Ola Electric Mobility Limited said on Wednesday that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Axis Energy Ventures outlining the potential deployment of up to 20 GWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS) by 2032. The company disclosed the development in a filing with the BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
According to the company, the pact marks the first large-scale partnership for Ola Mahashakti, its forthcoming energy storage platform for commercial, industrial and utility-scale applications, which is scheduled to launch on August 15. The agreement envisages a ramp-up in deployment to 5 GWh annually from 2028, and the company said it demonstrates the scale of demand Mahashakti can address, positioning utility-scale BESS as a new growth avenue.
Axis Energy is building one of India’s largest pipelines of storage-backed renewable projects, the release said. The company has secured grid approvals for more than 3,750 MW of projects in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and has a further pipeline of about 3,500 MW, spanning Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy (FDRE), hybrid and other non-solar configurations that will require large-scale BESS to improve renewable energy integration and grid reliability, according to the company.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) estimates that India will need more than 400 GWh of storage capacity by 2032, Ola Electric said, adding that Mahashakti is intended to address this through an India-designed and India-manufactured platform spanning renewable energy integration, industrial power, grid infrastructure and data-centre applications. The company said its vertically integrated model, from cell technology to manufacturing and system engineering, was designed to give customers greater control over safety, performance, supply-chain security and total cost of ownership.
Ravi Kumar Reddy Kataru, Chairman and Managing Director of Axis Energy Ventures, said battery energy storage was becoming essential to enabling reliable, round-the-clock clean power as the company’s renewable energy portfolio expanded, and that the MoU was a step towards evaluating indigenous battery storage solutions for its next phase of growth.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of Ola Electric, said India would need energy storage at a massive scale and that the company’s cell-to-system platform gave it a stronger proposition on safety, performance and cost of ownership. He said Axis Energy was Ola’s first large-scale partner and an early validation of Mahashakti’s potential, adding that the company was seeing strong interest from other potential partners in the industry.
Axis Energy Ventures India Private Limited, headquartered in Hyderabad, has more than 15 years of experience in renewable energy project development, with over 1.5 GW of commissioned capacity and a pipeline exceeding 8.5 GW, the company said. It also has a strategic partnership with Brookfield Renewable through Evren, a 51:49 joint venture backed by Brookfield’s USD 20 billion Global Transition Fund II.
