Green power producers find dealing with RECs unviable in Karnataka.
An article regarding Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission's guidelines which is not in sync with those of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) was highlighted in The Hindu Business Line. The KERC guidelines are also not clear in specifying eligibility criteria. “They do specify intra/inter state open access eligibility criteria for the Renewable Energy (RE) Generator when it sells RE power to a consumer,” says Mr. Santosh Kamat, Co-founder of Auromira Energy, a company that produces electricity from renewable sources. RE producers see a mismatch between the KERC guidelines and those given by the CERC. With regard to eligibility of captive generators for RECs, while the CERC says that captive generators who avail themselves of other benefits such as preferential tariff are not eligible, the KERC guidelines say that such parties are eligible, says Mr Vishal Pandya of REConnect Energy Solutions, a company which provides services in RECs, energy efficiency and electricity portfolio management.
India's Biomass Scenario
In an article in the Business Standard on the current scenario of the biomass plants in India was reported. Burgeoning raw material costs and a mismatch between generation cost and pricing have led biomass power plants to function well below their capacity and, in some cases, end operations. Against an estimated potential of 18,000 MW, the installed capacity of biomass plants in India is 2,664 MW. These plants are in Maharashtra (403 MW), Andhra Pradesh (363 MW), Karnataka (365 MW), Madhya Pradesh (7 MW), Tamil Nadu (488 MW), Punjab (74 MW), Haryana (35 MW), Rajasthan (73 MW), Uttar Pradesh (592 MW), West Bengal (16 MW) and Uttarakhand (10 MW), among others. Industry sources said it was difficult to run these plants, as raw material like forest residue, agricultural waste and non-cattle feed was not available even at Rs 3,000 per tonne.
REC Price Bands May Remain Unchaged
CERC is considering leaving the REC price bands unchanged (the limits within which RECs are traded), and also extending the control period from the current three years, reported the Business Standard. CERC had come out with a draft order suggesting
REC Mechanism Sees Low Issuance
July saw significant new capacity getting registered. Registered projects capacity increased from 406 MW last month to 623 MW. However, our analysis found that very little of that is seeing issuance as of now. Approximately 30,000 RECs were issued this month
REC Trading Update – July 2011
REC Trading has been picking up gradually. Both the volumes traded and the price showed some improvement over the last month – approximately 18,500 Non-solar RECs were traded this month, as compared to 16,000 in June. Price also showed marginal improvement,
Order on APPC of Chhattisgarh declared
Order on Average Pooled Purchase Cost (APPC) by Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company Ltd., Bhilai Steel Plant and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. for the year 2010-11 and 2011-12 was declared recently. The order specified the pooled cost of power
Significant Changes are Proposed in the REC Mechanism
NLDC and Central Board of Irrigation and Power (CBIP) organized a day-long workshop on the REC mechanism in Delhi in June. Shri Pramode Deo, Chairman CERC was the key note speaker at the event. In his speech, he gave a preview
Review of REC Trading-June 2011
Compared to REC Trading for last month, this month saw a larger level of participation from buyers in REC market. For example, in this trade session, IEX witnessed 72,002 RECs* from buy side whereas, PXIL saw demand of 10,000 RECs.
PSERC notifies final regulation on RPO
Honorable Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) notified final regulation on Renewable Purchase Obligation and its compliance. PSERC specified the RPO percentage of 2.37% (Non Solar – 2.34 % and Solar – 0.03 %) for current financial year 2011-2012. The
CERC to determine Floor & Forbearance Price of RECs post 2012
Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has come out with a suo-motu order on determining new Floor and Forbearance price for REC (Solar & Non-Solar) for the period post 2012. The draft copy of the order and a notice for the