Apr
30

REC Trade Report – April 2014

We are pleased to bring the REC trade results and our analysis on REC trade session conducted on 30th April 2014.

Following is a brief of the analysis:

April 2014 was the first month of compliance year FY 2014-15. As expected, the volumes in non-solar and solar REC markets nosedived as compared to last months trading session (Refer - Blog – post on  March 2014 REC Trade).  The REC inventory’s closing balance stood at a mammoth 6.6 million RECs. The total RECs redeemed in April 14 were 80,343 RECs only. The RECs issued this month was again a 7digit number – about 1.1 million RECs. Cumulatively, March’14  and April’14 alone added over 3 million RECs, which is 23% of the total RECs issued till date.  This escalation in supply side and almost no demand side participation sums the state of current Indian REC market place.

Non-Solar RECs –

Demand dropped by 88% and supply was up by 3.2% w.r.t March’ 14. Price of non-solar RECs remained at floor price – INR 1,500 per REC. Total non-solar redeemed were 79,354 (as per REC registry).

Solar RECs –

Price of solar REC continued to trade at floor (INR 9,300 per REC) for a consecutive 11th month. Demand fell to less than 1,000 and supply rose by 22%. Clearing ratios at both exchanges were close to half percent (0.5%) only. As per registry, solar RECs redeemed in April14 was 989.

For more details please refer table below – Our online market tracker tool can be accessed here.

 

Apr
29

UERC maintains its tough stand for non-compliance of RPO

Uttarakhand – the only state in the nation to have imposed penalty for non-compliance of RPO, has once again stood by its tough stand in the order dated – 22nd Jan 2014. In the order (refer) -

UERC has considered UPCL’s non-compliance as willful contravention of the direction of the Commission and has imposed penalty of Rs.20,000/- on the Managing Director of UPCL. The Commission has also directed UPCL to comply its pending RPO by March 2014, failure to which will attract additional penalty of Rs.2000/Day thereafter.

In continuation to this, UPCL’s MD had filed a review application for reconsideration of commissions directives. After a motion-hearing, UERC has held that review application does not qualify as UPCL failed to substantiate any ground for review or highlight any errors therein.

However, UERC taking note of this, has given UPCL another opportunity for paying the amount of Rs. 20,000 within one week i.e. by 30th April 2014.

UPCL in the hearing has clarified that it plans to meet the RPO of FY12 and FY13 in four monthly installments. The penalty of Rs 2000 per day applicable for non-payment will continue to be in force post 30th April 2014.

The order is available here.

Apr
29

UERC order on RPO compliance for co-gen based CPPs

Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) on April 10th 2014, released a joint order in case of 9 captive power producers, having co-generation units. The petitioners (CPPs with co-gen plants) in reply to show-case notice issued by commission (UERC) on 12th March 2013, had prayed to relax the RPO regulations since they had co-gen units and in support, referred to ApTel’s judgement (2010) in case of Century Rayon vs. MERC, where it was pronounced that co-generation unit cannot be fastened with RPOs.

UERC had recently (28th Dec 2013) made amendment to prevalent RPO regulations of 2010. In this amendment, the definition of obligated entity was modified from -

““Obligated Entity” means the distribution licensee, captive user and open access consumer in the State, which is mandated to fulfill renewable purchase obligation under these regulations;” (2010)

to

““Obligated Entity” means the distribution licensee, captive user (excluding co-generation based  captive power plants) and open access consumer in the State, mandated to fulfill renewable purchase obligation under these regulations.” (2013)

UERC is of the view, that all CPPs having co-gen units will necessarily have tocomply with RPO targets of FY12, FY13 and FY14 (upto 27th Dec 2013) i.e. till the time the amendment was introduced. However, from 28th Dec 2013 onwards, there will be no obligation on CPPs with cogen units. All such CPP with co-gens are asked to meet with RPOs by 31st May 2014 and submit compliance report by 10th June 2014.

UERC also clarified that all other captive users will continue to be regarded as “obligated entity” and such CPPs have to fulfill shortfalls by 30th April 2014 and submit compliance report by 10th May 2014.

The petitioners prayer to quash such show-cause notice letters was also dismissed.

The order can be read in detail by clicking here.

Our previous blog-post on UERC’s landmark order on penalization on UPCL’s MD can be accessed here.

 

Apr
26

Karnataka APPC for FY 2014-15

Karnataka electricity regulatory commission (KERC) has finalized the average pooled purchase cost (APPC) for FY 2013-14. The finalized APPC of FY14 is Rs. 3.14 per unit, on the basis of audited accounts data furnished by ESCOMs, which is up by 7 paise. Our previous blog-post on APPC of FY14 can be read here.

In the interim, since ESCOMs will take some time in finalizing power purchase quantum and cost of FY15, the commission has set up Rs. 3.14 per unit as an interim APPC rate to be effective from 1st April 2014 to 30th June 2014. It is expected that by end of June, a new and final APPC rate for FY15 will be declared.

Karnataka, therefore becomes the first state in current FY to declare APPC for FY15. The APPC rates in Karnataka have had an increasing trend, which is good specifically for RE generators wanting to explore REC markets in the state.

A gazetted copy can be accessed here.

KERC had also invited comments and suggestions for finalization of APR Fy13 and ARR of FY15 filed by discoms and KPTCL. The public hearing was scheduled to be conducted during end of April 2014 as per notice.

 

Apr
19

MNRE favors REC markets for Solar Power

India’s ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) is favoring REC markets for development of solar power. Eminent members of the ministry are of the view that solar REC markets will revive soon as they expect buyers jumping in. This optimism is when physical solar power comes at a lower cost as compared to buying solar RECs (floor price – Rs. 9.3 per REC). That means, obligated entities have less motivation paying for higher solar REC cost than physically procuring it.

Also solar floor and ceiling prices have been fixed upto FY2017. The steep declining trend in cost of solar power makes it more difficult for solar REC markets and demands quick revision of these prices.

Recently Shri Upendra Tripathy who has assumed charge as Secretary of MNRE, spoke at a gathering that process is ongoing for a policy review with the FOR (forum of regulators) and CERC (Central electricity regulatory commission). Mr. Tarun Kapoor, Joint secretary MNRE has alaso asked all states to strictly meet the stipulated targets. It is being anticipated that a new policy for solar REC markets will be put in place as soon as a new government is formed at the center.

FOR has also called for engagement of consultants to review the REC mechanism completely.

Media article can be read here.

Apr
16

Delhi discoms likely to comply with RPO by purchase of RECs

Delhi discoms – BRPL, BYPL and TPDDL have all filed a petition to Delhi electricity regulatory commission (DERC) for approval of annual revenue requirement (ARR) of FY 2014-15.

In terms of renewable energy resource capacity, Delhi is indeed poor as compared to other states. Therefore, to comply with RPO targets obligated entities in the state have lesser options than to buying RECs from the markets.

Following are the cost estimates for purchase of RECs submitted by discoms (for FY2014-15)-

BRPL – Rs 28.3 cr (Solar RPO) & Rs 90.7 cr (Non-Solar RPO)

BYPL – Rs 15.4 cr (Solar RPO) & Rs 56.2 cr (Non-Solar RPO)

TPDDL – Rs 17.54 cr (Solar RPO) & Rs 74.71 cr (Non-Solar RPO)

 

The petitions can be downloaded from DERC’s website.

Apr
11

IET Solar Panel’s first whitepaper on net-metering in India

Vishal Pandya, as co-chair IET Solar Panel India, has co-authored a whitepaper on the title -

“Recent developments in Net-Metering in India & way forward”

The paper focuses on most recent developments in the net-metering scheme for small scale solar projects across India and also analyses the case when Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are availed by consumers owning roof-top solar systems.

The paper can be downloaded from here.

Apr
11

Updates from 39th FOR meeting

The following are the key issues discussed w.r.t REC markets -

  • The concept of REC multipliers for solar was endorsed in principal.
  • It was also decided that a detailed note be prepared on the desirability and feasibility of merger of solar and non-solar REC in future, and the issue be taken up for discussions in the next meeting of FOR.

The minutes of meeting can be read – here.

Apr
10

REConnect Newsletter Volume 40 – OPEN ACCESS

Dear Reader,

We are pleased to present Open Access Vol 40 – our monthly newsletter covering RECs and regulatory and market developments in the renewable energy space.

Key points covered in this newsletter are:

 1) Two important announcements – Infuse Ventures – a clean tech focused venture capital fund invested in REConnect Energy, and 2) The scheduling and forecasting team reached an important milestone of sending over 15,000 schedules till date. This milestone was achieved in a short span of 8 months.

 2) A detailed analysis of the REC markets in FY 2013-14

 3) Regulatory updates including important changes in RPO regualtions in Gujarat and Rajasthan

 4) Analysis of the most recent trading session of RECs and capacities in the REC mechanism

 The newsletter can also be downloaded by clicking here - or past newsletters from here.

 We hope you find the newsletter a useful read. Do provide us feedback.

 Regards,

- Team REConnect

Apr
07

Captive power plant of Bokaro Steel Plant is co-gen : Jharkhand ERC

In an order dated 24th March 2014, state electricity regulator of Jharkhand (JSERC) is of the view that the captive power plant of Bokaro Steel Plant (a unit of Steel Authority of India) can be regarded as a co-generation plant. This means that power consumption from CPP of BSL will qualify towards fulfillment of RPO set under relevant regulations of JSERC.

BSL had prayed JSERC to

1. declare its CPP of 302 MW as co-generation power plant,

2. exempt BSL from applicability of RPO and

3. waive the RPO applicable on consumption of power from its CPP during FY11, FY12 and FY13.

CPP of BSL fulfills the definition of CPP as BSL has 50% equity in the plant and consumes 100 % of power generated.

JSERC also considered APTEL’s judgement in the case of MERC vs Century Rayon, where in it was declared that fastening of RPO on  would defeat  the objective of section 86 (1) (e) of the Indian Electricity Act.

JSERC has RPO targets defined till FY16. It has a total of 4% RPO (1% solar & 3% non-solar) for all three years FY14, FY15 & FY16.

BSL also is a distribution licensee in Jharkhand. As per data furnished in the order total RPO applicable on BSL for consumption of captive power comes around – 64.8 MW of non-solar and 17 MW of solar RPO.

The order can be accessed here.

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