Que: India's BESS market is expected to expand rapidly over the next decade. Do you believe the domestic market is now big enough to support large-scale BESS manufacturing? How important will the C&I segment be?

Ans: India’s BESS market is no longer speculative. 92 GWh of BESS projects are currently in India's pipeline, and 69 new tenders totalling 102 GWh were floated in the past year alone, a 35 percent jump over 2024. India's BESS market, valued at roughly USD 2.05 billion in 2026, is projected to reach USD 8.59 billion by 2031.

Utility tenders almost always go to the lowest bidder. The real opportunity for margins is in the C&I segment, covering data centres, factories, and commercial buildings, where customers care more about reliability and customisation than just price. C&I is critical: CRISIL projects C&I renewable capacity rising about 40 percent, to 57 GW by FY28, driven by favourable PPAs, net-zero goals, and RPO compliance, with steel, cement, and data centres leading demand.

But renewables alone leave these users exposed to intermittency. That's where BESS comes in, and why C&I, not utility tenders, is where BPE sees its real margin opportunity. BPE already has strong relationships in this space through our UPS and power-quality business, which gives us a head start that pure BESS integrators don't have.

Que: Which parts of the BESS value chain can India competitively localise over the next five years, and where will imports continue to be unavoidable? Which parts are you currently localising or planning to localise?

Ans: Containerisation, PCS, BMS, thermal/fire-safety systems, and system integration are realistic five-year localisation targets, and India's electronics manufacturing base already supports this. And, this is where BPE is actively expanding.

Cells remain the hard problem. Lithium-ion currently holds a 72 percent share of India's BESS deployments, but most of those cells are still imported, despite an INR 181 billion PLI programme targeting 50 GWh of domestic Advanced Chemistry Cell manufacturing.

Que: Do existing government incentives provide sufficient confidence for investing in BESS manufacturing? Should India consider an Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) or domestic content requirements for batteries?

Ans: The policy architecture is more serious than people give it credit for: INR 91 billion in Viability Gap Funding support for 43.2 GWh of BESS capacity, the ACC-PLI scheme, and Energy Storage Obligations requiring DISCOMs to progressively procure storage-backed power, rising to 4 percent of supply by FY2029–30.

India should consider an ALMM-style approved list for BESS components, starting with packs, PCS, and BMS, and cells later, so it strengthens domestic manufacturers without choking supply before capacity catches up, and it will also push developers toward Indian module makers.

Que: Looking ahead to 2030, what are the biggest hurdles to establishing a complete BESS manufacturing ecosystem in India? Do you see the country emerging primarily as a BESS manufacturing hub, a system integration hub, or both?

Ans: The real constraints are cell-grade raw material access, financing costs relative to global competitors, and technology licensing terms. The CEA estimates 411.4 GWh of total energy storage will be needed by 2031–32, and installed capacity is forecast to reach 346 GWh by 2033 under base-case scenarios.

Realistically, India's near-term strength is as a system integrator. Companies combining power-electronics depth with BESS integration, like BPE, are best placed to lead that hybrid model through 2030.