India Launches First Fully Automated Battery Energy Storage System Factory in Karnataka

India’s first ‘fully automated’ BESS factory opens in Karnataka
—

Energy storage is crucial for harnessing solar and wind energy, as highlighted by Karnataka’s energy minister during the inauguration of India’s first fully automated battery energy storage system (BESS) factory. Lineage Power, a manufacturer specializing in power conversion systems and plant controls, opened its 5GWh BESS factory in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on June 27, 2025.

At the event, Karnataka energy minister KJ George emphasized the importance of battery storage systems in solar PV plants, stating that they would store excess energy for grid supply “as and when required.” According to a tweet from the state government’s Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR), George noted that wind and solar PV now account for 65% of the state’s energy generation. While Karnataka has enjoyed a surplus in energy production for several years, he stressed that “effective storage systems are essential for storing energy and supplying it during peak demand periods.”

Although George did not explicitly mention a mandatory requirement for storage, the DIPR tweet suggested that some form of regulation may be forthcoming.

### Karnataka Factory: A Step Towards 500GW Goal

Lineage Power is owned by Pace Digitek, a company based in Bengaluru that offers solutions in the telecom and energy sectors. Pace Digitek acquired Lineage Power in 2014 from General Electric, which had previously purchased it from ABB. The new factory, located in Bidadi, is described as a “one of its kind, fully automated 5GWh BESS manufacturing facility,” according to a tweet by Pace Digitek.

Pralhad Joshi, the Indian Union government’s Minister of New and Renewable Energy, also attended the opening. He announced that the factory will produce 5MWh DC blocks for utility-scale applications paired with a 2.5MW power conversion system, aiming for an annual production capacity of 5GWh. Joshi remarked, “As more renewable energy flows into our grid, reliable and scalable energy storage will be essential. Projects like this bring us closer to our goal of 500GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030.”

In a recent guest blog for Energy-Storage.news, Debmalya Sen, president of the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), noted the need for the Union government to promote domestic supply chains in addition to stimulating energy storage deployment through tenders and incentive schemes. While the government has awarded subsidies for 40GWh of advanced chemistry cell (ACC) batteries via the national Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, manufacturing of battery cells—the most complex part of the value chain—has yet to take off in India. However, Sen anticipates that there will be an annual production capacity of 225GWh for battery packs in the country by the end of the decade.

India is not relying solely on batteries for energy storage. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has suggested that energy storage should be mandatory in solar PV tenders and has projected a significant need for pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) to provide long-duration energy storage alongside BESS.

Karnataka’s minister KJ George announced plans for a 2GW battery storage project, along with three PHES plants: the 2GW Sharavathi project, the 1.5GW Varahi project, and the 1GW Pavagada project. Additionally, other storage technologies are being explored, including a pilot project for flow battery storage and a carbon dioxide-based long-duration energy storage technology from the Italian company Energy Dome.