Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission issued draft Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (Procurement of Energy from Renewable Sources) Regulations, 2024 on 30th September, 2024 and asked for public comments / suggestions by 18th October, 2024. Considering the national target of 500 GW non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 and that renewables (mainly wind and solar) will account for the bulk of that addition due to their low cost of generation, the proposed GERC RPO regulation is very timely and welcome. The draft regulation proposes a RPO trajectory for 2024-30 in line with the MoP guideline in this regard. Gujarat has and can continue to play a big role in contributing to this national goal through various initiatives, one of which is the regulation on procurement of energy from RE sources by the obligated entities in the state.
Our suggestions and comments on the proposed draft regulations are detailed in the submission but the important suggestions are noted below.
- Consider complexities arising from the harmonized reading of Electricity Act and Energy Conservation Act
- Consider Composite RPO for better RE planning and for captive and OA consumers
- Obligation for Storage should be applicable on all DC/OEs
- Provision related to Target revision should be used only in exceptional circumstances and should not be the norm
- Avoiding double counting of RPO compliance through Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia
- Stricter Timelines for RPO compliance proceedings and verification
- Transparency about penalty procedure is needed
The detailed submission can be found as attachment on this page.