The Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) has announced new regulations for the forecasting, scheduling, and deviation settlement of solar and wind generating sources in the state.

These regulations will be effective from the date of the notification while deviation charges specified in these regulations will be effective from August 1, 2019.

The regulations assert that a grid operator should make full use of the flexibility from conventional power projects as well as the capacity of inter-grid tie lines to accommodate the maximum wind and solar power while maintaining grid stability.

Forecasting and scheduling code will provide a methodology for day-ahead or intra-day scheduling of wind and solar energy generators which are connected to the state grid.

According to the regulation, the schedule of wind generators connected to the state grid may be revised by giving advance notice to the state load dispatch centers. There can be as many as 16 revisions during the day. In case of solar generators, a maximum of nine revisions have been allowed in a day, starting from 05:30 AM to 07:00 PM.

Here are some of the highlights from the regulations –

• Appropriate meters should be provided for energy accounting.
• Forecasting will be done by wind and solar generators connected to the state grid, or by Qualified Coordinating Agencies (QCAs) on their behalf.
• State load dispatch center will also undertake forecasting of wind and solar power that is expected to be injected into the state grid.
• The QCA or the wind and solar generator will be required to submit Day-Ahead and a Week-Ahead schedule by 9 AM every day for each pooling station or each generating station.
• Day-Ahead schedule will contain wind or solar energy generation schedule at intervals of 15 minutes (time-block) for the next day, starting from 00:00 hours of the day, and prepared for all 96 time-blocks.
• Week Ahead schedule will contain the same information for the next seven days.
• The QCA will be held responsible for the dues payable on behalf of the generator.

The regulation also talks about the commercial mechanism for deviation settlement. It says – “The wind or solar generators connected to the state grid and selling power within the state will be paid by the buyer as per actual generation at the tariff agreed in the power purchase agreement or wheeling agreement.”

In case the wind or solar generators connected to the state grid are selling power outside the state, the buyer will also have to pay the deviation charges as per the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (CERC) deviation settlement mechanism and forecasting regulations, 2014.

With this, Gujarat has joined Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Telangana, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Meghalaya in issuing regulations for the forecasting, scheduling, and deviation settlement for solar and wind generation.

Recently, the Gujarat commission also revised the state renewable purchase obligation for the entities in the state for the financial year 2013-14 retroactively.

Earlier, Mercom reported about GERC’s draft regulations for large-scale grid integration of solar and wind power.