The government will re-invite bids for the production linked incentives (PLI) for 20 GWh (Gigawatt hours) Advanced Chemistry Cell manufacturing as early as this month itself, a senior official said.
The empowered group of secretaries on PLI is expected to approve the Request for Proposal document shortly thereafter expression of interest (EoI) from manufacturers would be invited, the official she did not wish to be named said.
The Government approved the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme ‘National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage’ for achieving manufacturing capacity of 50 GWh of ACC for enhancing India’s Manufacturing Capabilities with a budgetary outlay of Rs 18,100 crore in May 2021.
In March 2022 after a bidding process it selected 4 companies for incentives including Reliance New Energy Solar Limited; Ola Electric Mobility Private Limited; Hyundai Global Motors Company Limited and Rajesh Exports Limited.
By August 2022, Hyundai pulled out of the scheme when Hyundai of Korea clarified that it had nothing to do with Hyundai Global.
In the first round of bids Ola, Hyundai Global were awarded capacity of 20 GWh, and Rajesh Exports and Reliance were awarded 5 GWh. With the pull out of Hyundai 20 GWh was again made available for bidding.
The Ministry of Heavy Industries has already conducted stakeholder’s consultations “We have taken the suggestions from the industry in consideration before finalising the RFP for the remaining 20 GWh,” the official said.
The beneficiary firm has to ensure achieving a domestic value addition of at-least 25% and raise it to 60% within 5 Years while also making the mandatory investment of Rupee 225 crore /GWh for committed capacity within 2 Years. The scheme has an initial 2 years of Gestation Period from January of this year and 5 year post gestation period from 2025 to 2029 is the Performance period.
This PLI scheme for ACC and automotive sector along with Rs 10,000 crore Faster Adoption of Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) will enable India to leapfrog from traditional fossil fuel-based automobile transportation system to environmentally cleaner, sustainable, advanced and more efficient Electric Vehicles (EV) based system.
ACC PLI scheme is expected to accelerate EV adoption and hence translate into net savings of Rs 2,00,000 crore to Rs 2,50,000 crore on account of oil import bill during the period of this Programme and increase the share of renewable energy at the national grid level.