The Union Ministry Power on 29th December notified the Electricity (Amendment) Rules, 2022. These rules were notified in exercise of the powers conferred by section 176 of the Electricity Act, 2003.
Salient features of Electricity (Amendment) Rules, 2022
- The government has mandated creation of a central pool of renewable energy (RE) sources from which an intermediary company will procure electricity and supply to an entity involved in distribution and retail supply of power to states at uniform tariff.
- The central pool will be a repository of power from Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) connected RE sources such as solar, wind, hydro, biomass, biofuel and biogas.
- An intermediary procurer, which is an entity between the end procurer with the renewable energy company, will purchase electricity from generating companies and resell it to the end procurer, which is a company with a license to undertake distribution and retail supply of power.
- The intermediary procurer will supply power to the end procurer at a uniform RE tariff that will be calculated by an implementing agency separately on a monthly basis for each category in the central pool. For instance, there will be a different central pool for each of the sectors of the renewable energy sources such as solar power central pool and wind power central pool.
- Appropriate state commissions will have to, within 90 days of publication of the rules, specify a price adjustment formula for recovering costs on account of variation in the price of fuel, or power purchase costs and impact in the cost due to such variation. These costs will be automatically passed through in consumer tariffs, on a monthly basis, and such monthly automatic adjustments shall be trued up on an annual basis by the appropriate state commissions.
- Timely resolution of disputes has also been taken up. Under the said rules, state commissions will have to pass the final order, within 120 days from the date of receipt of the petition, which can be extended by 30 days for reasons to be recorded in writing.
(Source: BL and Ministry of Power)
