The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has set the national average power purchase cost (APPC) at ₹3.53 (~$0.0518)/kWh for open access.  The CERC had proposed this national APPC in April 2018 and it was open for comments by stakeholders until May 2, 2018.

This APPC will apply during the financial year (FY) 2018-19 and until further order for deviation settlement with respect to open access are put in place.

The new APPC is ₹0.05 (~$0.00073)/kWh more than the previous APPC of ₹3.48 (~$0.0511)/kWh for FY 2017-18.

The settlement will be done at APPC for open access wind or solar sellers which are regional entities and are selling power under renewable energy certificate (REC) framework, as well as for captive projects where power purchase agreements (PPAs) do not exist.

The total cost of power purchase considered for computation of APPC excludes cost of generation or procurement from renewable energy sources and transmission charges.

Unlike the previous FY in which the APPC did not apply to the states of Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Delhi, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Assam, Kerala, and Rajasthan; in this FY, the APPC is uniform for all states and Union Territories (UTs).

Per CERC, 10,57,738.50 million units (MU) of power was procured from non-renewable energy generating sources by all states and UTs combined, with the average cost of non-renewable energy being ₹3.53 (~$0.0518)/kWh.

Like the previous FY, CERC again invited comments from stakeholders on the national APPC determination but received none.