The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) has issued the draft “Planning, Procurement, Deployment, and Utilisation of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)” Regulations, 2025.

Stakeholders must submit their comments before July 21, 2025.

The regulations aim to enable BESS deployment and utilization as part of generation, transmission, and distribution assets. They also promote cost-effective energy storage solutions that support grid stability, frequency management, and renewable energy integration.

According to the regulations, energy storage systems (ESS) can be utilized independently. Alternatively, they can be utilized as a part of the generation, transmission, or distribution system, or by integrating the consumer’s load with renewable sources co-located behind the meter.

ESS can be developed, owned, leased, or operated by a generating company, a transmission licensee, a distribution licensee, a consumer, a system operator, or an independent energy storage service provider.

It can have the same legal status as that of the owner if it is not co-located with a generating station, distribution licensee, or consumer, but rather owned and operated by them.

The reverse power flow from lower to higher voltage at various substations must be the criterion for finalizing the BESS locations in the distribution system or transmission system by distribution licensees.

The minimum individual project size must have a minimum power rating of 1 MW, with a suitable energy rating of at least four hours, based on the application at a single site.

Distribution licensees can also set up BESS at the distribution transformer level to store the power from the ‘step response time’ locally. The 1 MW condition would not apply in such cases.

Under the regulations, BESS can provide frequency regulation (primary, secondary, tertiary), spinning and non-spinning reserves, voltage support, and black start services.

Market-linked BESS services will be compensated based on market-clearing prices in the ancillary services market or under other mechanisms approved by the Commission.

Compliance with Standards

BESS installations must conform to technical standards specified by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and other relevant authorities.

Cybersecurity and communication protocols must adhere to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the CEA, and the Ministry of Power guidelines.

Role of Aggregators, Distribution Licensees, and Nodal Agency

Aggregators are entities registered or appointed by the distribution licensee to provide the aggregation of one or more services within a control area. These services can include demand response under the demand response mechanism, distributed generation, and energy storage,  among others.

They will aggregate BESS resources from multiple sites to provide services to the grid or market participants.

Aggregators will also register with the state load dispatch centers (SLDCs) and obtain approval from them following the notified eligibility conditions.

The regulations mandate cost recovery for licensee-owned BESS assets through tariffs determined by the Commission based on prudent investment norms. For procurement from BESS service providers, the Commission will adopt tariffs determined under competitive bidding.

Distribution licensees must publish potential sites at the 11 kV voltage level in their 33/11 kV substations for establishing BESS with the required capacities based on the feeder level solarisation and smart remote terminal installations in the feeder purview. This data must be updated annually.

The Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh will develop the standard agreement template for procuring ancillary services and seek the Commission’s approval before signing any agreements.

The nodal agency (Andhra Pradesh State Load Despatch Centre) will verify the governor settings of all generators regarding their automatic primary response to changes in the system frequency.

It will estimate the requirement of ‘secondary reserve ancillary service’ and ‘tertiary reserve ancillary service’ for each distribution company (DISCOM) area for the specified period, using an appropriate methodology, and publish the same on its website.

The SLDC will prepare a procedure for scheduling, metering, accounting, mechanisms for remuneration, settlement, and verification of ancillary service provision for approval by the Commission within one month of the regulation’s publication date.

It will monitor state of charge, round-trip efficiency, availability, response time, and aggregated performance metrics.

Consumers and prosumers not covered under net-metering/billing may establish behind-the-meter BESS along with solar projects without requiring permission from the concerned DISCOMs.

However, all such systems must comply with the CEA’s technical standard for connectivity regulations.

The APERC Green Energy Open Access Charges and Banking Regulation, 2024, will govern the open access and charges.

The state adopted the Green Energy Open Access, Charges, and Banking Regulations in 2024, granting open access for electricity generated from renewable energy sources for utilization within the state, involving intrastate transmission systems and/or distribution systems of licensed entities.

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