Nothing new reached our feeds on 1 September 2026 — the first genuinely blank day after a heavy fortnight of awards, tenders and factory announcements. Rather than rehash headlines we have already covered, this edition frames what is still open and still worth a bid. For the running list see our tender tracker.
Central tenders still open
Two central calls from the past week remain the most actionable items on the desk, and they sit at opposite ends of the duration spectrum.
- SECI Seeks 100 MWh Standalone Storage for Short-Term Use — Mercom India · read our brief
- POWERGRID Invites Bids for 530 MWh Battery Storage Project in Haryana — Mercom India · read our brief
The SECI call is small and short-term, which makes it an unusual entry point: a 100 MWh block procured for a defined window rewards fast mobilisation and containerised delivery far more than the lowest lifetime tariff. POWERGRID’s 530 MWh in Haryana is the opposite — a transmission utility buying standalone storage as grid infrastructure, where cycle life and availability guarantees decide the economics. How these central calls are structured is unpacked in our guide to SECI standalone storage tenders.
Financing and pre-tender pipeline
Two more projects are real but not yet biddable, and both are worth watching because their specifications are still being set.
- Coal India Seeks ₹7 Billion Term Loan for 750 MWh Battery Storage Project — Mercom India · read our brief
- NLC India Selects Consultant for 600 MW Solar Plus Storage Project — Mercom India
A PSU raising a term loan against a 750 MWh battery is a useful signal in its own right: Indian lenders are now underwriting storage on project cashflows rather than treating it as an unproven add-on, which is the shift we track in our note on BESS project finance in India. NLC India, meanwhile, has only appointed a consultant — two steps before a tender, and precisely the stage at which battery size, duration and configuration are still movable.
Policy and grid context to watch
- Kerala Drafts Tariff Framework for Energy Storage, Generation and Transmission — Mercom India
- Solar Leads 248 GW Renewable and Storage Transmission Connectivity Pipeline — Mercom India
Kerala’s draft framework matters because a state tariff order is what turns storage from a discretionary purchase into a recoverable cost for a discom — the mechanism described across our India BESS policy overview. The 248 GW connectivity pipeline is the constraint behind almost every tender above: grid connection queues, not battery supply, increasingly set the pace at which these projects reach commissioning.
Tender terms and deadlines change by notification — always verify the current bid documents on the issuing organisation’s portal before acting.
Weighing a bid on one of the live tenders above, or sizing storage for your own site? Run the numbers with our BESS savings calculator, or talk to our team for a project-specific read.