Consumers in Haryana with a contracted demand or sanctioned load of at least 100 kW will be eligible for Green Energy Open Access, with no limit on the power supply for captive consumers, according to the state’s Green Energy Open Access Regulations, 2023.

The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) recently issued the regulations in line with the Union government’s green energy open access rules introduced last year.

To be eligible, consumers must commit to a minimum of twelve time blocks of 15-minute intervals per day and cannot change the amount of power consumed during open access.

Consumers seeking open access must have the infrastructure for time-block-wise energy metering and accounting installed at their premises, and those connected to an independent feeder emanating from a grid substation are eligible for seeking open access. This is provided that all applications for open access of green energy will be allowed by the State Nodal Agency within thirty days.

A group of two or more consumers connected to the distribution system of a licensee at 11 kV or above may also be entitled to seek open access if all consumers apply collectively and have the necessary infrastructure for metering and accounting.

Consumers not on independent feeders will be allowed open access subject to system constraints and power cut restrictions imposed by the distribution licensee serving them. However, any underdrawn power due to power cut restrictions shall not be compensated.

Consumers who have outstanding dues for more than two months, have a case of unauthorized use of electricity/theft of electricity pending against them, or have been declared insolvent or bankrupt are not eligible for open access.

The green energy open access consumer must restrict the sum of their total drawal from open access and the distribution licensee up to the total sanctioned contract demand, with a maximum admissible drawal in any time block during the day for green energy open access consumers.

Banking

The regulations allow RE-based captive generating plants to bank power up to their contract demand for captive/own use by paying banking charges and transmission and distribution losses. The banked power must be used within the same billing cycle and cannot be carried forward to the next cycle.

The quantum of banked energy by Green Energy Open Access consumers cannot exceed 30% of their total monthly consumption from the distribution licensee. A drawal of banked power is not allowed during peak load hours.

Charges

The charges to be levied on green energy open access consumers include transmission charges, wheeling charges, cross-subsidy surcharge, standby charges wherever applicable, banking charges, application fees/SLDC fees/charges, scheduling charges, deviation settlement charges, and reactive energy charges.

Green energy open access consumers purchasing green energy from renewable sources will have a fixed surcharge for twelve years from the generating plant’s operating date. Cross-subsidy surcharges will not apply to non-fossil fuel waste-to-energy plant consumers or green energy production of green hydrogen and ammonia.

Standby charges will be 125% of the energy charges applicable to the consumer tariff category.

Intra-State transmission loss will apply to consumers seeking green energy open access, determined as the average 52-week intra-state transmission loss for the previous financial year.

RECs

Distribution licensees must issue green certificates to consumers yearly if they request green energy supplied beyond their renewable purchase obligation. The SLDC Haryana will be the State Nodal Agency for granting green energy open access for short-term periods of up to a month. At the same time, the State Transmission Utility (STU) will be the nodal agency for medium-term and long-term periods.

All applications for connectivity and green energy open access must be submitted through the single window green energy open access system for renewable energy developed by the Central Nodal Agency at the STU headquarters.

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

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