UPERC announces Captive and Renewable Energy plants Regulations, 2019

Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission recently notified the regulations for Captive and Renewable Energy Generating plants known as CRE regulations 2019. The regulations came into force since 1st April 2019 and will be in effect till 31st March 2024. The regulations are applicable to all the generating stations of captive generating plants, renewable energy plants existing prior to 01.04.2019 in Uttar Pradesh. Also, new plants commissioned post 01.04.2019 including the renewable energy generation and co-generation plants with captive consumption, sale to DISCOMs and/or sale to third-party under Open Access.
For non-renewable captive generating plants, 

• The installed capacity criteria are 1 MW and above. 
• Open Access is permitted to these plants as per the UPERC Open Acess regulations.

For renewable energy captive and co-generating plants,

• No specific instructions are given for the installed capacity criteria in the regulations and are said to be in sync with the MNRE specifications as updated from time to time. 
• However, for small hydro, the capacity of less than or equal to 25 MW is allowed and for biomass projects, plants using Rankine cycle technology and biomass fuel sources are made eligible.

Sale of Power:

• For all existing renewable energy-based power plant having PPA already approved by the commission will be allowed to sell power to the DISCOM in the same area as that of the plant.
• For sale of power from new RE power plants will be tied under PPA with a DISCOM at the tariff specified in the regulations.
• For Solar generating plants, for projects commissioned before FY 2018-2019, the Levelized tariff for projects commissioned in FY 2014-2015 was INR 7.06/kWh for 25 years. Later with the order dated 23.08.17, it was decided that tariff for projects commissioned after FY 2014-2015 will be project-specific via competitive bidding.
• For solar projects commissioned after FY 2018-2019, for capacity greater than 5 MW, the tariff will be discovered via competitive bidding. And for projects less than or equal to  5 MW, will be the weighted average tariff of solar projects above 5 MW discovered through competitive bidding or rate agreed between parties via PPA, whichever is lower.
• For wind projects plants with a capacity more than 25 MW, the tariff will be discovered via competitive bidding and for plants with capacity less than or equal to 25 MW, the tariff will be the weighted average tariff of wind plants above 25 MW discovered via competitive bidding rate agreed between parties via PPA, whichever is lower.

UPERC recently announced the draft Open Access regulations, 2019 similar to other states like Andhra Pradesh as the grid distribution is changing rapidly, states are making appropriate changes in their Open Access regulations to accommodate the new renewable capacity generated in the state.