Distribution companies to procure 3 per cent renewable energy

Bhubaneswar, Nov 14 (UNI) Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) chairman Pramod Deo today said the distribution companies should procure at least three per cent of their requirement from renewable energy sources to fulfil the target of National Action Plan on climate change.

Mr Deo said the decision was taken at a national conference of Forum of Regulators (Electricity) hosted by the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Authority (OERC) here.

The conference, which discussed Open Access, Multi Year Tariff Framework and Promotion of Renewable energy suggested that the percentage should be increased from three to five to promote environment friendly renewable energy.

Mr Deo further said the preferential tariff to renewable producers will be given till the project developers repay their loans and thereafter the energy should be sold on competitive basis.

The government, he said, should give generation-based incentive for expensive sources of power such as solar to avoid high costs being passed on to the consumers.

Since every state could not generate renewable energy fixed for them, the scheme of renewable energy certificates should be implemented so that inter-state transfer of renewable power could be settled through market based commercial mechanism.

OERC chairman B K Das said in Orissa though there was high potential for generation of renewable energy but the achievement was not up to the mark. Much more efforts should be made to achieve it, he said.

Mr Deo, however, said a decision was taken to share the gains of the distribution licensees resulting from performance better than the norms set by the Regulatory Commissions every year with the consumers.

The distribution companies would have to bear a penalty by way of reduction in their return on equity if they fail to ensure availability distribution network as per the norms and if they failed to contract power generation capacity for meeting the projected demand of the consumers.

He said a facilitatative and transparent framework to increase availability of power in the grid be implemented to enable big consumers to source power at mutually agreed rates.

The State Load Dispatch Centres (SLDCs) be upgraded technologically to meet the requirements of Grid operations and the SLDCs should be made autonomous and accountable to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission to promote competition through open access.

A forum of Load Dispatchers consisting National Regional and state level centres should be constituted for reliable and economic grid operations.

UNI BD PC PY NS2128