Govt receives seven bids for PLI scheme on Advanced Chemistry Cell; Reliance, JSW, Amara Raja amongst bidders

The Ministry of Heavy Industries on Tuesday said it received bids from seven bidders under the global tender for the re-bidding of Production Linked Incentives (PLI) for 10 GWh Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) manufacturing announced on January 24, 2024.

ACME Cleantech Solutions Private Limited, Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies Private Limited, Anvi Power Industries Private Limited, JSW Neo Energy Limited, Reliance Industries Limited, Lucas TVS Limited, and Waaree Energies Limited were identified as bidders for a cumulative capacity of 70 GWh.

The development is likely to strengthen the ecosystem for electric mobility and battery storage in the country. The scheme envisages enhancing India’s manufacturing capabilities of Advanced Chemistry Cells (ACC) by setting up gigascale ACC and battery manufacturing facilities in India, with an emphasis on maximum domestic value addition.

The pre-bid meeting was held on February 12, 2024. The last date for receiving applications was April 22, 2024,  and the technical bids opened on April 23, 2024, the ministry said in a statement.

Surprisingly, automotive battery giant Exide Industries' name does not appear in the bidders list. Exide Energy Solutions Ltd., the advanced battery cell manufacturing arm of  Exide Industries, has so far invested Rs 1965 crore and is betting big on the segment. 

In May 2021, the Cabinet approved the technology-agnostic PLI Scheme on 'National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage’ for achieving a manufacturing capacity of 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) of ACC with an outlay of Rs 18,100 crore. The first round of the ACC PLI bidding was concluded in March 2022, and three beneficiary firms—Ola Electric Mobility, Reliance New Energy Solar and Rajesh Exports—were allocated a total capacity of 30 gigawatt hours (GWh), and the programme agreement with selected beneficiary firms was signed in July 2022.

Besides this, the Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India, released a Request for Proposal (RfP) on January 24, 2024, for the shortlisting and selection of bidders under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme 'National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage’ for setting up ACC Manufacturing Units with a total manufacturing capacity of 10 Giga Watt Hour (GWh) with a maximum budgetary outlay of Rs 3,620 crore.