BESS Boom Spurs Waaree RTL’s Expansion Hopes

Waaree Renewable Technologies Limited (RTL), the EPC arm of the Waaree Group, is now optimistic about securing more solar-plus-Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) projects. The optimism stems from the Indian government’s growing push for energy storage and a surge in related project orders.

The company’s top management, in its latest investor call, discussed current market trends in BESS, the government’s thrust, and gave a sneak peek into the upcoming quarters in terms of order prospects. The company informed investors that it has secured 40 MWh of BESS projects so far, and the path ahead looks promising. Meanwhile, the firm’s total unexecuted order book now stands at 3.15 GWp. It executed 699 MWp of orders in the latest quarter (Q1).

Thrust on BESS, Hybrid Projects

“We are also actively exploring EPC opportunity in hybrid projects, battery energy storage system and green hydrogen, which we believe will be key growth drivers in the coming years,” Manmohan Sharma, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the firm told investors.

Abhishek Pareek, the Group Head Finance of Waaree RTL, explained what fuels their expectations from BESS projects. “Last quarter, the government has come up with the regulations to ensure that every solar project do have an integration with minimum uptime from BESS solutions. And we see this as a very large opportunity. To be precise here, for EPC company like Waaree RTL, this predominantly enhances our wallet share with the customers. So, when we do an EPC with our clients as what we are doing versus an EPC along with a BESS solution at the site, the revenue and the wallet share enhances from the same set of customers.”

He also added, “BESS certainly is a segment which is upcoming, and which is yet to see the benefit of BESS in the overall scheme of things. But naturally, BESS is in a natural integration with our set of business. As we go ahead, as the requirement of storage at the location of power generation enhances, this certainly could become a very large revenue garner for any company that works in this space. So, we really foresee a huge value from the BESS systems happening more in India.”

Lesser Order In Hand Now 

The company, however, has not yet secured any very large orders in the BESS or data center segments. The top management said that, going by the new tenders being issued by the government, around 50% of them are either Round-the-Clock (RTC) or Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy (FDRE) projects where the BESS component is essential.

“So, we see the trend to be very clear and very loud that the time to come is in a project of solar along with a BESS only. So certainly, BESS is going to be one of the critical element of entire solar renewable business,” Pareek said.

The company also said that the decreasing cost of BESS systems has bolstered its growth outlook.
“So interestingly, if you look at the trend of cost of BESS systems in place over the last 1.5 years, we have seen the rationalization of cost between $250 to $300 cost of a BESS system to today around $80 to $120 per MW kind of cost that we see. So, we have seen the cost structures continuously coming down for BESS systems,” Pareek added.