The discoms will now be able to meet their annual renewable purchase obligations with the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission finally approving power purchase obligations from hydro projects. Tata Power Delhi, which had filed the petition, argued that power from small hydro power projects was in the consumers’ interest as their cost of power was the lowest.There are eight hydro projects from where the discoms want to procure power but couldn’t due to lack of guidelines by the regulatory authority. According to discom officials, bids were invited from small hydro projects as their tariff was the lowest among all non-solar sources of energy. “The current tender has been floated to meet the renewable purchase obligations and it would be wise if the same is met with the minimum cost possible. The low cost will ultimately benefit the consumers,” said an official.
Other features like suitability with the load curve of Delhi makes hydro power a more appropriate source of renewable power, he added. After listening to the discom’s arguments, the commission finally adopted the generic tariff of small hydro plants but it’s subject to the condition that the quoted tariff or CERC Generic tariff, whichever is lower based on the year of commissioning of the project, will be considered as the approved tariff. The terms and conditions of power purchase agreements from the quoted small hydro projects were also approved by DERC. With this, the discoms can now source green power to meet their RPO targets set by DERC.Tata Power Delhi had filed the petition for the adoption of renewable energy tariff from solar as well as non-solar renewable energy sources for compliance of its renewable energy obligation.
In an earlier petition, the regulator had allowed six solar projects from Sun Edison Holding (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. However, the power to be procured from the small hydro projects was then disallowed on the ground that these bidders had not agreed to match the CERC generic tariff for the year of commissioning.Subsequently, Tata Power Delhi floated another request for proposal inviting bids from non-solar renewable energy sources with small hydro projects in the first phase. The bidding was conducted to procure the balance quantum of 385 MUs of energy to meet its renewable purchase obligation.
Source:TOI
