TERI Awards 115 MWh BESS Auction in Delhi; Pace Digitek Wins the BSES Rajdhani Project

Pace Digitek Limited has emerged as the successful bidder in the tariff-based competitive bidding conducted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) for a 57.5 MW / 115 MWh standalone Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in Delhi. TERI ran the process as bid manager for BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL), and Pace Digitek disclosed receipt of a Letter of Intent (LoI) from BRPL to the stock exchanges on 8 October 2026.

The tender (Ref. TERI/MAT/2026-2027/039, dated 6 July 2026) covered site survey, design, engineering, procurement, supply, installation, testing, commissioning, and operation and maintenance of BESS at 66/11 kV grid stations in Delhi, with bids due by 11 August 2026.

Project at a Glance

Parameter	Details
Capacity	57.5 MW / 115 MWh (two-hour duration)
Procuring utility	BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL)
Bid manager	The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
Successful bidder	Pace Digitek Limited
Business model	Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT), 12 years
LoI value / project capital outlay	Rs 179.4 crore (Rs 1,794 million)
Fixed capacity tariff	Rs 47.05 lakh per MW per year
Annual contracted capacity revenue	Approx. Rs 27.1 crore
Execution timeline	Seven months

The systems will be installed at four BRPL grid station locations for on-demand operation, with revenue earned through a long-term Battery Energy Storage Service Agreement (BESSA) at a fixed capacity tariff.

Project Locations

DERC’s approval order lists site-wise capacities for BRPL’s 66/11 kV grid stations. The following four together account for exactly 57.5 MW / 115 MWh, matching the awarded capacity:

Sagarpur: 30 MW / 60 MWh
G3 PPK Bindapur: 15 MW / 30 MWh
Hari Nagar: 7.5 MW / 15 MWh
G4 Dwarka: 5 MW / 10 MWh

Regulatory Framework

The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), by its order dated 18 June 2026 in Petition No. 50/2025, granted BRPL in-principle approval to conduct competitive bidding for a cumulative 97.5 MW / 195 MWh of BESS across five grid stations: the four listed above and DTL Pappankala 2 (40 MW / 80 MWh).

The Commission directed that bidding follow, without deviation, the Ministry of Power’s Guidelines for Procurement and Utilization of Battery Energy Storage Systems dated 10 March 2022, issued under Section 63 of the Electricity Act, 2003. BRPL incurs no capital expenditure: the selected developer owns and operates the asset, which is transferred to BRPL after 12 years without payment. Final adoption of the discovered tariff remains subject to DERC review, at which stage BRPL must justify the project’s financial benefits against projected peak-hour market prices and charging costs, with a reasonable margin for price volatility.

Rationale for a Two-Hour System

Responding to a DERC query, BRPL submitted that the selected grid stations are overloaded for about two hours, twice a day, during peak summer, so the system is designed for two cycles daily. Space within the grid stations is limited and the requirement is for higher MW relief rather than longer duration; a four-hour system of the same energy rating would provide only half the MW support. BRPL estimated that 622 of 730 annual cycles (85.2%) are feasible for energy arbitrage with a two-hour configuration. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) had also clarified that utilities may meet storage requirements through any suitable combination of durations.

Tariff Benchmarking

The discovered tariff of Rs 47.05 lakh/MW/year (about Rs 3.92 lakh/MW/month) is approximately 6% below BRPL’s own estimate of Rs 0.50 crore/MW/year submitted to DERC. It is also about 18% lower than the Rs 57.60 lakh/MW/year (Rs 57,59,610) tariff discovered for BRPL’s earlier 20 MW / 40 MWh BESS at the 33/11 kV Kilokari grid. For further reference, the DERC order records GUVNL’s Phase-2 and Phase-3 BESS tariffs at Rs 4.49 lakh and Rs 3.72 lakh per MW per month respectively.

Expected System Benefits

BRPL’s petition identifies several value streams: energy arbitrage between off-peak and peak hours; ramping support as solar output declines in the evening; frequency support and ancillary services; deferral of distribution capital expenditure; reduced dependence on costly gas-based peaking power; and backup supply to critical loads through islanding.

For the full five-site programme, BRPL estimated levelised benefits of about Rs 88.35 crore per year over the 12-year life, serving approximately 2.66 lakh consumers in areas where peak demand has grown at a compound annual rate of about 8% over three years. Because BRPL makes no capital investment, these benefits are to be passed on to consumers as an offset in power purchase cost within the Aggregate Revenue Requirement. BRPL has also reported that the Kilokari BESS has completed testing with NLDC and the SLDC for participation in Secondary Reserve Ancillary Services (SRAS).

Significance for Pace Digitek

The award is Pace Digitek’s fifth utility-scale BOO/BOOT storage project, taking its contracted BOO/BOOT storage portfolio to 3.32 GWh. It follows a Rs 488.6 crore order received in September 2026 from NTPC GE Power Services Private Limited for the supply of standalone BESS along with AMC and warranty services. Since the end of Q1 FY2027, the group has secured additional orders of Rs 761 crore, and the company reports a total executable order book exceeding Rs 11,500 crore. Through its subsidiary Lineage Power Private Limited, the company manufactures energy storage systems, supporting its presence across manufacturing, integration, EPC and asset ownership.

Chairman and Managing Director Venugopalrao Maddisetty described the award as an important milestone for the company’s energy business that reinforces its capabilities in BESS manufacturing, project execution and long-term asset operations.

Outlook

The next milestones are DERC’s adoption of the discovered tariff and commissioning within the seven-month execution period. The project is part of a growing storage pipeline in Delhi; TERI had earlier issued tenders in December 2025 for 43 MW / 86 MWh and 12.5 MW / 25 MWh of BESS at other grid stations in the city. At the national level, BRPL’s petition cites CEA projections of 8.68 GW / 34.72 GWh of BESS requirement by 2027-28 and 47.24 GW / 236.22 GWh by 2031-32.