Reliance wins bid for 10 GWh battery manufacturing capacity
Business: Reliance Industries Ltd will get a benefit of Rs 3,620 crore under the central government’s production-linked incentive scheme for advanced chemistry cells to set up a battery manufacturing capacity of 10 gigawatt-hours (GWh). Reliance emerged as the winner out of seven bidders for the tender issued in January, the Ministry of Heavy Industries said in a press release on Wednesday. Six companies were shortlisted for financial evaluation of their bids. “The remaining five shortlisted bidders have been waitlisted as per their rank,” the ministry said. The waitlisted bidders include ACME Cleantech Solutions Pvt Ltd (waiting list 1), Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies Pvt Ltd (2), Waaree Energies Ltd (3), JSW Neo Energy Ltd (4) and Lucas TVS Ltd (5).
Advanced chemistry cells are new generation technologies that can store electrical energy as electrochemical or chemical energy and convert it back to electrical energy when required. The PLI scheme is expected to strengthen the ecosystem for electric mobility and battery storage in the country. Reliance’s 10 GW battery manufacturing capacity will add to the 5 GW battery capacity that the energy giant won in 2022, when the government distributed 30 GW battery manufacturing capacity. Ola Electric Mobility was awarded 20 GW capacity at that time and Reliance and Rajesh Exports got 5 GW each. The 2022 auction under the battery PLI scheme was supposed to award 50 GWh to four winners with an outlay of ₹18,100 crore. However, a bidder who was supposed to be given incentives for 20 GWh of battery manufacturing capacity was later found to be impersonating Korean automotive company Hyundai Motors. Its bid was cancelled, and its specified battery capacity was not awarded. Half of this rejected capacity came up for bidding again in the latest round.
