A virtual roundtable on ‘Renewables, Open Access and the future of Retail Competition in India’ was organised by Prayas (Energy Group) on September 7, 2021. The landscape of the Indian power sector has undergone a drastic change, driven by a shift towards RE as well as consumers migrating away from the DISCOMs. Presently, the share of sales migration stands at close to one-fifth of the total DISCOM sales in India. This increasing migration is a consequence of rapidly falling RE prices as well as increasing corporate commitments towards RE. While the economics does favour RE and subsequent migration via open access and captive routes; the policy environment in the country is yet not conducive towards an accelerated development of these competitive options. The sector remains mired with administrative hurdles, uncertainty regarding open access charges as well as unclear policy provisions. The participants deliberated upon structural issues of the power sector, the challenges faced in implementation and operationalisation of OA as well as the provisions of the recently released Draft Electricity (Promoting renewable energy through Green Energy Open Access) Rules 2021 by the Ministry of Power. The roundtable had twenty discussants, which included representatives from Distribution Companies (DISCOMs), Regulatory Commissions, Sector Experts, Lawyers, Renewable Energy (RE) project developers and Open Access (OA) consumers.

A summary of the key points raised during the discussion and the context-setting presentation given by PEG at the start of the roundtable can be found below.