Karnataka Proposes Short-Term Green Energy Open Access  

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The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), in its newly-released draft rules on Green Energy Open Access, has proposed the concept of three different categories of green energy open access consumers. It also includes green energy consumers who can opt for short-term services for less than one year. 

The new regulations have been named Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (Terms and Conditions for Open Access) (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2023. 

Karnataka proposes three segments of open access consumer.

It contrasts the stands of other state institutions like the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC) and the Kerala State Electricity Board Limited (KSEBL). Both RERC draft rules and the tariff revision plea of KSEBL for green energy open access submitted before the Kerala Electricity Regulatory Commission batted for a minimum period of one year to avail services under Green Energy Open Access. 

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The latest KERC draft rules proposed substituting Regulation 3(2) of the previous open access rules to allow short-term and medium-term open access services for renewable energy consumers besides long-term arrangements. 

KERC has proposed a short-term open-access facility for consumers who want to opt for this service for one year or less than one year. It also proposed another segment of medium-term consumers who can avail of the benefits for more than one year but less than five years. At the same time, long-term consumers can opt for the connections for up to five years or more than that. 

It also said that the Green Energy Open Access consumers would be given preference over the normal open access consumers. It will, however, not apply to the distribution licensees. However, the proposed draft rules have proposed another amendment clarifying that priority for open access connections would be given first to long-term consumers, followed by medium-term users. It has put short-term consumers last on its priority list. 

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The development comes after the Ministry of Power, in 2022, released Green Energy Open Access Regulations. After this, state-level rules were framed. States like Rajasthan, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and others have already framed their draft rules. The Green Energy, Open Access rules allow consumers up to 100 kilowatts of contract power demand to avail the facilities of green energy directly from the generators.