The Ministry of Power (MoP) has announced that interstate transmission system (ISTS) charges and losses on the transmission of electricity generated from solar and wind energy projects will be waived as long as they are commissioned before December 31, 2022.

In a previous order issued in February 2018, the ministry had said that the charges for the transmission and losses would be waived for projects which were commissioned before March 31, 2022.

These charges would be waived for a period of 25 years, provided that the projects are supplying power to entities (including DISCOMs) to meet their respective renewable purchase obligations (RPO).

Further, these projects should be allocated to developers through a competitive bidding process. Before the February 2018 order, the commissioning deadline to avail the ISTS waiver was in 2019.

The announcement has already generated positive results. The recently concluded Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) 7 GW tender linked with a manufacturing component received excellent response largely owing to waiver of ISTS charges beyond March 31, 2022 according to an executive from a renewable energy company that spoke to Mercom.

In July 2019, Mercom reported that to avail the waiver, project developers must submit the certificate with the date of project commissioning, and the letter of award issued by the designated agency stating that the project has been awarded through a competitive bidding process per the guidelines issued by the central government.

Recently, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission issued a draft regulation for sharing inter-state transmission charges and losses. The commission stated that the regulations would apply to all the designated ISTS customers, inter-state transmission licensees (ISTL), national load despatch center (NLDC), regional load despatch centers (RLDCs), state load despatch centers (SLDCs), and regional power committees (RPCs).

Recently, SECI amended its tender that calls for setting up 7 GW of solar projects coupled with 2 GW of the manufacturing component. One of the amendments stated that the solar projects set up under this Request for Selection (RfS) would be eligible for ISTS charges waiver, even if commissioned beyond March 31, 2022.

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