The Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC) has notified the new renewable purchase obligation (RPO) for the state to include energy storage and move solar along with biomass into the other RPO category.

The new policy provides an RPO trajectory until the financial year (FY) 2029-2030.

The changes align with the regulation issued by the Ministry of Power (MoP) and will be effective from April 1, 2024.

The previously specified RERC 2007 regulations have notified the RPO targets until the end of the financial year 2023-2024.

According to the regulator, the RPO for wind energy will be fulfilled by energy produced from projects commissioned after March 31, 2022. The RPO may also be met by the excess wind energy consumed beyond 7% of total energy consumption from projects commissioned before March 31, 2022.

Any shortfall in achieving wind RPO in a year can be met with excess energy consumed from hydropower plants, which is more than the HPO for that year and vice versa.

Further, any shortfall in achieving ‘Other RPO’ in a year can be met with the excess energy consumed from wind power projects commissioned after March 31, 2022. This wind power must be beyond the wind RPO for that year.

The regulator said the hydropower purchase obligation (HPO) could only be fulfilled by energy produced from large hydropower projects, including pumped hydro projects, commissioned after March 8, 2019.

Furthermore, starting from FY 2024-25, all energy generated from hydropower projects will be considered as part of the RPO. However, the HPO trajectory outlined in the above table will continue to apply to large hydropower projects commissioned after March 8, 2019.

The energy produced by all other hydropower projects, including free power from hydropower projects commissioned before March 8, 2019, will be accounted for under the ‘Other RPO’ category within the new framework.

Additionally, the RPO will be calculated as a percentage of the total electricity consumption. The HPO obligation of the state can be fulfilled using the free power supplied by hydropower projects commissioned after March 8, 2019, as per the agreement in place at that time. This excludes the Local Area Development Fund contribution as long as the power is consumed within the state. Only the free power (not that contributed toward Local Area Development) will be eligible for the HPO benefit.

If the mentioned free power does not meet the HPO obligations, the obligated entity must purchase additional hydropower or acquire renewable energy certificates corresponding to hydropower shortage to fulfill its obligation.

The mechanism for renewable energy certificates for hydropower and other renewable power, facilitating compliance with HPO and Other RPO, will be defined as per the guidelines specified by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The HPO trajectory will be adjusted annually, considering any revisions to the commissioning schedule of hydropower projects.

Hydropower imported from outside India will not be considered for meeting HPO.

Energy Storage Obligation

The Commission has also notified the Energy Storage Obligation (ESO) trajectory until FY30. The ESO will be calculated as the percentage of total energy consumed from solar and wind projects with storage.

The ESO will be calculated in energy terms as a percentage of the total electricity consumption and treated as fulfilled only when at least 85% of the total energy stored in the energy storage system (ESS) is procured from renewable energy sources annually.

The ESO will be reviewed periodically, considering the commissioning of pumped hydro projects. ESO has been added to accommodate commercially viable energy storage technologies and reduce the cost of battery energy storage systems.

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