Analysis of Draft Regulations on Forecasting and Scheduling of Wind and Solar Generating Stations at State level in Jharkhand

In the follow-up after the FOR – Model Regulation for the Intra State level projects, JSERC has come out with a Draft Regulation on Forecasting & Scheduling for the Wind & Solar projects at Intra State level in Jharkhand, based on the mechanism suggested in the Model Regulation. Earlier Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, had come out with their DSM Regulation on Forecasting & Scheduling of Wind & Solar.
Executive Summary:

• The regulation will be applicable till 31^st March, 2021, after it comes into effect.
• Forecasting and scheduling will be mandatory for all Wind & Solar Pooling S/Ss, irrespective of their capacity, commissioning date and connectivity voltage level.
• Deviations will be calculated on the basis of available capacity.
• Penalty is a fixed amount beyond the error range (15% in case of projects commissioned before, and 10% for projects that are commissioned after the date of implementation of the regulation.).
• Settlement will be done through the “Qualified Coordinating Agency” or QCA. However, the draft regulation does not mention anything about “aggregation” beyond the Sub-station level forecast.
• SCADA & Telemetry data is to be mandatorily provided to SLDC.

Detailed Analysis:
JSERC has recently come up with draft regulation for forecasting and scheduling and deviation settlement mechanism. The primary objective is twofold: a) facilitate large-scale grid integration of solar and wind generating stations even though there are no wind projects, and the potential for wind is negligible b) maintaining grid stability and security. Highlights of the draft regulation are below:
Applicability: All Wind & Solar Pooling S/Ss, irrespective of their capacity, commissioning date and connectivity voltage level, have to provide day-ahead and week-ahead schedule, and intra-day revisions to a maximum of 16 per day.
– Revisions can be made on a one-and-half hourly basis, with prior notice of minimum1 hour for each revision.
– Payment for generation shall be as per actual generation (this is different from the inter-state regulation and the Karnataka draft regulation, where payment is on the basis of scheduled generation).
– Error is calculated based on Available Capacity (this is same as in the case of draft regulations of TN, MP, Odisha & Rajasthan, but different from the Karnataka draft regulation, where error is calculated on the basis of scheduled generation.).
– The deviation slab has been kept as (+/-)15% for existing generators, and (+/-)10% for upcoming projects whose commissioning date lies after the date of implementation of the final regulation.
– Penalty is calculated at fixed amounts per unit (whereas, for Inter-state it is calculated as a percentage to PPA rate).
– RPO accounting can continue as per existing arrangement, and needs no change.
– De-pooling shall be done based on either actual generation or available capacity.
Detailed Mechanism defined for Deviation Settlement

 
This is in line with the FoR Model Regulation, which states like TN, Odisha, MP and Rajasthan have also followed. This will help bring the evenness in the impact on generators, considering that the older RRF regulation had put huge liabilities on generators especially in the low wind season.
The penalty mechanism based on % deviation for all obligated generators:

The draft regulation was notified on 24^th March, 2015, and has given time till 11^th April, 2016, to submit comments to the Secretary, JSERC.
Other states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat are expected to follow soon with their draft regulations. A brief comparison of the draft regulation of the 6 states and the Model Regulation, is given in the table below:

Old/New – Refers to Old and New projects, w.r.t. the date of implementation of the final regulation.
TBA – To be announced.
 The regulation can be accessed Here.