The month of April witnessed some important policy announcements and updates by government and state agencies for the development of Indian renewable energy sector, solar in particular.

The following are some of the key announcements made by the state and union governments during April:

State

The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for the state of Goa and union territories has come up with open access regulations for the intra-state transmission and distribution for the year.

The Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) released draft tariff regulations for the supply of electricity from renewable energy sources and non-fossil fuel based co-generating stations for the year 2018.

The tariff for wind power was fixed at ₹2.86 (~$0.0438)/kWh without accelerated depreciation (AD) and ₹2.80 (~$0.0429)/kWh with AD by Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission. The AD component of the tariff is ₹0.06 (~$0.00092)/kWh.

The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) issued draft regulations for the forecasting, scheduling, and deviation settlement of solar and wind power generation.

The Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) issued the terms and conditions of intra-state open access for 2018 under which the agency has introduced a cross-subsidy surcharge for open access consumers.

TNERC has fixed ₹3.11 (~$0.0478)/kWh without accelerated depreciation (AD) as the levelized tariff for solar for FY 2018-19.

The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) amended its Captive and Renewable Energy Generating Projects (CRE) Regulations 2014 with changes that are expected to reduce the cost of solar power procured from standalone projects in the state.

MNRE

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued the schedule of implementation of the Solar Photovoltaics, Systems, Devices, and Component Goods (Requirement for Compulsory Registration under BIS Act) Order 2017, which was issued in September last year.

MNRE has amended the guidelines for tariff-based competitive bidding process for the procurement of power from grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) projects. Solar Project developers will be compensated in case of change of law.

National

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) gave its go-ahead for the trade of solar and non-solar Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) in the country.

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) proposed to set the national average power purchase cost (APPC) at ₹3.53 (~$0.0528)/kWh for the financial year (FY) 2018-19.

The Ministry of Power issued a clarification stating that no license is required to operate electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in India.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) issued a draft amendment to technical standard regulations that apply to generation resources like rooftop solar and charging stations that are seeking to connect to the grid in 2018 and have a voltage below 33 kV in an effort to maintain grid stability.

Solar modules equipped with bypass diodes will be exempt from paying an additional duty of 7.5 percent at Indian ports, according to a new order issued by the central government.