed bidding of Round-2 (10 GWh capacity) for which the Letter of Award (LoA) was issued to Reliance Industries Ltd for 10 GWh capacity on September 6, 2024, and only the signing of ‘Programme Agreement’ was pending till now.
On February 3, businessline had reported that the MHI and the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) have initiated the bidding process for the 10 GWh capacity for Grid Scale Stationary Storage (GSSS) applications under the PLI Scheme for ACC Battery Storage Production.
In the first round, the government had approved three companies including ACC Energy Storage Pvt Ltd (AESPL, for 5 GWh); Ola Cell Technologies Pvt Ltd (for 20 GWh); and Reliance New Energy Battery Storage Ltd (for 5 GWh).
“This signing is another critical milestone in the implementation of the technology agnostic PLI Scheme on the ‘National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage’, approved by the Cabinet in May 2021 with a total outlay of ₹18,100 crore aimed at achieving a total manufacturing capacity of 50 GWh. With this signing, a cumulative capacity of 40 GWh has been awarded to four selected beneficiary firms out of 50 GWh capacity,” the MHI said on Tuesday.
The Scheme is designed to boost local value addition while ensuring that the cost of battery manufacturing in India remains globally competitive, it said adding that the Scheme will allow the beneficiary firm the flexibility to adopt the most suitable technology and associated inputs for establishing State-of-the-art ACC manufacturing facilities, thereby supporting mainly the EV and renewable energy storage sectors.
“In tandem with the PLI ACC scheme, the Union Budget for FY2025-26 introduced several transformative measures aimed at accelerating domestic battery manufacturing and supporting the growth of the e-mobility ecosystem in the country. Notably, the Budget exempted 35 additional Capital Goods for EV battery manufacturing from Basic Customs Duty (BCD), a targeted initiative designed to boost the production of lithium-ion batteries within India,” the MHI said.
Moreover, its emphasis on reinforcing domestic manufacturing and promoting value addition, further underscores vision of establishing a robust, self-reliant advanced battery ecosystem, it said.
This initiative of government has acted as a catalyst for Indian cell manufacturers to setup cell manufacturing facilities. Apart from the PLI beneficiary, 10+ companies have already started setting up 100+ GWh additional capacity, it added.
