ACME Solar Adds 88-MW / 367-MWh Battery Block at Neemri, Rajasthan

• ACME Solar commissioned 88.02 MW / 366.969 MWh of battery storage at its Neemri FDRE project in Rajasthan on Oct. 30.
• Neemri now has 159.66 MW / 664.261 MWh commissioned, about 62% of the planned 1,069 MWh.
• ACME expects the rest of the battery online by March 31, 2027, the end of India's financial year.

ACME Solar Holdings Ltd. commissioned another 88.02 MW / 366.969 MWh of battery storage at Neemri in Rajasthan on Oct. 30, according to a filing with Indian stock exchanges dated Oct. 31. The site in Chittorgarh district is a firm and dispatchable renewable energy (FDRE) project.

The block belongs to wholly owned subsidiary ACME Sigma Urja and was set to start commercial operation on Nov. 1. It takes the project's commissioned storage to 159.66 MW / 664.261 MWh of discharge capacity. The plan is 250 MW / 1,069 MWh.

ACME switched on the first 53.73 MW / 222.969 MWh at Neemri on Sept. 30, the company said in an Oct. 1 statement, and added 17.91 MW / 74.323 MWh on Oct. 23. The site near Rawatbhata connects to the Neemuch substation. It sells power under a 25-year agreement with a national renewable energy implementing agency that ACME did not name.

The Neemri battery in numbers

• 88.02 MW / 366.969 MWh added on Oct. 30, the biggest of the three Neemri blocks disclosed since Sept. 30.
• 4.2 hours of storage at full output for the new block: 366.969 MWh divided by 88.02 MW (list.solar calculation).
• 4.3 hours for the full 250-MW / 1,069-MWh project, against 2 hours at IndiGrid's 250-MW / 500-MWh Bhadla battery in Rajasthan (list.solar calculation).
• 62% of the planned energy capacity and 64% of the planned power are now commissioned (list.solar calculation).
• 90.34 MW / 404.739 MWh still to come online at Neemri (list.solar calculation).
• 236 GWh of battery storage India will need by 2031-32, the Ministry of Power said, citing the National Electricity Plan 2023.

ACME reported about 5.2 GWh of commissioned battery capacity in its Oct. 28 quarterly results release, before the latest Neemri block, and called it the second-largest in India. On Oct. 27 it added 35.77 MW / 143.08 MWh at its Kelan FDRE project in Bikaner, which has a power purchase agreement with SJVN. Kelan has now commissioned 195.35 MW / 781.40 MWh of its planned 300 MW / 1,200 MWh. Earlier in October ACME signed a 300-MW peak power contract with SECI to deliver 1,200 MWh a day outside solar hours.

ACME expects the rest of the Neemri battery to be commissioned within the current financial year, which ends March 31, 2027.