The Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) has notified its draft rules for Intrastate Open Access Regulations, 2023. According to the notification, consumers who have a contract demand or sanctioned load of 100 kW and more will be able to purchase power from renewable sources through open access.
Additionally, captive consumers who receive power through the open access mechanism will not be subject to restrictions on the availability of power. The state notified to permit consumers with contracted capacity of above 1 MW to avail the benefits of open access. The State Load Despatch Centre and the state transmission utility will serve as nodal agency in case of short-term and medium or long-term green energy open access, respectively.
The consumers who are connected to either transmission or distribution network will be accountable for covering the wheeling charges, transmission charges, or any other charges set by the commission. The cross-subsidy surcharge for customers with open access to green energy will be set at 50 per cent of the first year’s surcharge for 12 years following the project’s commissioning. There will be no cross-subsidy surcharge if a captive user is given open access to transport electricity produced by a captive generating plant for their own use. Furthermore, if the power is provided by a waste-to-energy project and the green energy is used to create green hydrogen and ammonia, the cross-subsidy and additional surcharge will not be applied.
Additionally, the standby charges for standby arrangements will not be applicable if the user gives notice to the discom at least one day prior the scheduled power delivery time. Additionally, on a monthly basis, 8 per cent of the energy stored will be available for open access green energy customers. The allowable banked energy by the green energy open access customers has to equal a minimum of 30 per cent of the customers’ total monthly discom electricity consumption. Furthermore, a wheeling schedule must be submitted by each open access generator, scheduled consumer, and open access consumer for each 15-minute time block covering a whole day.
