Gujarat Issues Draft Tariff Determination Norms For Solar-Wind Hybrid Projects

Ministry of Power Releases Guidelines For Uniform Renewable Tariff

The Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) has now come up with a discussion paper to develop a tariff framework for the procurement of power from wind-solar hybrid projects. It is applicable for wind-solar hybrid projects and such projects with storage too. It has asked the stakeholders and public to comment on the draft proposals by the end of July 3.

The Commission issued the first tariff order for the segment on April 3, 2021. The control period for the said order was March 31, 2023. It was later extended up to June 19, 2023. Earlier, the state followed generic tariffs for power from solar or wind projects and hybrid projects. However, in 2021 the Commission adopted the practice of picking the tariff based on a competitive bidding process. 

The new draft norms said that for the existing hybrid projects, the tariff would be as per the PPAs. However, for the additional capacities, the new tariff would be the weighted average tariff available on April 1 (as discovered in the Competitive Bidding by GUVNL during the previous six months, October- March and adopted by the Commission). These will be for projects whose PPAs are signed from April to September. 

It also said that for the new hybrid projects, the tariff would be the weighted average tariff from the last six months. It also said that in case the weighted average tariff is not available for a particular six months period, the latest weighted average tariff available for 6 months’s period would be considered. 

It also mandated the discoms to place the applicable tariff on their website, indicating their rates for purchasing energy generated from wind and storage capacity and hybrid projects. These rates would be updated every six months. 

The draft norms also said that the power procurement from such projects is to be used for the fulfillment of solar RPO and non-solar RPO in the proportion of rates capacity of solar and wind power in the plant, respectively. 

It also said that the capacity mix decision of solar and wind would be on the developers, based on the site’s potential. “The choice of capacity mix between Wind and Solar and Storage, if any shall be the discretion of the Developer or as per the individual schemes as notified by the State or Central Government from time to time. However, at the locations of having good wind power potential, the Solar PV capacity to be added as the Solar-Hybrid component could be relatively smaller. Similarly, in case of the sites where the wind Power Density (WPD) is relatively lower or moderate, the component of the Solar PV capacity could be relatively on a higher side,” the draft norms said.

It also said that the payment of transmission charges should be applicable on sanctioned/allocated transmission capacity at the rate applicable to any normal open-access consumer. It also said that the transmission losses should apply on an energy feed-basis as to any other wind or solar project.