Green Open Access Rules 2022: The Union Government taking another step forward to accelerate India's renewable energy programmes recently notified the Green Open Access Rules 2022.
Key Highlights:
The Ministry of Power (MoP) stated in its notification of the Electricity (Promoting Renewable Energy Through Green Energy Open Access) Rules, 2022 that every consumer becomes a stakeholder to contribute to achieving India's commitment of 500 GW of Non-fossil fuel by 2030."
The draft rules were laid down in August 2021.
Key points of Green Open Access Rules 2022:
- These rules are notified to promote the generation, purchase, and consumption of green energy, including energy generated by waste-to-energy plants.
- The rules enable a simplified procedure for open access to green power.
- As per the rules, the consumers can now demand green power from DISCOMS (power distribution companies).
- The rules provide certainty on open access charges to be levied on green energy open access consumers, which includes transmission charges, wheeling charges, cross-subsidy surcharge and standby charges.
- It will enable faster approval of Green OA, Uniform Banking, Voluntary purchase of RE power by commercial & industrial consumers, Applicability of OA charges, etc.
- Commercial and Industrial consumers are allowed to purchase green power on a voluntary basis.
- Captive Consumers can take power under Green Open Access with no minimum limitation.
Green Open Access:
- As per the rules, the green open access is allowed to any consumer and the limit of open access transactions has been reduced from 1 MW (megawatt) to 100 kW for green energy in order to enable small consumers also to purchase renewable power through open access.
- This will also enable small consumers to purchase renewable power by means of open access.
- There will be transparency in the approval process of open access applications.
- According to the rules, the approvals are to be granted in 15 days or else it will be deemed to have been approved subject to fulfillment of technical requirements.
- It will be done through a national portal.
Tariff for green energy:
- The tariff for the green energy shall be determined separately by the appropriate commission,
- The tariff will consist of average pooled power purchase cost of renewable energy, service charges covering the prudent cost of distribution licensee and cross-subsidy charges, in order to provide the green energy to the consumers.
- The Rules will help to streamline the overall approval process for granting Open Access providing timely approval, bringing uniformity to the application procedure, and improving cash flow predictability for renewable power producers.
- It will also bring uniformity to the application procedure.
Cap on increasing the cross-subsidy surcharge:
- As per the rules, there is a provision for cap on increasing cross-subsidy surcharges and doing away with an additional surcharge.
- This in turn will not only incentivizes the consumers to go green but will also address the issues that have hindered the growth of open access in India.
- There shall be a uniform renewable purchase obligation on all obligated entities in the area of a distribution licensees.
- Consumers will be given certificates if they consume green power.
- Cross subsidy surcharge and additional surcharge shall not be applicable if green energy is utilized for the production of green hydrogen and green ammonia.
Objective:
- The main objective is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and green energy for all.
- It aims to streamline the overall approval process for granting open access, providing timely approval, bringing uniformity to the application procedure, and improving cash flow predictability for renewable power producers.
