The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), the apex power regulator in the country, today discussed measures for speedy implementation of the open access system in the country in a meeting of its Central Advisory Committee (CAC) today.
Open access regulations are aimed at allowing large users of power — typically consuming 1 Mw and above — to choose their electricity supplier.
Among the major issues discussed in today’s meeting were independence of state load dispatch centres (SLDCs) to avoid cases of denial of open access by power distribution utilities to consumers, and allowing power exchanges to carry out forward trading of electricity.
SLDCs are state-owned bodies that are responsible for monitoring the load flow of power into and outside the territory of a state. Experts believe that most of the SLDCs in India are not allowed to work independently of the state electricity boards, which in turn allows the distribution utilities to create hurdles in implementing open access.
“The recommendation for structuring the reporting channel of the SLDCs on the lines of State Election Officers (reporting to the Election Commission) was widely appreciated (in the meeting),” according to a release issued by the commission.
It was discussed in the meeting that allowing the exchanges to carry out forward trading of power in the week ahead or month ahead contracts would help in creating market for open access, according to the release. Currently, only day-ahead contracts are entered into between the buyers and sellers of at the power exchanges.
Even while the Electricity Act 2003 confers upon the CERC the power to frame all type of electricity contracts, difficulty in allowing forward trading of power at the exchanges might arise owing to the need for compliance of such a move with the Forward Contract Regulations Act. “...however, the representative of the Department of Consumer Affairs said the provisions of the Forward Contract Regulations Act would need to be complied with in the cases of transferable specific delivery contracts,” the release mentioned.