Rajasthan announces concessions to the captive and third-party renewable energy power projects

Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission recently announced a sou-moto order related to the banking, transmission/wheeling charges of solar, wind and wind/solar hybrid plants within the state. According to the order, the state government has decided to provide various concessions and facilities to renewable energy power projects.
The summary of the order is as below:
Banking: 

• Banking of energy to be allowed at consumption end for captive & third-party within the state on a yearly basis at 10% in kind of the banked energy.  
• The banking of energy will be allowed from April to March but not allowed during the peak hours as determined by the discoms. 
• The unutilized banked energy at the end of the year will lapse.

Transmission & Wheeling charges: 
The following concessions and charges are applicable to the captive use/third-party sale within the state which got commissioned after the commencement of solar, wind and wind/solar hybrid policy 2019 and up to March 2023 or for a capacity of 500 MW (Solar, Wind and Wind-Solar Hybrid, with or without storage, taken together) whichever is earlier.

• 50% of normal transmission and wheeling charges for a period of seven years from the date of commissioning of the project for power project set up for captive use and third party sale.
• 25% of normal transmission and wheeling charges for a period of seven years from the date of commissioning of the project for power project with a storage system and repowered wind projects set up for captive use and third party sale.
• 100% exemption in normal transmission and wheeling charges for a period of 10 years from the date of establishment of an EV charging station for power project set up for Electric Vehicle(EV) charging stations for captive use and third party sale. 

The above provisions to be applicable for an individual plant capacity of a maximum of 25 MW.
Power Projects with Storage Systems:
For all the renewable energy projects specified in the order having a  storage system, the initial power that is generated (from the plant) to the capacity equivalent of 5% RPO target in MW (of the plant) will be purchased by the state discoms at a tariff discovered through competitive bidding in addition to the RPO targets.
Other concessions include Discoms allowing Solar Rooftop under the net metering scheme a capacity addition up to 50% of the capacity of the distribution transformer of the area, banking facilities to residential consumers along with Government offices, Government schools, Government colleges, Government hospitals and any other Government buildings as per the net metering regulations of the state and rooftop solar installation also possible with gross-metering.
These concessions have come as a Suo-Motu order in sync with the clauses in the electricity act and judgements from APTEL from time to time. The changes have been reintroduced in the policies again after 2011, as the injection of RE increased in the grid and had started affecting the discoms in 2014. 
The concessions have only been made available to captive and third-party projects along with battery storage projects as going forward, projects with battery storage will be a mainstream option.