The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) has initiated a Suo-moto proceeding to review the fulfillment of renewable purchase obligations (RPO) by the obligated entities.

Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd. (UPPCL), on behalf of its subsidiaries, had submitted the details of power procurement under both solar and non-solar renewable sources up to FY 2015-16 but no information for FY 2015-16 FY 2017-18 was shared with the commission.

The commission has asked the UPPCL in its order dated August 8, 2018, to submit a roadmap for meeting the backlog of RPOs for FY 2015-16 to FY 2017-18.

Later, the Noida Power Company Limited (NPCL) submitted the roadmap to fulfill its backlog of RPOs until FY 2017-18 by the end of March 2019. The commission has accepted the NPCL ‘s plan and asked to submit its progress report every quarter with the Commission.

UPPCL has also submitted its roadmap for fulfilling RPO target up to FY 2021-2022 in a recent hearing with UPERC on February 20, 2019.

In terms of wind power, UPPCL has entered into long term arrangement for 1340 MW of wind power from outside the state as it is available at a reasonable tariff.

As per the details submitted to the Commission, the total non-solar capacity commissioned up to October 31, 2018, was 1320.10 MW.  It is expected to add 618.2 MW of additional non-solar capacity by the end of 2018-19, 254.95 MW by 2019-20, and 709 MW by 2020-21.

The commission finds that the remaining RPO can be fulfilled by solar power. In order to achieve it, the UPPCL has entered into several long-term contracts to procure power at inter-state and intra-state level. At present, functional solar capacity in the state is 872 MW, which is excluding rooftop solar.

UPPCL gave a road map of the expected solar capacity additions in the upcoming years. 225 MW would be added in 2018-19, 1300 MW in 2019-20, and 1632 MW by 2020-21, taking the total solar capacity to 4029 MW.

The Commission feels that UPPCL has made a concerted effort to meet the RPO targets, but it has not been successful in achieving the goal. However, with the new capacity to be added in the upcoming years, it would be able to reach the target.

The Commission also asked the UPPCL to submit its long-term growth trajectory of RPO for solar and non-solar for a period of three years, 2019-20 to 2021-22, in three weeks.

In November 2018, UPERC accepted the submissions made by NPCL about the fulfillment of past RPOs. According to NPCL, the company fulfilled RPO obligation to the tune of 193.68 million units (MUs) up to March 31, 2018, which leaves a balance of 359.46 MUs to be fulfilled by FY 2018-19. Out of this capacity, the share of solar will be 57.72 MUs while non-solar will be 301.74 MUs.

Nitin is a staff reporter at Mercomindia.com and writes on renewable energy and related sectors. Prior to Mercom, Nitin has worked for CNN IBN, India News, Agricultural Spectrum and Bureaucracy Today. He received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Communication from Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal University and Master’s degree in International Relations from Jindal School of International Affairs. More articles from Nitin Kabeer