The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has revised its renewable purchase obligation (RPO) and compliance regulations, establishing the RPO trajectory for the national capital territory until the financial year (FY) 2025-26.

The amendment aligns with the Ministry of Power’s regulations after incorporating wind energy into the RPO and re-categorizing solar energy as ‘Other RPO.’

The new trajectory became effective on April 1, 2023.

According to the regulator, the RPO for wind energy will be fulfilled from projects commissioned after March 31, 2022. The RPO may also be satisfied by the excess wind energy consumed beyond 7% of total energy consumption from projects commissioned before March 31, 2022.

A separate category for wind RPO is expected to boost wind installations and reduce the cost of power generated from these projects.

The regulator said that the hydropower purchase obligation (HPO) could only be satisfied by energy produced from large hydro projects, including pumped hydro projects, commissioned after March 8, 2019.

The other RPO obligation can also be met from excess energy consumed from eligible projects, including large hydro, pumped storage, and small hydro projects commissioned after March 8, 2019.

If the target for the ‘Other RPO’ category is not met in a year, the shortfall can be fulfilled by using excess energy generated from wind projects commissioned after March 31, 2022, or from eligible large hydro projects, pumped storage projects, and small hydro projects commissioned after March 8, 2019, beyond the target set for HPO for that year.

If the target for the ‘Wind RPO’ category is not met, then the remaining shortfall can be met with excess energy consumed from hydropower projects, which is more than HPO for that year, and vice versa.

Hydropower imported from outside India will not be considered for meeting HPO.

Penalty

If a distribution company (DISCOM) fails to meet its RPO targets, it will attract a penalty of 10% of the weighted average renewable energy certificate price discovered at the power exchange for the relevant year for the quantum of shortfall in RPO.

The penalty imposed due to non-compliance with RPO targets will be reduced from the annual revenue requirement during true-up of the relevant financial year.

In the case of open-access consumers, the state nodal agency will compute the penalty for the relevant year and communicate it to DISCOM, which will bill such penal amount in the electricity bill of open-access consumers.

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