CERC has notified CERC (Connectivity and General Network Access to the inter-State Transmission System) Regulations, 2022 on 07.06.2022, and subsequently, issued the first amendment and second amendment on 1st April 2023 and on 19th June 2024, respectively. However, based on suggestions from various stakeholders, CERC has issued a staff paper on 9th Oct, 2024. The Commission has invited comments on it by 11th Nov, 2024.
The staff paper has captured eight issues in total, most prominent of which is ‘Provision for grant of Solar hours Connectivity and Non-Solar hours Connectivity through the same Transmission system’. Ministry of Power/Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had come up with a similar idea in a concept note (‘Optimising Transmission and Development of Storage’) few months back. Hence, CERC issuing a staff paper capturing this aspect is very timely.
Some of the important aspects highlighted in our submission are:
- Provision for grant of Solar hours Connectivity and Non-Solar hours Connectivity through the same Transmission system is a bold and innovative approach needed in the Indian context. However, there are some aspects (such as point of connectivity) related to the proposal which need further consideration.
- A centralised portal for providing NOC by the STU in a time-bound and a transparent manner is welcome and can help in better application tracking, bringing more transparency and learning to streamline the NOC process.
Detailed comments can be found in the attached submission here.