In accordance with the Energy Conservation Act of 2001, the Ministry of Power has announced the minimum share of renewable energy from April 2024 to March 2030. These rules apply to all designated consumers, including captive users, open-access consumers, and energy distribution licensees. A new category of distributed renewable energy has been added under renewable purchase obligations.
For the hilly and North-Eastern regions, including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, the allocation for distributed renewable energy will be reduced by half of the amount specified in the table. The remaining allocation for these states will be categorised under other renewable energy sources.
The wind energy must be fulfilled by energy generated from wind power projects (WPPs) that have been operational post March 31, 2024. The hydro energy must exclusively come from energy generated by hydro power projects (HPPs), which encompass pump storage projects (PSPs) and small hydro projects (SHPs). Additionally, it is permissible to meet this hydro renewable energy requirement by utilising free energy from HPPs that have been commissioned after March 31, 2024, even if they are situated outside of India, subject to approval from the central government. Moreover, the portion of distributed renewable energy must be derived exclusively from energy generated by renewable energy projects with a capacity of less than 10 MW. This includes solar installations in all forms, such as net metering, gross metering, virtual net metering, group net metering, behind-the-meter installations, and any other configurations as specified by the central government. The remaining portion of renewable energy can be fulfilled by energy generated from any type of renewable energy power project, excluding those explicitly excluded by the regulations. This will encompass energy from all WPPs and HPPs, including PSPs and SHPs, even if they provide free power. These projects must have been commissioned before April 1, 2024.
In situations where data regarding energy generation from distributed renewable energy installations is not accessible, a conversion factor of 3.5 units per kW per day should be employed. In order to meet the renewable energy objectives, these regulations offer the flexibility of using surplus energy from one renewable source to compensate for any deficiencies in another. Additionally, open-access consumers and individuals with captive power plants are obligated to fulfill their total renewable energy targets, irrespective of the particular non-fossil fuel source they choose to employ. Furthermore, the laws allow the use of renewable energy certificates as a means of achieving the designated renewable energy consumption requirements in order to simplify compliance. If these goals are not met, penalties will be imposed in accordance with the terms of the Energy Conservation Act.
