A round-up of the India storage headlines our desk tracked in the week to 22 July 2026 — one of the busiest stretches of the year, spanning a record pumped-storage auction, fresh standalone battery tenders, a long-duration flow-battery award and a gigawatt-scale cell-manufacturing tender. For the running list of live opportunities see our tender tracker; if you are weighing a bid, our how-to-bid a BESS tender guide walks through the steps.
Pumped storage takes the lead
The biggest news was on pumped hydro, not batteries. SECI declared winners for 1,500 MW / 12,000 MWh of pumped-storage capacity — a very large single auction — and Tata Power picked up a 324 MW / 2,592 MWh award for a pumped-storage project in Maharashtra:
- SECI Announces Winners of 1,500 MW/12,000 MWh of Pumped Storage Auction — Mercom India
- Tata Power secures 324 MW/2,592 MWh pumped storage contract in India — ESS News
- Tata Power secures SECI award for 324 MW pumped hydro storage capacity in Maharashtra — pv magazine India
Pumped hydro and batteries increasingly bid for the same job — shifting energy from surplus hours to peak — so these awards set a reference point against which standalone-BESS economics get compared, especially for longer-duration needs.
New standalone battery tenders
Two fresh battery calls opened. POWERGRID floated a tender for 500 MW / 1,000 MWh of standalone battery storage under a long-term agreement, with bids due 17 August 2026; Rajasthan tendered 172 MW / 688 MWh:
- POWERGRID Tenders 500 MW/1,000 MWh Battery Energy Storage Projects — Mercom India · read our brief
- Rajasthan Tenders 172 MW/688 MWh Battery Energy Storage Projects — Mercom India · read our brief
A pan-India call from the national transmission company alongside a state tender shows grid-side procurement broadening; we explain how central standalone tenders are structured and who can bid in our SECI standalone storage tenders explainer.
Long-duration and flow batteries
Beyond lithium, two long-duration moves landed: NTPC REL selected a winner (Bondada Engineering) for a 100 MWh vanadium redox flow battery project, and Coal India named the winner of a 750 MWh energy-storage consultancy auction:
- NTPC REL Selects Winner of 100 MWh Vanadium Flow Battery Storage Auction — Mercom India · read our brief
- Bondada Engineering secures 100 MWh vanadium redox flow battery energy storage project from NTPC Renewable Energy — pv magazine India
- Coal India Announces Winner of 750 MWh Energy Storage Consultancy Auction — Mercom India
Manufacturing: a 10 GWh cell tender
On the supply side, India launched a global tender for 10 GWh of advanced battery cell manufacturing under the PLI scheme, and Waaree ESS began production at its battery-storage container factory:
- India launches global tender for 10 GWh advanced battery cell manufacturing under PLI scheme — pv magazine India · read our brief
- India launches tender for 10 GWh battery cell manufacturing capacity for grid storage — ESS News
- India’s Waaree ESS begins production at battery storage container factory — ESS News
More domestic cell and pack capacity is exactly what the PLI programme is meant to seed; we cover how it flows through to system prices in our PLI ACC battery manufacturing guide.
Market view
Rounding out the week, an industry interview reframed batteries for commercial and industrial (C&I) buyers as a long-term operational-efficiency investment rather than an emergency backup purchase — a framing that matches how Time-of-Day arbitrage and demand-charge savings actually drive payback:
- Battery energy storage system is becoming a long-term operational efficiency investment for industries: Trontek’s Samrath S Kochar — pv magazine India
The scale of these calls lines up with India’s broader 2032 storage targets. Tender terms and deadlines change by notification — always verify the current bid documents on the issuing utility’s portal before acting.
Wondering what POWERGRID’s, Rajasthan’s or the pumped-storage awards mean for your own project? Estimate the numbers with our BESS savings calculator, or talk to our team for a project-specific read.