The government, in consultation with Central Electricity Authority (CEA), on Wednesday issued guidelines making power distribution companies to have statutory obligation to ensure procurement of sufficient capacity to meet demand in their area.
“The guidelines will ensure that the practice of load shedding by discoms and occurrence of electricity supply crunch is avoided in future,” power minister RK Singh said, adding that these guidelines are a major reform to provide consumers 24×7 reliable power supply at optimized electricity tariffs.
The guidelines for Resource Adequacy Planning Framework for Power Sector provide time-bound and scientific approach to assess the electricity demand for future and to take advance action to procure capacity to meet such demand, the power ministry said in a statement.
They provide for an institutional mechanism for resource adequacy ranging from national level to discom level such that the availability of resources to meet the demand is ensured at each level. The new generation capacities, energy storage and other flexible resources, needed to reliably meet future demand growth at optimal cost, will be assessed well in advance, it said.
It also suggests share of at least 75% of long-term contracts in total capacity required by discoms as per long term National Resource Adequacy Plan (LT-NRAP) or as specified by respective SERC. The medium–term contracts are suggested to be in range of 10-20%, while the rest of the power demand can be met through short-term contracts.
The National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) will also carry out bids to procure any shortfall in the capacity required to meet the short term Distribution Resource Adequacy Plans (ST-DRAP), after aggregating the individual plans of discoms.
“The time-bound and scientific approach to assess the electricity demand for future and taking necessary actions to procure resources in advance to meet this demand will ensure that the practice of load shedding by discoms and occurrence of electricity supply crunch periods is avoided in future,” he added.
The minister said that the robust resource adequacy framework will ensure the twin objective of ensuring the energy security of the nation at optimized cost as well as transitioning towards clean and sustainable future.
CEA will publish LT-NRAP to provide the Planning Reserve Margin (PRM) required at national level, to reliably meet the demand. The National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) shall prepare a detailed annual operational plan considering the planned maintenance schedules of existing generating stations. This will be called short term National Resource Adequacy Plan (ST-NRAP).