According to the Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (Terms and Conditions of Open Access), Regulation, 2024, consumers who have a contracted or sanctioned load of 100 kW or more, including those who aggregate multiple connections to achieve a total of 100 kW within the same electricity division of a power distribution company (discom), are eligible to obtain power through green energy open access (GEOA). The regulations are in accordance with the GEOA regulations released by the Ministry of Power in June, 2023.
The duration of the consumer’s usage of the intra-state transmission and/or distribution system determines the category of consumers (long-term – between 7 to 25 years, medium-term – between one month to seven years, short-term – for less than a month) requesting open access. Applicants for GEOA are required to submit a complete application through the central portal. Units designated for captive use have their consumption assessed according to the net electricity produced by the power station. This net electricity generation is calculated annually at the conclusion of each year.
Furthermore, the commission has set wheeling charges, transmission charges as well as cross-subsidy charges paid by the consumers who use open access green energy. The cross-subsidy surcharge for consumers who adopt green energy open access and purchase renewable energy from a generating project will not be more than 50 per cent for 12 years from the date of operation of generating project. There will be no cross-subsidy and additional surcharge applicable for consumers if power is procured from waste-to-energy project or if green power is used to produce green ammonia or green hydrogen. The consumers obtaining green power from their own captive plant will not be subject to cross-subsidy surcharge. Furthermore, the additional surcharge will not be applicable to GEOA consumers if they pay fixed or demand charges. Furthermore, for projects commissioned up to December 2023 for GEOA consumers, it will not be applicable to power from offshore wind projects. Some of the other charges that a user is required to pay to the commissions includes: scheduling charges, state-load dispatch centre charges, and deviation and reactive charges.
GEOA customers cannot bank more than 30 per cent of their entire monthly use from the discom. GEOA consumers will incur banking charges equivalent to 8 per cent of the energy they bank with thediscom. The energy banking duration will span one month, after which any remaining unused energy will lapse. Nevertheless, GEOA consumers will receive renewable energy certificates for the unused energy. Energy credits will be recalculated according to the time slots set by the commission for tariff determination.
