AmpereHour Energy and Ampt Partner on Direct-to-Battery Storage Integration in India

Indian battery storage integrator AmpereHour Energy and US-based DC power conversion company Ampt announced a strategic partnership on 8 October 2026. Under the agreement, AmpereHour will distribute and service Ampt’s DC power management products across India, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The deal brings Ampt’s String Optimizers and its Direct-to-Battery (D2B) DC-coupled architecture together with AmpereHour’s storage systems and energy management software, aimed at solar-plus-storage developers and utilities.

What the Partnership Covers

The joint offering pairs AmpereHour’s energy storage system, DC recombiner and Energy Management System (EMS) with Ampt String Optimizers. According to the companies, the EMS includes real-time control algorithms for performance, operational safety and risk management.

The partnership targets seven applications:

DC-coupled storage for utility-scale solar-plus-BESS plants
Data centres
DC charging infrastructure for electric vehicles
Solar repowering
PV-only systems
Co-located green hydrogen projects
Battery capacity augmentation

How Direct-to-Battery Works

In a conventional AC-coupled plant, solar power is inverted to AC and then converted back to DC to charge the battery. AmpereHour describes the standard path as PV → DC/AC → AC/DC → battery, a four-stage process. D2B replaces it with a single DC/DC step: PV → DC/DC → battery.

Ampt String Optimizers are DC/DC converters installed in large-scale PV plants, available for system voltages from 600 to 1500 V DC. Each optimizer has two inputs and performs maximum power point tracking (MPPT) on each input string, which reduces mismatch losses.

With D2B, the optimizers connect directly to the battery and follow its state-of-charge voltage while delivering full power from the PV array. The optimizer, battery and battery inverter share one DC bus, with no separate battery converter.

Ampt describes D2B designs as battery-centric: the BESS is deployed and operated like a standalone storage system. AmpereHour says this gives standalone-storage responsiveness at higher performance and lower system cost than central DC/DC converter designs.

The Efficiency and Cost Case

AmpereHour reports round-trip efficiency of about 88.5% for its D2B design, against about 83.2% for standard AC-coupled storage. It also claims up to 5.3% higher project yield from capturing clipped and curtailed energy.

Feature	Standard AC-coupled	Direct-to-Battery
Power path	PV → DC/AC → AC/DC → battery	PV → DC/DC → battery
Conversion steps	4	1
Round-trip efficiency	~83.2%	~88.5%

Source: AmpereHour, Direct-to-Battery PV + BESS. These are manufacturer-stated figures; results on a given site depend on design and dispatch.

Ampt lists several further ways a DC-coupled battery recovers energy:

Charging the battery while the PV inverter is clipping output
Capturing array power during AC curtailment
Charging when array voltage is below the inverter’s turn-on voltage
Recovering mismatch and module degradation losses through string-level MPPT

Ampt adds that the battery-supported DC bus enables fast grid response and the use of grid-forming inverters.

AmpereHour’s AH-Recombiner is the DC hub that links PV, battery and power conversion system on a common bus. It is rated 3200 A at 1500 V DC, with fuses, insulation monitoring, surge protection and an inrush-limiting pre-charge circuit.

The Companies Behind the Deal

AmpereHour Energy (Amperehour Solar Technology Pvt. Ltd.) describes itself as a full-stack BESS solution provider with over nine years in energy storage. It reports more than 700 MWh commissioned across generation, transmission, distribution and behind-the-meter projects. Its co-founders are Ayush Misra (CEO), Rahul Shelke (MD and CTO), Neehar Jathar (CPO) and Harshal Thakur (COO).

The company’s ELINA platform is an AI-driven, hardware-agnostic EMS for real-time monitoring, predictive dispatch, performance analytics and warranty tracking across multi-OEM storage systems. Its Indian projects include the Kilokari BESS in Delhi, described as India’s first regulatory-approved commercial grid-scale BESS. AmpereHour was also technology partner for the 180 MW/360 MWh Gujarat BESS at a GETCO substation in Charal, Sanand, developed by IndiGrid with GUVNL as off-taker.

Ampt was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado. It has sales and support in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia, plus representation in Asia and the Middle East. In 2025 it was named Energy Storage Power Player of the Year by SEPA.

What the Leaders Said

Ampt CEO Aaron Gomolak said firm, dispatchable renewable power is now the defining requirement of the energy transition. He added that the partnership will speed up high-efficiency DC-coupled storage in India, the Middle East and Africa, helping hybrid projects capture more energy, lower capital costs and meet demand for round-the-clock clean power.

Ayush Misra, Co-founder and CEO of AmpereHour Energy, said partnering with Ampt lets the company deliver cost-optimised solar-plus-storage solutions to its project developers and utility clients, built for high performance and long-term durability.

Why It Matters for India

The partnership arrives as storage becomes a standard part of Indian solar tenders. The government’s advisory on co-locating energy storage systems with solar power projects, dated 18 February 2025 and published by MNRE, asks renewable energy implementing agencies and state utilities to include at least two hours of co-located storage, equal to 10% of installed solar capacity, in future solar tenders.

Co-located storage puts the battery on the same site as the PV array, which is the setting where DC-coupling applies. A D2B design lets that battery share the plant’s DC bus, absorb clipped or curtailed output and avoid a second conversion stage. The partnership’s focus on repowering and capacity augmentation is also relevant to existing plants that add storage later.

AmpereHour will showcase its storage technologies at Renewable Energy India Expo (REI), held 22–24 October 2026 at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, at Stand C407, Hall 14.