India to offer $455 million in incentives for battery storage projects

India would provide incentives of Rs 3,760 crore ($455.2 million) to businesses implementing battery storage installations with a capacity of 4,000 megawatt hours (MWh). The program's goals are to increase the number of battery storage projects that are essential to India's ambitious target to increase its renewable energy production to 500 GW by 2030 and lower the price of battery energy storage from its present range of 5.5-6.5 rupees per unit.

There are very few large-scale operating projects worldwide for battery storage, which is used to support intermittent renewable energy supply and stable the grid. As part of the plan, large-scale battery energy storage devices will be developed in an effort to reduce costs through competitive bidding. The government will offer grants for three years as "viability gap funding" incentives to cover the risks of developers of important infrastructure projects that are or may become unprofitable commercially.

It anticipates receiving 56 billion rupees in private investments under the programme. According to one of the individuals, who asked to remain anonymous because the proposal hasn't been made public and still needs approval from the federal cabinet, the contracts will be paid out in five installments until 2030–2031. According to them, contracts will be allocated through a competitive process, with the lowest-bidder company being chosen. An inquiry for comment was not answered by India's power minister.

Reliance Industries, Adani Power, and JSW Energy are three Indian corporations that have plans to build sizable battery factories. The country's cabinet, under by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will then discuss and decide on the plan, which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made public during her budget statement on February 1. The approval has not yet been given a deadline.

India currently has a battery storage capacity of 37 MWh. By 2031-32, it will need 27 GW of pump storage projects in addition to 236 GWh of battery energy storage, according to projections by its power sector planning organisation.