The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) has amended its renewable purchase obligation (RPO) policy to include wind energy in the RPO and move solar energy into the ‘other RPO’ category.

The changes are in line with the regulation issued by the Ministry of Power (MoP).

Since the RPO targets for the financial year (FY) 2023 are based on the current trajectory specified in the HERC’s 2021 renewable regulations, the new RPO trajectory will be effective from FY24.

According to the regulator, the RPO for wind energy will be fulfilled by energy produced from wind 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 wind projects commissioned before March 31, 2022.

Further, any shortfall in achieving other RPO in a year can be met with the excess energy consumed from wind power projects commissioned after March 31, 2022. This wind power must be beyond the wind RPO for that year.

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

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

The other RPO obligation can also be met from excess energy consumed from eligible projects, including PHP, commissioned after March 8, 2019, beyond the HPO for that year or partly from both.

Any shortfall in achieving wind RPO in a year can be met with excess energy consumed from hydropower plants, which is more than the HPO for that year and vice versa.

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

Energy Storage Obligation

The Commission has also notified the percentage of the total energy that can be consumed from solar and wind projects with storage.

The Energy Storage Obligation (ESO) will be calculated in energy terms as a percentage of the total consumption of electricity and treated as fulfilled only when at least 85% of the total energy stored in the energy storage system (ESS) is procured from renewable energy sources annually.

The ESO will be reviewed periodically, considering the commissioning of PHP. ESO has been added to accommodate commercially viable energy storage technologies and reduce the cost of battery energy storage systems.

Subscribe to Mercom’s real-time Regulatory Updates to ensure you don’t miss any critical updates from the renewable industry.