CERC Issues Order to Optimise ISGS Schedules in India, Reducing Generation Costs

The CERC in its order has stated that the pilot for the SCED will be implemented by POSOCO with effect from April 1, 2019.

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), after reviewing proposals made by the Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) on “Security Constrained Economic Dispatch (SCED) of Inter-State Generating Stations pan India,” has issued an order asking POSOCO to implement the pilot to optimise the scheduling and dispatch of the generation resources and reduce the overall cost of production of electricity.

With the increase in renewable generation in the system, DISCOMs would need to take into account the generation from intermittent energy sources to ensure flexibility in the system while catering to net load (demand minus the generation from embedded renewable energy resources) and scheduling generators from the non-renewable energy sources. Hence, the need for optimisation becomes all the more relevant.

CERC has directed POSOCO to implement the order as follows:

POSOCO will implement SCED optimisation model for all the thermal inter-state generating stations that are regional entities and whose tariff is determined or adopted by the CERC for their full capacity without violating grid security and while honouring the existing scheduling practices on trial basis for six months.

POSOCO will need to frame detailed procedure within one month of this order.

The detailed procedure is expected to contain the guidelines regarding operational aspects of SCED including scheduling, dispatch, accounting, settlement and any residual matter.

National load dispatch center will be opening a separate bank account called National Pool Account. All payments on account of SCED schedules will flow to and from this account.

For increment in an injection of power, the generator will be paid for the incremental generation at the rate of its variable charge.

For decrement in the injection of power, the generator will pay at the rate of its variable charge after discounting compensation due to the part load operation.

And finally, POSOCO will procure the hardware and develop the necessary software along with the optimisation tools for the implementation of the SCED framework.

The CERC in its order has stated that the pilot for the SCED will be implemented by POSOCO with effect from April 1, 2019.

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