A total of 10 companies have submitted their bids under the Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage Programme in India for which RFP was released by the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI).

As per RFP, the manufacturing facility would have to be set up within a period of two years. The incentive will be disbursed thereafter over a period of five years on sale of batteries manufactured in India.

Companies who have applied for ACC PLI scheme: Reliance New Energy Solar, Hyundai Global Motors Company, Ola Electric Mobility, Lucas-TVS, Mahindra & Mahindra, Amara Raja Batteries, Exide Industries, Rajesh Exports, Larsen & Toubro and India Power Corporation.

The government had approved the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme 'National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage’ for achieving manufacturing capacity of 50 GigaWatt Hour (GWh) of ACC for enhancing India’s manufacturing capabilities with a budgetary outlay of Rs. 18,100 crore.

Under the said initiative the emphasis of the government is to achieve greater domestic value addition while at the same time ensuring that the levelized cost of battery manufacturing in India is globally competitive.

The program is designed in such a manner that it is technology agnostic and the beneficiary firm shall be free to choose suitable advanced technology and the corresponding plant and machinery, raw material and other intermediate goods for setting up cell manufacturing facilities to cater to any application.

The program envisages an investment which will boost domestic manufacturing and also facilitate battery storage demand creation for both electric vehicles and stationary storage along with development of a complete domestic supply chain and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country.

ACC PLI scheme is expected to result in saving to the nation on account of reduction in import of crude-oil to a significant extent and increase the share of renewable energy at the national grid level.