Aurora introduces flexible energy market forecast amid battery storage surge

Launched on August 29, the service assesses co-located and standalone battery projects while drawing on global insights into the development, financing and deployment. 

The energy transition in India is accelerating with 22 GW of solar capacity installed in H1 2025, alongside a record 7.6 GW of tendered Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) capacity. To support stakeholders operating in this rapidly changing market, the global power markets analytics provider Aurora Energy Research has introduced its Flexible Energy Market Forecast. 

Launched on August 29, the service assesses co-located and standalone battery projects while drawing on global insights into the development, financing, and deployment. 

As solar prices drop to near-zero during daylight hours and spike to the price cap at midnight, battery storage is emerging as a key solution to capture these price swings, according to Aurora’s analysis. The market is also seeing decreasing tariffs in standalone battery tenders, which has drawn attention to the price and quality differences across battery suppliers. Meanwhile, operational parameters, such as auxiliary power consumption, which varies with ambient temperature, are becoming increasingly important in assessing project viability, the analysis finds. 

Debabrata Ghosh, Market Head, India, at Aurora Energy Research, said, “The decreasing tariffs in standalone battery tenders have brought attention to the price and quality differences across battery suppliers. While the typical 12-year contract duration for standalone battery tenders makes tier 2 batteries more competitive from a tariff perspective, our analysis finds that for merchant projects, more expensive tier 1 batteries that have a longer life cycle can deliver similar or potentially superior returns to cheaper tier 2 batteries which have a shorter life.” 

Siddhant Shah, Research Associate at Aurora Energy Research, comments, “Operational parameters for batteries, such as auxiliary power consumption, which can vary with ambient temperature, are an important consideration in determining the viability of a battery project. We find that even in the hotter parts of the country, such as Gujarat and Rajasthan, unlevered returns for merchant co-located solar and battery projects can be 6 percentage points higher than those for projects commissioned through tenders, if optimised for relative sizing of solar and battery.”