Bondada wins LOI for 20 MW/120 MWh vanadium flow battery in Gujarat
Bondada Engineering Limited has received a Letter of Intent (LOI) from Gujarat Industries Power Company Limited (GIPCL) to develop a 20 MW/120 MWh vanadium redox flow battery energy storage system (VRFB BESS) in Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
The six-hour system will be established at GIPCL's existing 165 MW natural gas power plant complex, pairing long-duration storage with thermal generation on a single site. The engineering, procurement and construction scope covers design, engineering, procurement, equipment supply, civil construction, installation, testing and commissioning, plus a 10-year operations and maintenance contract.
Execution window of 18 months
Project execution is scheduled for completion within 18 months from receipt of the Notice of Award. The contract value remains undisclosed, leaving the per-kilowatt-hour economics of the deal out of public view for now.
Bondada Engineering describes the development as India's largest grid-scale vanadium redox flow battery installation, with six hours of storage supporting grid stability, renewable energy integration and reliable electricity supply.
Why a flow battery at a gas plant
Vanadium flow batteries store energy in liquid electrolytes held in tanks and scale duration by adding electrolyte volume rather than extra cells, which makes them suited to multi-hour shifting duties. Siting a 120 MWh VRFB beside gas-fired capacity gives the state utility a dispatchable asset that can absorb midday solar and release it into evening peaks, while gas generation covers longer gaps.
For Bondada, the LOI strengthens its position in advanced energy storage infrastructure beyond its core engineering business. For India's LDES market, the significance is scale: at 20 MW, the project is an order of magnitude larger than most flow-battery demonstrations seen in South Asia to date and would give domestic supply chains a reference plant for stacks, electrolyte and balance-of-plant equipment.
Open questions remain. The LOI is not yet a signed EPC contract, the tariff structure has not been disclosed, and the project's commercial operation date depends on the Notice of Award being issued on schedule. Even so, a state utility tendering six-hour flow storage at the hundred-megawatt-hour level is a clear signal that India is moving beyond pilot-stage procurement for long-duration technologies.
This article was assisted by AI analysis. Please refer to the original source for official information.