The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) on April 23, 2023, issued directions under regulation 16 of the RRAS Regulations, 2015.
As per Regulation 5.1 of the RRAS Regulations, 2015, the generating stations which are regional entities and whose tariff is determined or adopted by the Commission for their full capacity are eligible to provide Reserve Regulation Ancillary Services (RRAS).
The Commission has reviewed the power supply situation in the country. On 18th April 2023, peak demand touched 215.9 GW. The Peak Demand is expected to intensify further with the increase in temperature. As per the “Report on Twentieth Electric Power Survey of India” published by CEA in November 2022, the all-India peak electricity demand for the year 2023-24 is projected to be around 230 GW.
Given the prevailing power supply situation in the country and in light of the request received from the Grid-India, the Commission considers it necessary to expand the scope of operation of the RRAS Regulations, 2015 to facilitate the availability of adequate reserves with the system operator.
The following directions have been stated:
• The Eligibility for participation for RRAS referred to in Regulation 5 of the RRAS Regulations, 2015 shall, in addition to the regional entity generating stations whose tariffs are determined or adopted by the Commission, also include the state generating stations whose tariffs are determined or adopted by the State Commission and willing to participate under RRAS; and the generating stations which are mandated by the Central Government to participate under RRAS and whose tariffs are discovered through a competitive bidding process.
• The merit order stack to be prepared by the Nodal Agency shall include the state generating stations whose tariffs are determined or adopted by the State Commission and willing to participate under RRAS; and the generating stations which are mandated by the Central Government to participate under RRAS, along with the regional entity generating stations whose tariffs are determined or adopted by the Commission.
The directions shall come into force with immediate effect.
[Notification No. 06/SM/2023]
