The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has issued model guidelines for the accreditation of renewable energy projects or distribution licensees (DISCOM) by state agencies under the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) mechanism. The new procedure is designed to provide the entities with guidance on how to implement the REC mechanism.

CERC believes the procedure will facilitate the development of the power market from renewable energy sources using the issuance of RECs.

The procedure is set to apply to all of the grid-connected projects of generating companies based on the renewable energy sources generating electricity. The renewable energy sources are small hydro, wind, biomass, bio fuel co-generation, urban, and municipal waste.

Under the guidelines, the respective State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) would act as the accreditation agencies for the states. The SERCs would undertake the accreditation of any renewable energy generation project by a generating company six months prior to the proposed date of commercial operation.

For renewable energy-based co-generation projects, the connected load capacity would be considered as the capacity for captive consumption for issuing the certificates, irrespective of the capacity of such projects covered under the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

The procedure also calls for each renewable energy generator to obtain a certificate from the DISCOM for the connected load. The DISCOM would issue such a certificate within 15 days from the date of application and the renewable energy generator could submit it to SERC along with its application for accreditation.

SERC will undertake the accreditation of any DISCOM if it procured renewable energy exceeding the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) during the previous financial year. In such a scenario, the RPO of the current year shouldn’t be less than the RPO of the previous fiscal year.

The accreditation would be valid for a period of five years, after which it could be extended by the respective SERC upon consideration of all the facts and figures.

Recently, Mercom reported that CERC issued a set of levelized generic tariffs for the purchase of electricity from a host of renewable power generation sources during financial year (FY) 2018-19.

Mercom also reported on the fixed generic tariff proposed by CERC for select renewables for FY 2017-18.