DIPA welcomes new amendments to Green Energy Open Access Rules

The Ministry of Power has notified the second amendment to the Green Energy Open Access Rules 2022. The new notified rules envisage to amend three provisions of the original rules published by the ministry last year in June.

The new notifed rules have been named Electricity ( promoting Renewable Energy Through Green Energy Open Access) (Second Amendment) Rules, 2023.

The Green Energy Open Access Rules 2022 empower the power consumers upto a minimum of 100 Kilowatt (KW) of contracted annual power demand to avail the services of renewable energy under the open access route. Under this the consumers who want to buy green power directly from the producers can do so under the open access.

Welcoming this amendment in Electricy Rules 2022, T.R.Dua, Director-General, Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA), said,” The above policy amendment is a long outstanding demand of the telecom industry and it will help infrastructure provider to reduce their opex significantly. As we all know that telecom tower site works on substantially lower power so allowing cumulative power of 100 KW will enable telecom company to purchase of renewable power through open access at comparatively cheaper rate. DIPA applauds the Ministry of Power (MoP) for amending its policy in keeping with the aspirations of the customers and technology requirements.DIPA also appreciates the efforts of Department of Telecommunications(DoT) and National Broadband Mission (NBM) for their continuous support towards telecom industry.”

This is the second time the ministry has notified changes in the original rules. The ministry notified the first amendment on January 27, 2023. The latest notification is dated 23 May, 2023. It is applicable from the date of its publication i.e., May 23, 2023.

Under the newly published rules, the ministry has changed the definition of “entities”. The new rules said that the entities should be in the same electricity division of the discom except for captive consumers. It also noted that the aggregate demand of the green energy consumers could come either from a single connection or multiple connections.

“Entity means any consumer who has contracted demand or sanctioned load of 100 KW or more through multiple connections aggregating 100 KW or more located in the same electricity division of a distribution of a distribution licensee, except for captive consumers. Provided that in case of captive consumers, there shall not be any load limitation, the new rules said.

The new amended rules also said that here would be no bar on the captive consumers on the quantity of green power taken under open access. The ministry in the latest notified rules amended Suble rule 2 of the original rules to give the benefit of green energy generated from offshore wind power projects.

The new rules said that the green energy open-access consumers need not pay the additional charges if the renewable energy is generated from off shore wind projects. The rules said that the provisions would apply to all offshore wind projects commissioned up to December 2032. It is contrary to the first amendment , published in January this year, where the surcharges were waived for offshore wind projects commissioned up to 2025.

CT Bureau