Reliance New Energy, Ola Electric among three firms to sign Rs 18,000-cr PLI scheme

Reliance New Energy, Ola Electric Mobility Private Limited and Rajesh Exports Limited have been signed under the government's Rs 18,000- crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage, the government said in a statement on Friday.

In addition to the capacities allocated by the Ministry of Heavy Industries under the PLI Program, private players are expected to create battery manufacturing capacity to the tune of around 95 GWh, it added.

A total of 10 bids were received from companies with manufacturing capacity of 128 GWh under the PLI Scheme. The Ministry of Heavy Industries also added that the manufacturing facility would have to be set up within a period of two years and the incentive will be disbursed thereafter over a period of five years on sale of batteries manufactured in India.

Government has approved the PLI Scheme under 'National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage’ for achieving manufacturing capacity of Fifty (50) Giga Watt Hour (GWh) of ACC with a budgetary outlay of Rs18,100 crore. Under the said initiative, it aims to achieve greater domestic value addition, while at the same time ensure that the levelized cost of battery manufacturing in India is globally competitive.

Under this programme, 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 facility to cater to any application.

Via this PLI scheme, the government expects an investment that will boost domestic manufacturing and also facilitate battery storage demand creation for both electric vehicles and stationary storage along with the development of a complete domestic supply chain and foreign direct investment in the country.

This PLI scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) along with the already launched PLI Scheme for automotive sector (Rs 25,938 crore) and Faster Adoption of Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) (Rs 10,000 crore) 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.

Commenting on the PLI scheme, Union Cabinet Minister for Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey stated,“...This will be favorable to EV ecosystem and energy storage market as it will support the demand for EVs and renewable and attract investment in this sector. Today big companies are investing in battery manufacturing in India. We should support them and make India a truly global manufacturing hub. This will also help us to achieve India's commitment to Panchamrit given by PM Modi in COP 26.”