CERC ANNOUNCES REGULATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERSTATE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM IN THE COUNTRY

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) recently announced a regulation called the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Planning, Coordination and Development of Economic and Efficient Inter-State Transmission System by Central Transmission Utility and other related matters) Regulations, 2018 which came into effect from July 2018. The objectives of the regulation are to:

(1) Lay down the broad principles, procedures, and processes to be followed for planning and development of an efficient, coordinated, reliable and economical system of an inter-State transmission system (ISTS) for smooth flow of electricity from generating stations to the load centers;

(2) Ensure wider participation of stakeholders in the planning process and specify the procedures for stakeholders consultation and participation;

(3) Specify procedures to bring about transparency in the planning process; and

(4) Demarcate the roles and responsibilities of various organizations in line with the Act for meeting the above objectives;

The regulation states responsibilities of the concerned entities like the Central Transmission Utility, Transmission Licensees, Regional Power Committee (RPC), RLDCs, NLDCs & SLDCs respectively and their roles in implementing the above-stated objectives of the regulations. This regulation is in accordance with other CERC regulations like Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Procedure, Terms, and Conditions for grant of Transmission License and other related matters Regulations), 2009; Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Grant of Regulatory Approval for execution of Inter-State Transmission Scheme to Central Transmission Utility Regulations), 2010; and the Tariff Regulations issued by the Central Commission from time to time under section 61 of the Act.

Further, the regulation has mentioned the process for the planning of the inter-state transmission and lastly, there are details provided for the process to be followed by CTUs and transmission licensee for application filing in order to start inter-state transmission.

The regulation has come well in time as there have been recent solar PV auctions with Interstate Transmission System connected solar projects. The regulations have also considered the augmentation of renewable capacity addition and Renewable Purchase Obligation with respect to each state in the country.

Source: reconnectenergy