BERC penalizes state DISCOMs over unfulfillment of RPO obligations

In a recent petition filed by BSPHCL on behalf of NBPDCL & SBPDCL, seeking approval for deviation to fulfill the obligation of RPO for FY 2018-19, the commission has rejected the plea and has not allowed the discoms to carry forward the RPO obligation for FY 18-19 to FY 19-20. The reasoning for the above-stated decision is as below:

• In the petition, BSPHCL has submitted that Bihar is a state with a lack of renewable energy projects & is dependent upon Central government schemes to fulfill its RPO obligations.
• Further, the petitioner stated that since the price discovery on the power exchanges has been much higher than the floor price attributed to an increase in demand for REC by discoms by captive & open access consumers.
• The commission approved the fact that they have purchased non-solar as well as solar RECs and have fully complied non-solar  RPOs whereas they have partially complied solar RPO due to higher clearing price than the quoted price.

Finally, after listening to all the arguments, the commission stated that it was evident that solar REC was available in the exchange at floor price right from April 2018 to Nov. 2018 but no attempt was made to purchase RECs at the end of FY18 when the REC prices soared high. Hence, the commission has rejected the petitioner’s plea to carry forward the RPO obligation and get penalized as per clause 9.1 of the latest BERC RPO regulations.