The Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (HPERC) has finalized its Resource Adequacy Framework Regulations, 2025. These regulations aim to ensure that the state’s generating companies, distribution licensees, distribution companies (DISCOMs), and load dispatch centers contract sufficient electricity generation capacity to meet peak demand reliably, cost-effectively, and sustainably.

The draft regulation was released in February this year.

The regulations provide a legal mandate for demand forecasting, capacity planning, and power procurement.

Under the finalized framework, DISCOMs must demonstrate a 100% capacity tie-up in the first compliance year and a 90% tie-up in the second. The Commission retained its earlier position that short-term power purchases, including those from the day-ahead market and real-time market, will not be counted toward meeting resource adequacy requirements (RAR).

It also reiterated that over 85% of the DISCOMs’ capacity must be sourced through long-term power purchase agreements, with only limited procurement allowed from short-term contracts.

Demand Forecasting

One of the key changes in the final order is the approval of periodic validation and refinement of demand forecasting models. A provision was added to the regulations to permit DISCOMs to refine and improve their forecasting techniques using real-time data and emerging consumption trends.

This flexibility enables the use of hybrid forecasting methodologies, including artificial intelligence such as machine learning, autoregressive integrated moving average models, trend analysis, and econometric models.

Capacity Credit Method Retained

Despite stakeholder requests to alter the capacity credit factor for renewable energy, HPERC retained the methodology based on the top 250 peak demand hours using the ‘net load base’ approach. Suggestions to revise the hours or use actual generation instead of availability were rejected.

OTC Platforms Rejected

The Commission firmly rejected proposals to recognize over-the-counter (OTC) platforms for electricity procurement or coordination. HPERC stated that OTC platforms are not recognized under the Ministry of Power’s bidding guidelines, cannot facilitate price discovery, and do not ensure the formation of legally binding contracts. Only the discovery of efficient electricity prices and the use of power utilities’ short-term procurement platforms will be permitted for procurement under these regulations.

The request to allow electricity banking through OTC platforms was similarly denied, with the Commission mandating that such transactions must be conducted through open bidding. The Commission also declined to mandate competitive bidding for emergency procurement, allowing DISCOMs flexibility during unforeseen demand surges or outages.

Compliance Definitions Unchanged

Regulation 17, which deals with compliance and evaluation, was retained without modification despite suggestions to clarify definitions for surplus tie-ups, demand projection errors, and shortfalls. The Commission held that existing provisions under the resource adequacy plan already account for these scenarios.

Digital Platforms and Demand Response

While stakeholders pushed for a unified digital platform and the inclusion of demand response mechanisms in RAR calculations, the Commission noted that these are already factored into operational procedures. It declined to include them within the regulations, considering them procedural rather than regulatory matters.

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