To promote clean and green energy, the Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy, R K Singh, launched the Green Energy Open Access Portal recently. The move is aimed at ensuring affordable, reliable, sustainable, and green energy for all. Consumers can now get access to renewable energy (RE) power easily, the government has said in a press release.
The portal processes applications for green energy open access from stakeholders like open access participants, traders, power exchanges, national/regional/state load despatch centres, and central/state transmission utilities. It provides a transparent, simplified, uniform, and streamlined window to grant open access to green energy, which will help deepen electricity markets and enable the integration of RE resources into the grid.
Consumers with a sanctioned load of 100 kW or more can get RE through open access from any RE-generating plant set up by themselves or a developer. The open access will be granted in a time-bound manner, within 15 days, the government said. The load limit was reduced by the government from 1000 kW to 100 kW.
Earlier in June, the Ministry of Power notified the Electricity (Promoting Renewable Energy through Green Energy Open Access) Rules, 2022. The rules aimed to promote the generation, purchase, and consumption of green energy including the energy from waste-to-energy plants.
According to Singh, India contributes only 3.5% to global emissions despite having about 17% of the world’s population. The country is leading the clean energy transition globally and has the fastest growth of RE capacity addition, he noted. The Ministry of Power launched several initiatives in this regard and many more are in advanced stages.
The Minister of State for Power, Krishan Pal, explained that the objective of the Green Open Access rules is to provide access to green energy generation, sale, purchase, and consumption for RPO fulfilment. The rules benefit the small consumers and remove bottlenecks in the administration of open access to renewable energy, he claimed.
India is committed to meeting the National Determined Contributions (NDCs) targets of generating 50% installed capacity from non-fossil fuel sources. It is on the verge of ushering in a mass revolution in the green energy transition.
The Green Energy Open Access rules support the government’s vision of transitioning to clean energy through the participation of all generators, DISCOMs, and other stakeholders. The nodal agencies in the sector shall post progress reports related to green energy open access to stakeholders through the portal.
As of August-end, renewable energy sources, including large hydropower, had a combined installed capacity of 163 GW. India has set a target to reduce the carbon intensity of the nation’s economy by less than 45% by the end of the decade, achieve 50% cumulative electric power installed by 2030, and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. By 2030, low-carbon technologies could create a market worth up to $80 billion in India. The government has also said it wants to set up one solar city per state-approved and approval setting up 45 solar parks of 37 GW across the nation.
