EQ Magazine hosted a webinar on ‘Draft Electricity promoting RE through Green Energy Open Access Rules 2021’ on September 24, 2021. The webinar was held in association with Sungrow India.
Speakers shared their views on the topic, spoke about their experiences related to open access projects and discussed the Draft rules in detail.
Pallavi Bedi, Partner- Luthra & Luthra Law Offices participated as moderator of the session. Deshraju Radhakrishna, Chairman- Tripura Electricity Regulatory Commission (TERC) and D. Ramanaiah Setty, Deputy Director (Tariff Engineering)- Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) participated as Keynote Speakers.
The government and policymakers are interested in promoting the adoption of renewable energy through adopting open access and making the rules much better. Open access allows C&I entities to have a larger share of renewable energy in their energy mix. Currently, many big corporates are regularly announcing their commitment towards RE100.
Introducing the topic, Pallavi Bedi said, “Open access has been a topic in discussion for a while with Electricity Act introducing the whole concept of open access with an aim to promote competition combined with regulatory control. This was the intent, but the aim was to grow and increase the open access over a period of time and reduce the charges. This Draft Regulation is a great initiative to give the required push to our renewable energy sector, but there are questions, concerns and legal concerns.”
Along with the discussion on Draft Regulation, Harendra Kumar Tomar, Leader-Business Development – Sungrow India, presented a short brief on his company. “BloombergNEF has recognized Sungrow as the World’s Most Bankable Inverter Brand for two consecutive years. Sungrow is present in more than 150 countries and installed over 182 GW inverters across the globe.
In India, we have reached 9 GW of installations, and we are reaching 10 GW of installations in a couple of months. We have already installed over 27000 inverters across India.” He further shared his experiences of dealing with customers looking for open access projects. He said that Sungrow is looking at the Draft rules positively, and it will help grow the renewable energy market.
Deshraju Radhakrishna, Chairman- Tripura Electricity Regulatory Commission (TERC), shared his thoughts on open access and draft rules, saying, “I am happy that open access and renewable energy, etc, are finding a good market everywhere.
We have already touched 1 lakh renewable energy clubs, which means around 30,000 to 40,000 MW of power will be taken into the grid every day. That is a big development. We are already feeding 20-30 per cent power through renewable energy markets. As far as draft rules are concerned, my view is that if these rules are overtaking the regulations already enforced, then it has to be at least at par with the best.”
“We need to focus on the quality of the power and the elements of the regulations which are framing up the power. As far as solar power is concerned, the problem is that when the battery and the inverter system comes up in a big way, the solar power will be used only for the daytime. But the hydro, hydro mix and hybrid models, everything will focus in.”
“At Tripura, we are focusing on renewable energy in a big way. In fact, we don’t use a single KV of coal to produce power. Everything is gas-based, which is a much cleaner power than fossil fuel-based power. As far as solar power is considered, we have got unlimited rooftop solar regulations. Although the limits were 1 MW on the case to case basis, we as regulators, are permitting whatever the quantity people are asking for that purpose. We are focusing on all those things.
When the rules are formed, they will be uniform all across Pan India. That’s the whole objective of these rules that are coming up. I feel things will improve a lot, and everybody will have treatment at par. Whether the solar energy is produced in Tripura or Maharashtra, they should be treated at par because the cost is more at difficult places.
Rules will overtake the regulation and bring a systematic approach pan India in the formation of renewable energy. India was the first country in the world where the renewable energy industry was set up long back. We all are working together for it, and things will improve.”
D. Ramanaiah Setty, Deputy Director (Tariff Engineering)- Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) shared his views on open access, draft rules and its implementation, along with highlighting the changes observed in the Draft Rules. He said, “All open access regulations have to be aligned in line with these draft rules.” Further, he shared some important points on the rules and renewable energy.
“The cross-subsidy structured determined for renewable energy consumers should not be increased for next 12 years from the date of commissioning of the RE plants. Regulatory commissions have to provide a mechanism to level up or recognize the consumers to use this RE energy for renewable power purchase. These rules provide uniform renewable power purchase obligation for all the category of stakeholders.”
He discussed the rules and DISCOM’s perspective in detail. He added that the rules provide a big push that will help for the development of the distributed generation, particularly solar. “So, the consumers will also benefit because of the competitive price of this solar power.”
Ashu Gupta, Head Regulatory and Govt. Relations- CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions Pvt Ltd, spoke about his experience on open access and shared his insights on the rules. He said, “From the developers’ perspective, the Draft Rules for open access are amongst the most welcome things for the renewable sector. We were expecting some changes out of the proposed amendments which were there for the Electricity Act, which could have taken huge time.”
Speaking on the rules, he said, “As a consumer or developer, we expect that these rules should come with two major objectives- to bring uniformity and the essence should be absolute clarity; there should not be any ambiguity.
He further highlighted the issues faced by developers and open access.
Mr Naved Askari, Partner, LexRidge Partners, Advocates & Solicitors, shared his thoughts on the Draft Rules from the legal perspective. “Until now, there was no clarity, and in these draft rules, they are coming up with a central nodal agency. One can apply to this agency, and it is being provided that if one doesn’t get the approval in 15 days, then it is deemed that the approval has been done. They are trying to bring in uniformity.
Legally speaking, I think that this is a good move from the perspective of targets. The world is looking at us in terms of how much and how fast can we shift our production of electricity into the renewable spot. Hydrogen is an upcoming thing that can’t be ignored. Considering those perspectives, this is the right time to bring in these kinds of regulations.”
Ranjith Nair, Senior Professional- Energy & Power Industry (Ex Siemens, ENGIE, Sterlite), shared his insights in his address, saying, “This is a positive step from the global and macro view. Whether an investor is really keen to invest with these kinds of rules and make it happen is something which we need to deliberate on.”
Referring to his experience, he said, “We had seen that implementation is one of those key issues in the policies that we have seen which had not been most helpful. The rules remain to be much more detailed. The intention is good, and people are liking it. It should be approved by all the stakeholders to make it implementable.”
Ankit Nimodia, Associate – Greenstone Energy Advisors, shared the understanding based on different financing and a transaction the sector. “This is a good initiative and shows the good intention from the government towards the sector. This certainly brings some kind of standardisation in terms of rules. Creating a central agency would help in terms of open access approvals and how all different scenarios are treated on a single basis across the states.
Across all our transactions for investors, educating them on the regulatory aspect of this sector is difficult because it is not standardised. The rules show good intentions from the government that they want to address it and it would be helpful for the sector. Open access has evolved in the last three to four years despite many challenges.” The webinar concluded with an interactive Q and A session and closing remarks from the speakers.
