NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday said it has received bids from seven bidders under the global tender floated by it for re-bidding of Production Linked Incentives (PLI) for 10 GWh advanced chemistry cell (ACC) manufacturing announced on January 24, 2024.
The bidders 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. Each of the seven companies filed a bid for a capacity of 10 GWh.
The last date for receiving applications was April 22, 2024 on CPP portal and the technical bids opened on April 23, 2024. In May 2021, the Cabinet had approved the technology agnostic PLI scheme on ‘National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage’ for achieving manufacturing capacity of 50 Giga Watt hours (GWh) of ACC with an outlay of Rs 18,100 crore.
However, controversy erupted after the first allotment of the 50 GWh capacity as one of the selected company, Hyundai Global, withdrew after South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Company and its Indian arm Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) clarified that they had nothing to do with the company. This left 20 GWh capacity unallocated and ready for grab.
The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) then released request for proposal (RfP) on January 24, 2024, for shortlisting and selection of bidders under the PLI scheme for setting up of ACC manufacturing units with a total manufacturing capacity of 10 Giga Watt Hour (GWh) with a maximum budgetary outlay of Rs 3,620 crore. The government has plans to allocate the remaining 10 GWh capacity for utility-scale battery manufacturing.