The Indian government is gearing up for a significant financial push to strengthen the country's battery ecosystem. According to sources familiar with the matter, a ₹500 crore allocation is being considered for the Union Budget of FY2027. This fund is earmarked to establish domestic testing, certification, and research infrastructure for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), a critical component for India's renewable energy and electric mobility future.
Addressing Safety and Supply Chain Gaps
The proposed investment comes against a backdrop of urgent needs. Several incidents of overheating and fires in electric vehicles, particularly two-wheelers, have highlighted safety concerns and dented consumer confidence. Currently, India lacks dedicated, large-scale national facilities for testing BESS prototypes and advanced chemistry cells. Most battery systems assembled domestically are sent to China for testing, adding cost and creating supply chain vulnerabilities.
"With the growing battery storage capacity requirement and plans to indigenize the supply chain, national level testing and certification facilities would be important," said one of the persons aware of the developments. The funding is expected to support the creation of National BESS Testing and Safety Centers under bodies like the National Accreditation Board Ltd (NABL) or the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). It will also aid battery-pack level testing for electric vehicles.
Powering a Green Energy Revolution
The move is strategically aligned with India's colossal energy storage ambitions. BESS is vital for managing the intermittent nature of solar and wind power, storing energy for use anytime. Official estimates project a need for about 175 GWh of battery storage capacity by 2032, a massive jump from approximately 700 MWh recorded at the end of December 2025. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) forecasts a total requirement of 411.4 GWh of energy storage by 2032, including pumped hydro projects.
Industry body India Energy Storage Alliance expects capacity to surge to 5 GWh in 2026 alone. The Ministry of Heavy Industries is also charting a roadmap for a cumulative BESS capacity of nearly 3 terawatt-hours (TWh) by 2047 across mobility, power, and electronics sectors. BESS is gaining traction as it has a lower capital cost (around ₹3.5 crore per MW) compared to pumped storage projects (about ₹6 crore per MW).
Boosting R&D and Indigenous Capabilities
Beyond testing, the ₹500 crore corpus is intended to foster innovation. A portion may flow through the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund. The plan includes promoting multi-year R&D partnerships between industry, national labs, and IITs. This is crucial to develop batteries suited for India's tropical climate, where globally standardised batteries often underperform.
Experts stress the urgency. "These cells should be tested in batches to ensure desired product quality. This poses a major challenge to small players as they hardly have the required battery testing facilities in-house," explained Shyamasis Das, a fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP). He noted that limited domestic testing capacity leads to long queues, delaying product rollouts compared to competitors like China.
Debmalya Sen, President of the Indian Energy Storage Alliance, emphasised the need for GWh-scale testing capacities to avoid the added cost and delay of sending batteries to China. The final decision on the budget proposal will be taken closer to the presentation date on 1 February 2026. This initiative follows draft guidelines for battery testing issued by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in September 2025.
