The Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission published last week the Procurement of Energy from Renewable Sources Regulations, 2022, Third Amendment, which establishes renewable purchase obligation (RPO) targets from the fiscal years 2022-23 to 2024-25.
According to the Regulation, RPO percentages are set at 17%, 18.7%, and 20.7% for FY 2022-23, FY 2023-24, and FY 2024-25, respectively.
The Commission published the Draft Regulations, and invited stakeholders to submit comments and suggestions.
Stakeholders proposed that current renewable energy industry trends should be taken into account and flexibility should be offered to meet the RPO. To guarantee uniformity, renewable energy, renewable energy project, renewable energy with storage, and renewable hybrid energy project need to be included as renewable energy sources.
In response to the suggestion, the Commission declared that energy storage is not a source of generation. However, wind or solar energy integrated with energy storage systems can be considered renewable energy.
Wind, solar, biomass, biogas, geothermal, tidal, and large hydropower projects, according to the Commission, qualify as hybrid projects. The energy generated by such projects is eligible for RPO fulfillment.
Green hydrogen and green ammonia were also suggested to be regarded as renewable sources to meet RPO in accordance with the Federal government’s Green Hydrogen Policy. The Commission stated that, if the power used to manufacture hydrogen and ammonia come from renewable sources, it qualifies for RPO fulfillment.
Besides, since solar projects take around 18 months to commission, some stakeholders advised retaining the RPO percentage at 17 % for FY 2022-23 and FY 2023-24, the same as FY 2021-22. In addition, there are several hurdles in terms of land availability, evacuation infrastructure, and a significant increase in the cost of input material, all of which could cause delays in fulfilling the present RPO targets.
The Commission ruled that the stakeholders' claims were valid. As a result, it set RPO percentages of 17% and 18.70% for FY 2022-23 and FY 2023-24. The RPO requirement for FY 2024-25 is raised to 20.70%.
