ANALYSIS OF MPERC DRAFT REGULATIONS ON FORECASTING, SCHEDULING, DEVIATION SETTLEMENT OF WIND AND SOLAR GENERATING STATIONS

Madhya Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (MPERC) has published draft regulations for forecasting and scheduling for wind and solar projects. Important aspects of the regulation are discussed below.

Earlier Odisha, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had come out with their draft DSM Regulation on Forecasting & Scheduling of Wind & Solar.  So far, Karnataka is the only state that has published final regulations.

Executive Summary:

• Forecasting and scheduling will be mandatory for all the wind and solar generators connected to the State grid, including those connected via pooling stations.

• Error will be calculated on the basis of Available Capacity (AvC), with permissible deviation of ±15% for old wind projects and ±10% for new wind projects (i.e., projects commissioned after May 2017).

• Settlement will be done through the “Qualified Coordinating Agency” or QCA. However there is no mention of Aggregation.

• The Deviation charges shall be paid within 10 days of the issue of Statement of Charges for Deviation into the “State Deviation Pool Account”.

• 16 intraday revisions will be allowed for wind and solar energy (one revision every 1.5 hours). Revisions will be effective starting from 4th time block onwards.

• QCA will be treated as a state entity, registered with SLDC. The preparation and settlement of ‘Deviation Pool Accounts’ shall be undertaken on weekly basis coinciding with mechanism followed for regional energy accounts.

• SCADA & Telemetry data is to be mandatorily provided to SLDC by the generators. SLDC shall formulate Data/information exchange requirements and protocols for the same.

Detailed Analysis:

MPERC 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 b) maintaining grid stability and security. Highlights of the draft regulation are below:

Applicability:

All Wind & Solar Pooling sub-stations, irrespective of their capacity, commissioning date and connectivity voltage level, have to provide a day-ahead and intra-day revisions to a maximum of 16/day, and one revision for each 1.5Hr interval.

Error calculation and penalty bands:

• Payment for generation shall be as per actual generation (this is different from the inter-state 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, Gujarat, Odisha, Rajasthan and Jharkhand).

• The deviation slab has been kept as (+/-) 10% for new projects and (+/-) 15% for old projects. The reference date for old and new projects is 26.5.2017.

Detailed Mechanism defined for Deviation Settlement