KERC: No CSS, Wheeling and Banking charges for Solar power generators
Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) in its order dated 18th August has exempted Solar Power generators from Cross Subsidy Surcharge (CSS), Wheeling and Banking charges.
On the basis of the comments received by the commission on the discussion paper released by the commission on 7th July 2014, the commission has given this final order. The Summary of the order is as below:
- All solar power generators in the State achieving commercial operation between 1st April 2013 and 31st March 2018 are exempted from payment of wheeling and banking charges and cross subsidy surcharge for a period of ten years from the date of commissioning. This is also applicable for captive solar power plants for self-consumption within the State.
-  Captive solar power plants opting for Renewable Energy Certificates shall pay the normal wheeling, banking and other charges as specified in the Commission’s Order dated 9th October 2013.
The table below illustrates the high CSS applicable for commercial consumers availing RE (Non-Solar), under Third Party Sale (For Group Captive consumers CSS = 0). All values in Rs/KWh.
This will bridge the gap between the Solar tariff and Non-Solar RE tariffs prevalent in the state, and encourage more competition between them.
The Commission said that there is need for encouraging solar generation, as only 41 MW of installed solar capacity is existent in the state, whereas the Karnataka Solar Policy aims to achieve 2000 MW of Solar capacity by 2018.
As per earlier order, solar power generators are also exempted from paying transmission charges and are also exempted from wheeling and transmission losses.
The KERC Order can be accessed here
Our previous blog post on the KERC Wheeling charges can be read here.
Contributed by Dheeraj Babariya & Nikhil Dhamankar.