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The Ministry of Power has proposed making energy storage a compliance requirement for solar and wind-solar hybrid projects. It has also proposed that batteries used in these projects meet domestic content norms, in draft amendments to four sets of competitive bidding guidelines.
The ministry circulated the drafts and asked stakeholders to send comments by November 25, 2026, to [email protected]. The amendments are proposals and have not yet been notified in the Gazette of India.
Under the draft amendment to the solar PV bidding guidelines, procurement of solar power must comply with Central Government orders and Central Electricity Authority regulations that mandate installing Energy Storage Systems (ESS) alongside solar projects. Such storage must also meet domestic content requirements. The existing clause allowed solar procurement “with or without” storage.
For wind-solar hybrid projects, the draft changes Clause 3.3 so that storage “shall” be added to the solar component of the project, instead of “may” be added as at present. It also removes the earlier listed purposes of storage: reducing output variability, delivering higher energy for a given capacity and ensuring firm power for a period.
The Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy (FDRE) guidelines would require storage to comply with domestic content requirements under Central Government orders. The Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) guidelines would require tender documents to include provisions for domestic content compliance in BESS projects.
The drafts do not specify the content thresholds. These are expected to sit in separate Central Government orders.
The BESS draft also revises the payment security mechanism. Under the existing framework, the Intermediary Procurer “will” collect a non-refundable Rs 5 lakh per MWh from battery storage developers for the Payment Security Fund. The draft says it “may” collect an amount “not exceeding” that figure, in instalments set out in the tender documents.
Contribution to the fund would be optional for developers, and tender documents would have to say so clearly. Amounts collected would go to the fund set up by the Government of India for the Intermediary Procurer.
The draft also restates the bidding parameters for BESS capacity procurement. Bids may be invited on an availability-based fixed charge or annuity, expressed in rupees per kW or MW per year or month, and/or on the quantum of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) a bidder requires against a pre-specified tariff. The minimum term of the BESS power agreement is envisaged at eight years, extendable as needed.
The solar guidelines were notified on July 28, 2023, the wind-solar hybrid guidelines on August 21, 2023 and the FDRE guidelines on June 9, 2023. All three were later amended in November 2023, February 2024 and February 2025. The BESS guidelines date to March 10, 2022, and were amended on May 30, 2022.
The Ministry of Power’s proposed amendments make energy storage a compliance requirement for solar and wind-solar hybrid projects, but leave the details of the mandate to separate orders and regulations that the drafts do not name. They also do not say how much storage will be required, or for what duration. The solar clause itself carries an internal tension: the base text still allows projects “with or without” storage, while the new proviso mandates it wherever central orders apply.
Domestic content is the other open question. All four drafts require storage to comply with such norms, yet none defines what counts as domestic, whether cells, battery packs or the entire system, or sets a threshold. Industry may also seek clarity on transition arrangements for tenders already issued, and on how mandatory storage and localisation will affect bid tariffs. With comments due by November 25, the 15-day window for four sets of guidelines may prompt calls for an extension.
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