Reliance Industries, JSW Neo Energy in fray for 10 Gwh ACC Battery PLI

Ministry of heavy industries has received seven bids for re-auction

The Ministry of Heavy Industries announced on Tuesday that it has received bids from seven players for the re-bidding tender of the 10 gigawatt-hour (Gwh) tranche of the Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) manufacturing production-linked incentive (PLI).

“The list of bidders (in alphabetical order) who have submitted bids in response to this tender are ACME Cleantech Solutions, Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies, Anvi Power Industries, JSW Neo Energy, Reliance Industries, Lucas TVS, and Waaree Energies for a cumulative capacity of 70 Gwh,” the ministry said in a statement.

After the re-auctioning for the manufacturing unit was announced in January, the pre-bid meeting was held on February 12, the ministry said.

The deadline for submission of applications was Monday, and the technical bids were opened on Tuesday.

The first round of the ACC PLI bidding concluded in March 2022, with three beneficiary firms allocated a total capacity of 30 Gwh, and the programme agreement with selected beneficiary firms signed in July 2022. The 30 Gwh awarded in 2022 was against a targeted capacity auction of 50 Gwh. This 10 GWh capacity, with a maximum budgetary outlay of Rs 3,620 crore, will be awarded out of the 20 Gwh that was to be re-auctioned after the exit of Hyundai Global Motors.

The re-auctioning of the 10 GWh capacity had to be undertaken after a controversy erupted with one of the four qualified bidders — Hyundai Global Motors.

The company had been awarded 20 GWh of capacity but had to back out after the South Korean automobile giant Hyundai Motor Company issued a public statement in August 2022, stating it had no link with Hyundai Global Motors and the latter was not authorised to use the Hyundai trademark and logo.

Of the four companies declared bid winners, Rajesh Exports was awarded 5 Gwh of capacity, followed by Hyundai Global Motors (later rescinded), which was awarded 20 Gwh of capacity.

Electric two-wheeler manufacturer Ola Electric was awarded another 20 GWh, and the fourth was Reliance New Energy Solar, which had expressed interest in 20 GWh of capacity but was awarded only 5 GWh. According to the ministry’s statement, the conglomerate is now in the fray for 10 GWh more.

ACCs are high-capacity and high-efficiency electrochemical energy storage cells, important for industries requiring battery storage such as electronics, electric vehicles, and renewable energy.

In May 2021, the Cabinet approved the technology-agnostic PLI scheme on the National Programme on ACC Battery Storage for achieving a manufacturing capacity of 50 GWh of ACC with an outlay of Rs 18,100 crore.