DERC orders Delhi discoms to buy more green power
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has issued a new regulation according to which discoms will either have to generate their own electricity through renewable sources or increase their purchase of green energy from generating companies.
Power distribution companies will now have to procure more green energy or electricity generated from renewable sources.
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has issued a new regulation according to which discoms will either have to generate their own electricity through renewable sources or increase their purchase of green energy from generating companies.
The draft rules termed as the ‘DERC (Renewable Purchase Obligation and Renewable Energy Certificate Framework Implementation) Regulations, 2017 will also make it compulsory for discoms to buy 100% electricity being generated from the waste-to-energy (WTE) plants set up in the Capital. Currently, Delhi has four WTE plants.
“The distribution licensees shall compulsorily procure 100% power produced from all the Waste-to-Energy plants in the State, in the ratio of their procurement of power from all sources including their own as approved by the Commission from time to time, which shall qualify towards compliance of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) for the Distribution Licensee,” read the draft regulations for which comments from public are being sought. People can send their comments to the commission till August 15.
“The annual target for RPO required to be met by the discoms shall be notified by the dommission in the tariff order that is likely to be announced in September,” a DERC official said.
The DERC in October 2012 had notified regulations making RPO compulsory for all discoms in the city. RPOs make it mandatory for all discoms to purchase some percentage of electricity through renewable sources of energy. In 2016-17, the discoms had to get 9% of their total electricity from renewables and in 2015-16 it was 7.6%.
However, since 2012, the power regulator had only been carrying it forward to the next financial year as discoms had repeatedly failed to meet the RPOs.
As a result, by the year 2015, the defaulting amount has risen up to almost 15 per cent of the total electricity procured by the companies.
After defaulting on RPOs for years and with the Aam Aadmi Party government notifying the Delhi Solar Policy, the city’s three discoms have now pulled up their socks. Tata Power procured 400 MW of solar power and Reliance Infra-backed BSES announced it would procure 700 MW ‘green energy’ for the city.
BSES, which distributes power to 70 per cent of the areas in Delhi, has decided to procure both solar and non-solar power at under Rs5 per unit through the “reverse auction” route to ensure an “extremely competitive” rate to benefit consumers.