CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission has released the Draft Green Energy Open Access Regulations 2024 to allow consumers with a connected load of 63 KVA or more to directly procure green energy from generators or the open market, bypassing distribution companies like TANGEDCO. Stakeholders are invited to submit feedback on the draft by July 5, 2024.
The objective of the regulations is to facilitate the use of renewable energy sources by providing non-discriminatory access to the state's transmission and distribution systems.
The regulations extend concessional transmission and wheeling charges only for intra-state transactions of renewable energy power within Tamil Nadu.
The scope of the regulations covers the entire state, applying to both the intra-state transmission systems and distribution systems. This aims to streamline the process for consumers and generators who wish to use green energy sources, ensuring that the necessary infrastructure and regulatory framework are in place to support this transition.
To promote the installation of RE-generating stations within Tamil Nadu and considering the transmission corridor constraints in the inter-state transactions, the regulations have been decided to extend the concessional transmission and wheeling charges only for the intra-state transaction of RE power and in case of transaction of RE power through inter-state / Power exchange, the concessional transmission and wheeling charges would not be extended.
Additionally, the Commission has implemented the Deviation Settlement Mechanism with effect from April 1, 2024.
This entails recording time block-wise generation and consumption during the billing period and adjusting energy in time block-wise for the billing period. Excess consumption will be charged at the applicable tariff to the consumer, subject to the terms and conditions of supply.
The Union Ministry of Power introduced the Green Energy Open Access rules in 2022 to help achieve the country's target of installing a renewable energy capacity of 500 gigawatts by 2030, as part of the goal to become a carbon-neutral nation by 2070.