The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has proposed a new levelized generic tariff for the purchase of electricity from small hydro projects, biomass with Rankine cycle, non-fossil fuel based co-generation, biomass gasifier and biogas based projects in the financial year (FY) 2017-18. This new tariff falls under the CERC (Terms and Conditions for Tariff determination from Renewable Energy Sources) Regulations of 2017. Stakeholders can provide comments and suggestions on the proposed tariff by April 28, 2017.

An official at the CERC stated, that levelized tariff is calculated by carrying out levelization for the ‘useful life’ of each technology considering a discount factor for time value of money. For calculation of the levelized generic tariff, the CERC has taken 35 years as the project life for small hydro projects, and 20 years each for biomass power projects with rankine cycle technology, non-fossil fuel based co-generation, biomass gasifier and biogas projects.

The CERC has regulated that the tariff for solar PV, solar thermal, wind (onshore and offshore), municipal solid waste/refuse derived fuel and other emerging renewable energy technologies, will be project specific.

The CERC has also mandated that the control period for determination tariffs for renewable energy projects will be three years, of which the first year of the control period is FY 2017-18.