The Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) has issued its guidelines for MW scale ground mounted and rooftop projects, for captive consumption or third party sale, under the Haryana Solar Power Policy 2016.

The guidelines are expected to provide a policy framework to enable the expansion of MW capacity solar power projects, facilitate their implementation, enhance the confidence of project developers, and fulfill renewable purchase obligation (RPO) requirements.

Under the policy guidelines, developers can install at any location in the state, but must interconnect these projects with stations of 11 kV capacity or greater. However, the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) has waived these charges for such projects.

HERC has also approved regulations for the control period from FY2017-18 to FY2020-21. These include:

• The Solar RPO target has been revised to eight percent by the financial year 2021-22
• Wheeling charges, cross-subsidy charges, transmission and distribution charges and additional surcharges will be completely waived for third party sale or open access consumers of energy from ground mounted or rooftop solar projects commissioned during the control period.
• The waiver will also apply to captive solar projects for self consumption
• All waivers and concessions will be applicable for a period of 10 years from the date of the notification.
• The waivers are applicable until the state achieves its goal of 500 MW of installed capacity.

According to  Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker,  Haryana only has 60 MW of installed solar capacity to date.

The HERC has established the limit for total aggregate capacity of grid connected solar power projects to be set up under the Build-Own-Operate scheme. These projects will be technology agnostic and use mono/crystalline silicon, thin film or CPV solar panels. Trackers will not be mandatory.

It should be noted that projects that have already been commissioned will not be considered under this program. However, projects under construction can be considered, provided these projects are not already accepted under any other central or state programs.

The eligible project capacity will be a minimum of one MW and a maximum of up to 100 MW. In case the solar project is located in a solar park, then the minimum project capacity will be 250 kW. The minimum capacity of rooftop project for captive consumption or third party sale is 250 kW to one MW.

The total capacity allotted to a company and its affiliates is fixed at 100 MW.

In July 2018, HERC issued an order amending the terms and conditions for determining the tariff from renewable energy sources, renewable purchase obligations (RPOs)  and renewable energy certificates (RECs).

For RPOs and RECs, HERC had stated that every obligated entity including distribution licensee, consumers owning captive power plants, and open access consumers including short term open access consumers in Haryana, should purchase energy from renewable energy sources under the RPO as follows:

Earlier, Mercom reported that HERC approved a petition for the procurement of power from green energy sources (other than solar) in order to fulfill the stipulated RPO. The petition was filed by the Haryana Power Purchase Centre (HPPC), Panchkula. It sought permission for the Letter of Intent to procure non-solar renewable energy to fulfil its RPO.

Nitin is a staff reporter at Mercomindia.com and writes on renewable energy and related sectors. Prior to Mercom, Nitin has worked for CNN IBN, India News, Agricultural Spectrum and Bureaucracy Today. He received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Communication from Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal University and Master’s degree in International Relations from Jindal School of International Affairs. More articles from Nitin Kabeer