The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has notified that certain provisions of the General Network Access (GNA) regulations and the first amendment to the GNA Regulations 2022 will come into effect from October 1, 2023.

The scheduling and despatch of electricity will be based on the quantum of GNA, GNA (Renewable Energy), Temporary GNA (T-GNA), and T-GNA (Renewable Energy) for each of the designated interstate transmission system (ISTS) customers and other users of the grid.

Last July, the Commission had issued CERC the Connectivity and General Network Access to the Inter-State Transmission System Regulations, 2022. The regulations were to come into effect from October 15, 2022.

However, in October, CERC postponed the commencement dates of various sub-rules of the regulations.

Some of the key sub-regulations of GNA Regulations that will be implemented from October 1, 2023, are:

• A GNA grantee can grant permission to other organizations to utilize its GNA, either in its entirety or partially, subject to prior approval from the nodal agency, for one year at a time. To compute transmission deviation charges per the sharing regulations, the GNA made available to other authorized entities will be subtracted from its original allocation and then added to the GNA of other recipients.
• The connectivity grantee may relinquish, in full or in part, the connectivity with a notice of 30 days to the nodal agency, which will issue a revised grant of connectivity to such grantee.
• In case of relinquishment of the connectivity, the subsisting Conn-BG1(Connectivity Bank Guarantee) will be encashed, and the subsisting Conn-BG2 will be encashed if the terminal bays are already developed or construction of which has already been awarded and the subsisting Conn-BG3 will be encashed. In the case of relinquishment of a portion of connectivity, the subsisting Conn-BG2 will be encashed in proportion of the relinquished extent of connectivity. Conn-BG1 will be returned considering full capacity after excluding such relinquished quantum.
• In case of revocation or relinquishment of connectivity, the corresponding GNA will be reduced. If a connectivity grantee relinquishes the connectivity in full, it will be disconnected from the ISTS. On revocation, there will be no more billing for the corresponding quantum.
• The state transmission utility (STU) may relinquish GNA on behalf of an identified intrastate entity. The relinquishment charges will equal 24 times the transmission charges paid by such intrastate entity for the last billing month corresponding to the relinquished portion. The relinquishment charges will be equivalent to 24 times the transmission charges that the entity paid for the previous month under the sharing regulations for the portion being relinquished. If the remaining duration of the GNA is less than 24 months, the relinquishment charges will be calculated as the product of the number of remaining months and the transmission charges paid by the entity for the last month, corresponding to the amount being relinquished.
• Where the existence of infrastructure and availability of surplus transmission capacity in the intrastate transmission network has been established, the SLDC will issue standing clearance within three working days of receipt of such application.
• If the SLDC refuses to issue clearance on the grounds of the non-existence of infrastructure or unavailability of surplus transmission capacity in an intrastate transmission network, such refusal will be communicated to the applicant within three or seven working days.
• The T-GNA grantee to whom the clearance has been issued will bid in the power exchange so that the aggregate portion in each time block for all the bids under bilateral transactions and collective transactions should not exceed the extent of standing clearance.
• If the aggregate of bids in the power exchanges under bilateral transactions and collective transactions by a T-GNA grantee exceeds the standing clearance in any time block, NLDC will debar such T-GNA grantee from participating in bilateral and collective transactions for seven days.
• T-GNA granted under the exigency or advance application category for a period not exceeding one month cannot be revised, and those granted for more than one month may be reduced for the balance period with notice of one month by the T-GNA grantee.
• The scheduling request by T-GNA grantees under the advance application category will be made on a day-ahead basis before the opening of the bidding window for collective transactions under the day-ahead market, as per provisions of the Grid Code.
• If the seller is an intrastate entity with the point of injection under the state control area, the scheduling request should accompany the standing clearance. Whereas, if the seller is a regional entity with the point of injection under the regional control area, the point of injection will be furnished in terms of the provisions of these regulations.
• Regarding bilateral and collective transactions, the transmission charges for T-GNA will be payable only at the point of drawal, as per the last published transmission charge rate for the state where such point of drawal is located.
• If any scheduling request under T-GNA is not approved by RLDC on a day-ahead basis or curtailed for transmission constraints or grid security, the transmission charges will be refunded to the T-GNA grantee by the 15th day of the following month.
• In case of default in payment of transmission charges for T-GNA, the T-GNA granted will be canceled. In case of delay in payment of T-GNA charges under collective transactions, the power exchange will pay simple interest at 0.04% for each day of default.
• In the case of constraint in the transmission system, the available transmission corridor will be allocated to the GNA grantees in proportion to their GNA within or from outside the region, and the GNA grantee will be eligible to schedule power under any contract within such allocated transmission corridor.
• The T-GNA grantee under the advance application category will be eligible to schedule power under any contract subject to the conditions specified in the Grid Code.
• If T-GNA grantees’ day ahead scheduling request for the full T-GNA cannot be accommodated due to the non-availability of sufficient transmission corridor, scheduling will be on a pro-rata basis for T-GNA grantees in proportion to their T-GNA.
• The Commission repealed the open access regulations, short-term open access in interstate transmission (Collective Transaction) procedure for scheduling, and the procedure for short-term open access in interstate transmission system through the National Open Access Registry.
• The Connectivity Regulations, 2009, related to infirm power and start-up power and the procedure for availing start-up power from the grid by the generating stations under the commissioning phase through the deviation settlement mechanism will continue to be in force until corresponding provisions are included in the Grid Code and become effective.

Subrule 28, which deals with the application for T-GNA, and subrule 29, which deals with the processing of applications for the grant of T-GNA by the nodal agency, will also be effective from October 1, 2023.

The provisions of First Amendment to the GNA Regulations introduced in April this year to be implemented from October 1, 2023, are:

• Entities covered under the GNA regulations may apply for T-GNA (RE), provided the entity intends to draw power from sources other than those specified in the Sharing Regulations. The entity may get such power scheduled under T-GNA (RE) with payment of transmission charges at the transmission deviation rate.
• They may convert full T-GNA (RE) into T-GNA by applying to the nodal agency.
• To determine whether the drawal schedule was more than GNA or TGNA or both in case of a collective transaction, the SLDC will furnish to NLDC each intra-state entity-wise detail of the schedule under GNA or T-GNA. NLDC will issue power exchange-wise and entity-wise segregation of payable T-GNA charges.
• The transmission charges and transmission losses for T-GNA will not be revised with retrospective effect.
• Transmission charges for T-GNA, in respect of bilateral and collective transactions undertaken through power exchanges, for the use of ISTS will be settled directly by the power exchange with the respective SLDC.

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