ACME Solar Secures 50 MW FDRE Project From Tata Power

ACME Solar Holdings has been awarded a letter of award (LOA) for a 50 MW Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy (FDRE) project at a tariff of Rs. 4.43/Unit in a 250 MW FDRE tender floated by Tata Power Company Limited (Tata Power-D). 

Sharing the project details in a press release, the company said, "Notably, Tata Power-D is a licensed electricity distribution company and is a part of Tata Power Company Limited. The FDRE tender was floated under tariff-based competitive guidelines (TBCB) for which an e-reverse auction was conducted on August 13, 2025." 

ACME Solar Holdings further explained, "The project will be required to maintain a minimum annual CUF of 40% and ensure four hours of peak-hour supply with 90% availability on a monthly basis. The project would combine multiple renewable energy technologies, including Solar and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), to meet the supply obligations for a PPA tenor of 25 years. The commissioning timeline of the project is 24 months from the PPA signing." 

ACME Solar Previous Projects

Acme Solar expanded its battery energy storage system (BESS) portfolio in the last quarter. In its quarterly conference call, Nikhil Dhingra, Chief Executive Officer, ACME Solar Holdings, said, “In this quarter, we signed PPAs for 550 MW of FDRE and solar projects, and 550 MWh of standalone BESS projects. With this, our under-construction portfolio stands at 4,080 MW plus 550 MWh of storage, and 55% of our portfolio has signed PPAs. For our under-construction capacity, we have placed orders for over 3.1 GWh of battery energy storage systems with suppliers such as Narada and Trina Energy.”

Battery Projects Avoid Costly Substations, Deliver Returns With Lower Risk

On the latest BESS projects won by ACME Solar, Dhingra explained how the battery storage projects help to lower costs. Dhingra said, "The battery projects are typically those where you don’t need to build the whole evacuation substation. For example, in the Andhra Pradesh NHPC project we won, we are installing at the premises of the customer. So the capex normally required for a solar plant regarding transmission evacuation substations need not be done. What we really need to do is the battery system installation, and that is typically done at a capex of $100 per kilowatt hour, or even less. The IRR in this is, of course, lower than the FDRE, but the risk is also much lower. Returns are in the high teens — we don’t do projects with less than a 16% return, and this project is much above that for this project."

Dhingra further suggested," These returns are aided by multiple factors, including the VGF. This also does not include the upside, which an interest rate reduction will provide in terms of the reduced risk of the project, because this does not include any land acquisition. This does not include any transmission lines. The risks are almost similar to what used to be there in a solar park bid. And the contract tenure is shorter here also. So that is also factored into these numbers."