Standalone BESS made up all 3,157 MW / 11,859 MWh of energy storage that Indian authorities tendered in August 2026, according to the EnergyWatts update from JMK Research and IEEFA. Another 3,250 MW was awarded in the month, while only 556 MWh was commissioned, taking cumulative BESS capacity to 9.6 GWh.
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JMK Research, an India-based renewable energy research and advisory firm, counts 3,157 MW / 11,859 MWh of energy storage put out to tender in India during August 2026, and every megawatt of it was standalone BESS. That is about 85% up on both July and August 2025, according to the September edition of EnergyWatts, which the firm puts out monthly with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
Most of the month's volume sat in two state tenders that give developers no viability gap funding (VGF), 1,500 MW / 6,000 MWh from RVUNL in Rajasthan and 1,000 MW / 4,000 MWh from GUVNL in Gujarat. Haryana is different. SJVN has put its 265 MW / 530 MWh tender out again, with land near substations and VGF of INR 18 lakh/MWh (~ $18,854/MWh). By duration, four-hour storage took about 87% of tendered power. Two small tenders stood apart. SECI wants 50 MW / 100 MWh of storage that is already operating and connected to the ISTS, paid through a monthly capacity charge, and JVVNL's 2 MW / 4 MWh pilot spreads decentralised BESS over 20 distribution-transformer units.
Awards kept pace, at 3,250 MW for August, 2,500 MW of it firm and dispatchable renewable energy (FDRE) and 750 MW / 2,100 MWh of standalone BESS. SECI's 1,500 MW assured-peak FDRE auction set a record low of INR 5.99/kWh (~ $0.063/kWh). Standalone BESS prices went the other way, with WBSEDCL clearing at INR 4.35 lakh/MW/month (~ $4,556) and GUVNL at INR 2.32 lakh/MW/month (~ $2,430), about 25% and 10.5% above their earlier rounds. Cells gave Indian buyers little relief. A 314 Ah LFP cell cost $53.57/kWh in China but $61-66/kWh landed in India, 14-23% more.
Construction is where the pipeline thins out. India commissioned about 556 MWh in August, from Serentica Renewables in Bikaner (200 MWh), a Tata Power Renewable Energy solar plant under SJVN's FDRE Tranche-I (115 MWh) and ACME Solar Holdings' merchant BESS (241 MWh). Cumulative commissioned BESS reached 9.6 GWh, driven largely by merchant projects, while utility-contracted projects make up only 1.3% of the roughly 54 GW awarded pipeline.
Manufacturers and lenders are moving ahead of the build-out. PACE Digitek doubled its Karnataka line to 5 GWh, Pratap Group inaugurated a 3 GWh facility in Madhya Pradesh, and Powertrac Group broke ground on a planned 10 GWh plant in Ahmedabad. More than INR 3,400 crore (~ $356 million) of debt went to storage-linked projects, and the Ministry of Power now lets developers charge additional co-located BESS with curtailed T-GNA renewable power and sell it through exchanges or bilateral deals.
JMK Research is an India-based renewable energy research and advisory firm that compiles EnergyWatts each month with IEEFA.