1. FEED-IN-TARIFF UPDATES The key update on feed-in-tariff front during month of January 2013 is the notification of final RE Tariff Regulations, 2013 by Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC), Draft RE Tariff Regulations, 2013 by Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) 1.1 KSERC-RE Tariff Regulations, 2012 dated January 1, 2013 (Source: http://www.erckerala.org/regulations.aspx) KSERC has notified KSERC (Power Procurement from Renewable Sources by Distribution Licensee) Regulations, 2013 on January 1, 2013. These Regulations shall be applicable to the distribution licensees in the state of Kerala and for projects commissioned after January 1, 2013. However, till such time the STU or any licensee is engaged in the activity of bulk purchase and sale of electricity to distribution licensees, these regulations shall be applicable to STU/licensee for the state as a whole. The Regulation provides norms for determination of tariff from Small hydro and Wind which are tabulated as below: Table: Selected Norms for Tariff Determination S. No. Particulars Small-Hydro Wind 1 Control Period Five years, starting from FY 2012-13 Five years, starting from FY 2012-13 2 Tariff Period 13 Years for 5 to 25 MW and 35 years for less than 5 MW 13 years 3 Capital Cost Rs 550lakh/MW for 5 MW to 25 MW and Rs 600lakh/MW for less than 5 MW Rs 575 lakh/MW 4 O&M Cost Rs 14.0 lakh/MW escalated at 5.72% p.a. for 5 MW to 25 MW and Rs 20.0 lakh/MW escalated at 5.72 % for less than 5MW Rs 9.0 lakh/MW escalated at 5.72% 5 Depreciation 5.83% p.a. for the first 12 years and remaining spread over useful life. 5.83% p.a. for the first 12 years and remaining spread over useful life. 6 CUF 30% 25%
S. No. Particulars Small-Hydro Wind 7 Return on Equity 20% pre-tax for the first 10 years and 24% per-tax thereafter 20% pre-tax for the first 10 years and 24% per- tax thereafter 8 Interest on Loan 12.30% 12.30% 9 Interest on Working Capital 12.80% 12.80% 10. Tariff Rs 4.16/kWh for 5 MW-25 MW Rs 4.88/kWh for less than 5 MW Rs 4.77/kWh 11. Sharing of CDM benefits 100% to be retained by Developer in 1 st year and thereafter sharing of 10% in each year. 100% to be retained by Developer in 1 st year and thereafter sharing of 10% in each year.
1.2 UERC-Draft (Tariff and other Terms of supply from Renewable Energy Sources and non-fossil fuel based Con-generating Stations) Regulations, 2013 dated January 23, 2013. (Source: http://www.uerc.gov.in/) Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) published Draft UERC (Tariff and Other Terms for Supply of Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources and non- fossil fuel based Co-generating Stations) Regulation, 2013. The Control Period or Review Period under these Regulations is proposed to be of five years, with first year commencing from financial year 2013-14. The Draft Regulation also provides an option for the existing projects, who are at present supplying power to third party to switch over to supply to the distribution licensee or the local rural grid at generic tariffs as was applicable at the time of commissioning of their project or seek determination of project specific tariff from the Commission. The option shall be for the balance life of the project and shall not be allowed to be changed once it is exercised. Further, the generic tariff specified for Solar PV and Solar Thermal power projects under these Regulations shall be the maximum tariff and the distribution licensee shall invite bids from generators/developers for procurement of power from these
generators/developers. The distribution licensee shall enter into a PPA with the generators/developers bidding lower tariff. The norms for determination of tariff for various technologies, as specified under the Draft Regulations are tabulated below: S. No. Particulars Parameters 1 Control Period Five years, starting from FY 2013-14 2 Capital Cost 1. Small Hydro- Upto 5 MW: Rs 770 lakh/MW For 5MW upto 15MW: Rs 735 lakh/MW For 15MW-25MW: Rs 700 lakh/MW 2. Biomass Projects: Rs 445 lakh/MW 3. Non-fossil fuel based Cogen: Rs 420 lakh/MW 4. Biomass Gasifier: Rs 550 lakh/MW 5. Solar PV: Rs 1000 lakh/MW 6. Solar Thermal: Rs 1300 lakh/MW 7. Grid Connected Roof-top: Rs 1025 lakh/MW 8. Wind: Rs 515 lakh/MW 3 O&M Cost 1. Small Hydro: Upto 5 MW: Rs 26.43 lakh/MW 5 MW to 15MW: Rs 22.73 lakh/MW For 15MW-25MW: Rs 19.03 lakh/MW 2. Biomass :Rs 25.37 lakh/MW 3. Non-fossil fuel based Cogen: Rs 16.92 lakh/MW 4. Biomass Gasifier-Rs 42.29 lakh/MW 5. Solar PV: Rs 11.63 lakh/MW 6. Solar Thermal: Rs 15.06 lakh/MW 7. Grid Connected Roof-top: Rs 11.63 lakh/MW 8. Wind: Rs 9.51 lakh/MW 4 Depreciation 5.83% p.a. for the first 12 years and remaining spread over useful life. 5 CUF 1. Small Hydro- 45%
S. No. Particulars Parameters For generic tariff determination, home state share has been taken as 18% from 16 th year onwards. 2. Biomass- During stabilization period-60% During the remaining period of first year-70% From 2 nd year onwards-80% 3. Non-fossil fuel based Cogen-45% 4. Biomass Gasifier-85% 5. Solar PV- 19% 6. Solar Thermal: 23% 7. Wind Upto 200 (W/m 2 )-20% 201-250 (W/m 2 )-22% 251-300 (W/m 2 )-25% 300-400 (W/m 2 )-30% >400 W/m 2 - 32% 6 Return on Equity 20% pre-tax for the first 10 years and 24% per-tax thereafter 7 Interest on Loan Average SBI Base Rate prevalent during first six months of the previous year plus 300 basis points 8 Interest on Working Capital Average SBI Base Rate prevalent during first six months of the previous year plus 350 basis points 9 Sharing of CDM benefits 100% to be retained by Developer in 1 st year and thereafter sharing of 10% in each year. 10 Transmission Charges and losses Pay transmission and wheeling charges calculated based on the principles specified under UERC Intra State Open Access Regulation.
Provided further that where a generator proposes to supply electricity outside the State, such generator, in addition to transmission/wheeling charges specified above, shall have to bear the transmission/wheeling charges determined by the
S. No. Particulars Parameters Commission on case to case basis for the dedicated lines and substation of the transmission/distribution licensee used only for evacuation of such power.
In addition to transmission charges, transmission and wheeling losses shall be adjusted in kind on the principles as per UERC Intra-State Open Access Regulations, 2010 11 Banking of Power a) Banking of energy upto 100%, as agreed between the plant and the distribution licensee, shall be allowed during the period declared by the Commission as evening peak hours from time to time in its Tariff Orders. b) Withdrawal of power shall be allowed only during the period other than the period declared by the Commission as evening peak hours from time to time in its Tariff Orders. c) The plants shall provide ABT compliant Special Energy Meters and the monthly settlement of energy sales shall be done based on Power supplied during the peak hours as per SEM meter readings shall be considered as banked power. d) Upon introduction of intra-state ABT in the State, the banking as well as withdrawal of banked energy shall be subject to day ahead scheduling. e) The power withdrawn by the plant as ascertained by SEM readings, which could not be considered as withdrawal from banked power, shall be considered as power purchased by the plant. f) The purchase of power by these plants under clause (e) or otherwise shall be charged as per
S. No. Particulars Parameters the provisions of Regulation 44 above. g) A Generating Station shall be allowed to withdraw power that was banked during a particular financial year in the same year. h) The banked power remaining unutilized on the expiry of the financial year would be treated as sale and the financial settlement shall be made at the tariff determined by the Commission in its Tariff Order for the year during which the power was banked. No banking charges shall be deducted from such unutilized banked energy. i) Banking charges shall be 12.5% of the energy banked
1.3 GERC: Order for revision in Wind Tariff dated January 7, 2013 (Source: http://www.gercin.org/index.php?option=com_orderarchive&view=orderarchive&Ite mid=135&lang=en) Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) had filed a petition before the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) for review of its tariff order dated August 8, 2012 for determination of tariff for sale of energy from wind power plants. Comments and suggestions of stakeholders on GUVNLs petition were invited by GERC and after detailed hearing the Commission decided to partly allow the petition. Through its order dated January 7, 2013, GERC revised its wind tariff order by revising the CUF for wind power plants from 24% to 24.5%. The levellised tariff thus works out to Rs 4.15 per kWh instead of Rs 4.23 per kWh which was determined in the previous tariff order.
2. RPO/REC RELATED UPDATES Under the RPO related updates for the month of January, 2013, the report covers updates on RPO/REC related updates from the state of Uttrakhand (UERC) 2.1 UERC- Draft (Tariff and other Terms of supply from Renewable Energy Sources and non-fossil fuel based Con-generating Stations) Regulations, 2013 dated January 23, 2013. (Source: http://www.uerc.gov.in/) UERC under its Draft UERC (Tariff and Other Terms for Supply of Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources and non-fossil fuel based Co-generating Stations) Regulation, 2013 has proposed the following RPO targets for FY 2013-14 to FY 2017-18: Year Renewable Purchase Obligation -Non-Solar Renewable Purchase Obligation - Solar 2013-14 6% 0.05% 2014-15 7% 0.075% 2015-16 8% 0.1% 2016-17 9% 0.3% 2017-18 11% 0.5%
3. GRID INTEGRATION AND OPEN ACCESS UPDATES The section covers updates from CERC and the state of Gujarat as regards notification of Draft Electricity Grid Code. 3.1 CERC-Order for implementation of RRF Mechanism under CERC IEGC Regulations, 2010 dated January 16, 2013 (Source: http://www.cercind.gov.in/recent_orders_rops.html#orders) After taking into account Task Force Report to resolve various issues affecting the implementation of RRF Mechanism, CERC notified an Order and its ruling on various suggestions of the Task Force. The salient features of the Order are as below: a) Point of scheduling/Scheduling Entity: Task Force suggestion: Identification of scheduling entity (Renewable Generator Aggregator OR Qualified Scheduling Entity) CERC: Agreed with the suggestion; As per CERC Order the entity could be any of the generators or any other mutually agreed agency. b) Selection of pooling Stations- Task force Suggestion-Only those Pooling stations commissioned after May 3, 2010 CERC -Agreed with the suggestion c) Payment Mechanism- Task Force Suggestion-Schedule based similar to conventional generators CERC -Disagreed with Task Force suggestion- To follow actual generation based accounting d) Issue of multiple contract rates/captive generators Task Force Suggestion- Recommended a reference rate to be used instead of contract rate. CERC - Agreed to the suggestion. Fixes Reference rate for NEW Grid as Rs4/kWh and Rs 5/kWh based on average UI rate for FY 2011-12 e) De-pooling arrangement Task Force Suggestion- Recommended CERC to issue guidelines for sharing of financial implication among generators
CERC - To be mutually agreed between Scheduling entity and generators. In case of disagreement implications to be shared in the ratio of actual generation on a weekly basis f) Mock Exercise Task Force Suggestion-1 year mock exercise CERC-A maximum of 3 to 6 mock exercise CERC has directed STU/DISCOMs to install ABT meters at all pooling stations and in case not installed, CTU shall install the same at the cost of STU/DISCOM. Further, CERC has directed to initiate mock exercise w.e.f Feb 1, 2013 and to be commercial operational with effect from July 1, 2013.
3.2 GERC-Draft Gujarat Electricity Grid Code, 2013 (Source: http://www.gercin.org/index.php?option=com_gertnewss&view=gertnews&task=view&cid[0]=168 &lang=en) In order to facilitate the development, operation and maintenance of an efficient, coordinated and economical Gujarat power grid by specifying to STU/ transmission licensees and all the users connected to that system for their technical and procedural obligations, GERC has issued Draft Gujarat Electricity Grid Code. This Grid Code is applicable to Gujarat power grid only and for inter-state transmission, Indian Electricity Grid Code shall be applicable. The salient features of the Draft Grid Code relevant to renewable energy power plants are specified as under: a) Connectivity Standards:
Wind generating stations connected at 66 kV and above shall be capable of supplying dynamically varying reactive power support, so as to maintain power factor within limits of 0.95 lagging to 0.95 leading. Similarly, solar generating stations have to maintain power factor within limits of 0.90 lagging to 0.90 leading.
Wind generating stations and solar generating stations shall have fault ride through capability of not less than 300 milli-seconds so that grid is not destabilized due to sudden outage of generation in the event of a grid disturbance.
The total harmonic distortion for voltage at the connection point shall not exceed 5% with no individual harmonic higher than 3% and the total harmonic distortion for current drawn from the transmission system at the connection point shall not exceed 8%. The above measurement of Harmonics Distortion has to be carried out every six monthly and shall be reported to STUs/ Licensees.
b) Evacuation of wind generators
SLDC shall make all efforts to evacuate the available solar and wind power and treat as a must-run station. However, the system operator may instruct the solar /wind generator to back down generation on consideration of grid security or safety of any equipment or personnel is endangered and solar/ wind generator shall comply with the same.
SLDC/RLDC may direct a wind farm to curtail its VAr drawal/injection in case the security of grid or safety of any equipment or personnel is endangered.
During the wind generator start-up, the wind generator shall ensure that the reactive power drawal (in-rush currents in case of induction generators) shall not affect the grid performance. For these, Data Acquisition System facility shall be provided for transfer of information to concerned SLDC and RLDC.
c) Scheduling/Dispatch Code:
Scheduling of wind power generation plant would have to be done for the purpose of UI where the sum of generation capacity of such plants connected at the connection point to the transmission or distribution system is 10 MW and above and where PPA has not been signed before 3rd May, 2010. For capacity and voltage level below this, as well as for old wind farms (a wind farm is a collection of wind turbine generators that are connected to a common connection point), it could be mutually decided between the wind generator and the transmission and distribution utility, as the case may be, if there is no existing contractual agreement to the contrary. The schedule by wind power generating station(s) may be revised by giving advance notice to SLDC. Such revisions by wind power generation station(s) shall be effective from the 6th Time Block, the first being the Time Block in which notice was given. There may be a maximum of eight revisions for each three-hour time slot, starting from 00:00 hours during the day.
The schedule of solar generation shall be given by the generator, based on availability of the generator, weather forecasting, solar insulation, season and normal solar generation curve and shall be vetted by the SLDC in which the generator is located and incorporated in the inter-state schedule. If SLDC is of the opinion that the schedule is not realistic, it may ask the solar generator to modify the schedule.
Complementary Commercial Mechanism for wind and solar generators shall be according to the Indian Electricity Grid Code (IEGC), 2010 and as amended from time to time.
RE Auctions/Competitive Bidding 3.3 RRECL published Draft RFP document for competitive procurement of power from Wind Power Projects under Rajasthan Wind Policy 2012
Power Projects under Rajasthan Wind Policy 2012 Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Limited (RRECL) published Draft RFP document for procurement of power from Wind Power Projects under Rajasthan Wind Policy 2012 and has invited comments and suggestions from the stakeholders. As per the RFP, RRECL shall invite bids from interested wind power developers for a total capacity of 300 MW in FY 2013-14. The comments of the stakeholders should reach RRECL by February 3, 2012. The Salient features of the Draft RFP document for Wind Power Projects under Rajasthan Wind Policy 2012
S. No . Particulars Description 1 Total Capacity 300 MW 2 Range of Capacity per bidder 10 MW to 120 MW 3 Time Frame Projects to be commissioned by March 31, 2014 4 Method of short-listing of bidders Based on discount offered on Wind Tariff as determined by Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commissions (RERC) for FY 2013-14. All bidders will be asked to match the L1 discount
S. No . Particulars Description 5 Technical Experience Required for Participation Parent, Affiliate or Ultimate parent should have developed at least 100 MW of Wind Energy Generators till 7 days prior to the submission of the bid. 6 CDM Benefit As per RERC Regulations (75% retained by developers) 7 REC Mechanism Benefits Developers will not be allowed to avail the benefits of REC mechanism
4. REC MARKET UPDATES FOR MONTH OF DECEMBER (Source: http://www.iexindia.com/Reports/RECData.aspx; https://www.powerexindia.com/PXILReport/pages/RECMVPReport.aspx) The REC trading session for the month of January was held on January 30, 2013. Non-Solar REC Solar REC IEX PXIL IEX PXIL Buy Bids 190875 2462 40138 2107 Sell Bid 1371503 370389 3356 203 MCV 190875 2462 2105 203 MCP (Rs/REC) 1500 1500 12500 12500 (Source: Power Exchanges IEX & PXIL) Analysis: Non Solar RECs Buy Bids (and MCV as well) decreased by 29% as compared to Dec 12 session. Prices remained at the floor level for the sixth consecutive month. Clearing ratios also went down from 22% to 15% at IEX and from 17.5% to 0.7% on PXIL. MCV on PXIL has drastically reduced from 100000 to 2462. Supply (sell bids) continued to increase. Total sell bids exceeded 17.4 lakh RECs (up 16.5% from last month).
Solar RECs Demand for solar RECs has grown 20 times and trading volume also increased by 91% 1251 solar RECs remained unsold and the quoted selling price was more than Rs 12500/REC . Supply of solar RECs also increased from 1461 RECs in Dec-12 to 3559 RECs in Jan- 13 trading session. Projects under REC Mechanism As on January 5, 2013, over 649 number of RE projects amounting to RE Capacity of 3359.89 MW have already been registered for participation in REC Mechanism. Sr. No Source Wise Registration Capacity(MW) Unit 1 Wind 1876.48 488 2 Urban or Municipal Waste 0 0 3 Solar PV 19.66 9 4 Small Hydro 163.5 21 5 Others 1.67 1 6 Biomass 579.89 60 7 Bio-fuel cogeneration 718.67 70 Total 3359.89 649 (Source: www.recregistryindia.in)