Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), which manages the country's renewable energy tenders, is poised to invite tendering for a total of 300MW in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
The 50MW arrays envisaged under the tender would come with 2.5MWh of storage.
Consultancy Bridge to India said the process could to attract major storage technology providers such as AES, Sumitomo Electric, Samsung SDI, NEC, BYD, GE and Saft.
The consultancy added that the small scale of the storage systems would mean their actual impact on the arrays being tendered for will be limited – it estimates three minutes of output at full capacity.
With a 2.5MWh storage unit costing about $600,000, it will add less than 2% to overall project cost, it expects.
But Bridge to India said the main objective of the initiative will be to "showcase India as an upcoming market for utility scale energy storage solutions and provide useful technical, operational and financial learning for the entire power sector eco-system".
The consultancy added: "From a technical standpoint, the need for energy storage technology is plain obvious in a scenario where grid penetration of renewables is increasing rapidly. India expects to get 15% of all power from renewables by 2022 as against about 5.5% today."
The addition of storage is the latest in a series of policy support innovations contemplated in India as the country chases its ambitious solar deployment goal of 100GW by 2022.
The country in June confirmed a target to deploy 10GW of wind-solar hybrid capacity, suggesting it may offer incentives such as preferential financing to encourage dual deployment.
India is also poised to hold its first tenders in the wind power sector – up to now supported via long-term tariffs – in an effort to promote inter-state transmission.
Bridge to India said: "With India expected to become the third largest market for solar deployment after US and China from next year onwards, we expect to see much more focus on storage in the coming years."
