The Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission (CSERC) has specified the terms and conditions of tariffs for renewable energy sources for the sale of power to distribution licensees.

The renewable projects that come under these regulations include wind power projects, hydro projects, biomass power projects based on Rankine cycle technology, non-fossil fuel-based co-generation projects, solar projects including solar thermal power projects, municipal solid waste (MSW) based power projects, refuse-derived fuel (RDF) based power projects.

The new regulations state that the control or review period under these regulations will be three years, with the first year commencing from April 1, 2019.

The commission added it would also determine the generic preferential tariff in case of small hydro, solar PV, and co-generation power projects at the beginning of each year of the control period.

As per its new regulations, the commission said it would determine generic tariffs only for solar PV projects ranging between 0.5 MW to 2 MW and 2 MW to 5 MW in capacity. It set a normative capital cost of projects at ₹45 million (~$633,530)/MW and ₹40 million (~$563,138)/MW, respectively.

Operation and maintenance expenses were set at ₹700,000/MW (~$9,854) for the first year of the project.  Additionally, the commission has set the capacity utilization factor at 19% for solar PV projects.

For wind energy projects, the regulations specify a capital cost of ₹52.5 million (~$739,118)/MW for the financial year 2019-20, which will be revised for projects to be commissioned in each subsequent year.

The capital costs for wind projects are to include expenditure on wind turbine generators, their auxiliaries, land cost, site development charges, other civil work, transportation charges, evacuation expenses up to the point of interconnection, financing charges and infrastructure development costs.

For biomass power projects based on the Rankine cycle, the commission said it would determine only project-specific capital costs and tariffs based on market trends at the time of commissioning. It, however, specified normative operation and maintenance expenses of ₹44.6 million (~$627, 898)/MW for the first year of the control period.

In the case of non-fossil fuel-based cogeneration projects, the state commission set the normative capital cost at ₹49.25 million (~$693,363)/MW or the first year of the control period and operation and maintenance expenses at ₹2.36 million (~$33,225)/MW.

The commission declared that the generic tariffs for all eligible projects would be determined considering the year of commencement of the project, on a levelized basis for the tariff period.

For projects which have been awarded a provisional tariff before the commencement of these regulations and for those who have opted out of the generic tariff, payments already made to developers will be adjusted in six equal monthly installments minus statutory charges paid to the state government.

Recently, the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission for the state of Goa and union territories also issued an order for generic tariff applicable to the renewable projects for the financial year 2019-20.

Earlier, Mercom reported that the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission set generic tariffs for the purchase of electricity from a host of renewable energy generation sources for 2019-20.