Power Grid Corporation of India (POWERGRID) has floated tenders inviting bids to select a pre-bid tie-up partner to set up six standalone battery energy storage projects (BESS) with a cumulative capacity of 125 MW/500 MWh in Odisha.

The last date to submit bids is February 16, 2026. Bids will be opened on the same day.

However, for the 20MW/80 MWh BESS at Basta, the last date to submit bids is February 18, 2026. Bids will be opened on the same day.

Bidders must pay a tender fee of ₹25,000 (~$275.90) for each project.

This tender is a pre-bid tie-up, and its award is contingent on POWERGRID winning the upstream tender floated by Solar Energy Corporation of India.

The projects comprise five BESS units of 20 MW/80 MWh each and one unit of 25 MW/100 MWh.

Successful bidders must complete the projects within 15 months.

The projects will be implemented under a build-own-operate model and located inside identified state transmission utility substations at Padampur, New Bolangir, Bhatli, Basta, Narendrapur, and Tentuli Khunti.

The projects will have viability gap funding, capped at ₹1.8 million (~$19,800)/MWh of the awarded project capacity for each bidder.

The scope of work includes the development, ownership, and operation of the standalone BESS projects, with an operations and maintenance period of up to 15 years from the scheduled commissioning date.

The projects must be designed for interconnection with the state transmission utility network.

Successful bidders must not bid directly or indirectly through their subsidiaries, partnerships, ownership, individual firm, or consortium for the projects.

The BESS must guarantee a minimum annual system availability of 95%. It must be designed for a minimum operational cycle of one per day and a maximum of two per day.

The BESS must also guarantee a minimum AC-to-AC round-trip efficiency of 85% every month.

In January 2026, POWERGRID floated two tenders to set up standalone BESS projects of 187.5 MW/750 MWh each at two of Transmission Corporation of Telangana’s (Maheswaram and Choutuppal substations in Telangana.

In the same month, POWERGRID issued tenders to select a pre-bid tie-up partner to set up 25 MW/100 MWh and 100 MW/400 MWh BESS projects across Tamil Nadu.