I N D E X
ChapterNo. / Subject / Page
1. / Preliminary / 1-6
2. / General Conditions / 7-11
3. / Petition and Proceedings for Determination of Tariff / 13-15
4. / Financial Principles / 16-20
5. / Technology - Specific Parameters For Wind Energy Projects / 21-23
6. / Technology – Parameters for Small Hydro Projects / 24-26
7. / Technology – Parameters for Biomass Base Power Projects / 27-30
8. / Technology – Parameters for Cogeneration Projects / 31-32
9. / Technology – Parameters for PV Solar Power Projects / 33-36
10. / Technology – Parameters for Solar Thermal Power Projects / 37-39
11. / Miscellaneous / 40-46
Abbreviations
CSP / Concentrated Solar PowerCERC / Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
CUF / Capacity Utilization Factor
CDM / Clean Development Mechanism
IREDA / Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency
IEGC / Indian Electricity Grid Code
IDC / Interest During Construction
LTPLR / Long Term Prime Lending Rate
MNRE / Ministry of New Renewable Energy
NERC / Nagaland Electricity Regulatory Commission
O&M / Operation and Maintenance
PLF / Plant Load Factor
RE / Renewable Energy
PV / Photo Voltaic
R&M / Repairs and Maintenance
SERC / State Electricity Regulatory Commission
C-WET / Centre for Wind Energy Technology
WPD / Wind Power Density
i
OFFICE OF THE
NAGALAND ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION (NERC)
NAGALAND : KOHIMA
Old MLA Hostel Complex,
Nagaland : Kohima -797001
Tel: (0370) 2292101(O) / 2241592(R)
Fax: 2292104 (O); www.nerc.org.in
e-mail:
NOTIFICATION
Dated Kohima,the th Aug.2011
No.NERC/REGN/2011: In exercise of powers conferred under Section 61, 86 read with Section 181 of the Electricity Act, 2003 (36 of 2003) and all other powers enabling it in this behalf, and after previous publication, the Nagaland Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Kohima hereby makes the following regulations, namely:
CHAPTER: 1
PRELIMINARY
1. Short title and commencement
(1) These regulations shall be called the Nagaland Electricity Regulatory Commission (Terms and Conditions for Determination of Generation Tariff for Renewable Energy) Regulations, 2011.
(2) These regulations shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette of Nagaland.
(3) These regulations shall extend to the whole of the State of Nagaland.
2. DEFINITIONS. - In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires,
(1) “Act” means the Electricity Act, 2003 (36 of 2003);
(2) Auxiliary energy consumption or 'AUX' in relation to a period in case of a generating station means the quantum of energy consumed by auxiliary equipment of the generating station, and transformer losses within the generating station, expressed as a percentage of the sum of gross energy generated at the generator terminals of all the units of the generating station;
(3) “Banking” means the process under which a generating station supplies power to the grid not with the intention of selling it to either a third party or to a licensee, but with the intention of exercising its eligibility to draw back this power from the grid.
(4) “Bank rate” means the bank rate of Reserve Bank of India;
(5) “Biomass” means wastages produced during agricultural and forestry operations (for example straws and stalks) or produced as a by-product of processing operations of agricultural produce (eg. Husks, shells, de-oiled cakes etc); wood produced in dedicated energy plantations or recovered from wild bushes / weeds; and the wood waste produced in some industrial operations.
(6) “Capital Cost” means capital cost as defined under Regulation 15 of these Regulations.
(7) ‘Central Commission’ or ‘CERC’ shall mean Central Electricity Regulatory Commission referred to in sub-section (1) of Section 76 of the Act;
(8) ‘CERC RE Tariff Regulations’ shall mean Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Terms and Conditions for Tariff determination from Renewable Energy Sources) Regulations, 2009, as amended from time to time.
(9) “Commission” means the Nagaland Electricity Regulatory Commission;
(10) “Current Year” means the year in which the Aggrezgate Revenue Requirement petition or petition for determination of tariff is to be filed;
(11) ‘Date of Commercial Operation (or) Commissioning’ in relation to a unit means the date declared by the generator on achieving maximum continuous rating through a successful trail run and in relation to the generating station, the date of commercial operation means the date of commercial operation of the last unit or block of generating station and expression “commissioning” shall be construed accordingly. In case of small hydro plants the date of commissioning shall, however, not be linked to achieving maximum continuous rating, but the generator will have to demonstrate the same within three years of commissioning.
(12) ‘Existing RE Project’ means the renewable energy project whose date of commissioning falls prior to date of notification of these Regulations;
(13) “Ensuing Year” shall mean the year immediately following the current year ;
(14) “Force Majeure Event” means event beyond the reasonable control of the generating company or the licensee, including, but not limited to earthquake, cyclone, flood, storm, war, terrorist attack, civil commotion or other similar occurrence that lead to any act that would involve a breach of relevant laws or Regulations;
(15) ‘Gross Station Heat Rate’ or ‘SHR’ means the heat energy input in kcal required to generate one kWh of electrical energy at generator terminals of a thermal generating station;
(16) ‘Installed Capacity' or 'IC’ means the summation of the name plate capacities of all the Units of the generating station or the capacity of the generating station (reckoned at the generator terminals), approved by the Commission from time to time;
(17) ‘Inter-connection Point’ shall mean interface point of renewable energy generating facility with the transmission system or distribution system, as the case may be:
i) In relation to wind energy projects and Solar Photovoltaic Projects, inter connection point shall be the line isolator on outgoing feeder on HV side of the pooling sub-station;
Provided the Pooling Sub-station shall mean the sub-station at project site of the wind farm or solar power plant, as the case may be, and shall constitute step-up transformer and associated switchgear, and to the LV side of which, multiple (more than one) generating unit(s) (i.e. wind turbine generators or solar PV modules/arrays/inverter units) are connected.
ii) In relation to mini/micro hydro power, small hydro power, biomass power and non-fossil fuel based co-generation power projects and Solar Thermal Power Projects the, inter-connection point shall be the line isolator on outgoing feeder on HV side of generator transformer;
(18) “Integrated Utility” means the Department of Power in the State of Nagaland , in its present form or the successor entities performing more than one of the functions of generation, transmission and distribution after restructuring thereof ;
(19) ‘MNRE’ means the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of the Government of India.
(20) ‘New RE Project’ means the renewable energy project whose date of commissioning shall be subsequent to the date of notification of these Regulations;
(21) ‘Non-firm power’ means the power generated from renewable sources, the hourly variation of which is dependent upon nature’s phenomenon like sun, cloud, wind, etc., that cannot be accurately predicted.
(22) ”Non-fossil Fuel Based Co-generation” means the process in which more than one form of energy (such as steam and electricity) are produced in a sequential manner by use of biomass provided the project may qualify to be a co-generation project if it fulfills the eligibility criteria as specified in Regulation 4 (2) (e).
(23) 'Operation and maintenance expenses’ or ‘O&M expenses' means the expenditure incurred on operation and maintenance of the project, or part thereof, and includes the expenditure on manpower, repairs, spares, consumables, insurance and overheads;
(24) “Open Access Customer” means (a) a consumer permitted by the Commission to receive supply of electricity from a person other than distribution licensee of his area of supply, or (b) a generating company (including captive generating plant) or (c) a licensee, who has availed or intends to avail of Open Access in accordance with the regulations of the Commission for grant of open access to the transmission lines and the distribution system of a licensee;
(25) “Open Access Regulations” means the regulations notified by the Commission for grant of open access to the transmission lines and the distribution system of a licensee ;
(26) 'Project' means a generating station or the evacuation system upto inter-connection point, as the case may be, and in case of a small hydro generating station includes all components of generating facility such as dam, intake water conductor system, power generating station and generating units of the scheme, as apportioned to power generation;
(27) “Previous Year” means the year immediately preceding the current year;
(28) ‘Renewable Energy’ means the electricity generated from renewable energy sources.
(29) ‘Renewable Energy Power Plants’ means the power plants other than the conventional power plants generating grid quality electricity from renewable energy sources.
(30) ‘Renewable Energy Sources’ means renewable sources such as mini, micro and small hydro, wind, solar, biomass including bagasse, bio fuel co-generation, urban or municipal waste and such other sources as recognized or approved by the MNRE;
(31) ‘Small Hydro’ means Hydro Power projects with a station capacity more than 1 MW and up to and including 25 MW.
(32) ‘Solar PV power’ means the Solar Photo Voltaic power projects that uses sunlight for direct conversion into electricity through Photo Voltaic technology.
(33) ‘Solar rooftop PV and other small solar power’ means the Solar rooftop or other small solar Photo Voltaic power projects that uses Photo Voltaic technology for generation of electricity, which are mounted on rooftop of buildings or ground mounted installations, and satisfying any other eligibility criteria as may be specified by MNRE from time to time.
(34) “State” means the State of Nagaland;
(35) “Tariff” means the schedule of charges for generation of electricity determined by the Commission from time to time;
(36) ‘Useful Life’ in relation to a unit of a generating station including evacuation system shall mean the following duration from the date of commercial operation (COD) of such generation facility, namely: -
a) Wind energy power project 25 years
b) Biomass power project, non-fossil fuel co-generation 20 years
c) Mini/Micro and Small Hydro Power Plants 35 years
d) Solar PV/Solar thermal power plants 25 years
e) Solar rooftop PV systems and small ground mounted
PV systems 25 years
(37) “Year” means financial year ending on 31st March.
Words or expressions occurring in these Regulations and not expressly defined herein shall bear the same meaning as respectively assigned to them in the Act.
3. Scope and extent of application
(1) These regulations shall apply in all cases where tariffs for generation and sale of electricity from Renewable Energy Sources to the distribution licensees within the State of Nagaland, are to be determined by the Commission under Section 62 of the Act.
Provided that in case of wind, mini/micro hydro projects, small hydro projects, biomass power, non-fossil fuel based cogeneration projects, solar PV, Solar Thermal, Solar rooftop PV and other small solar power projects, these regulations shall apply subject to the fulfillment of eligibility criteria specified in Regulation 4 of these Regulations.
(2) The generating stations covered under these regulations shall be deemed to be the generating stations of a generating company and all functions, obligations & duties assigned to such generating company under the Electricity Act, 2003 shall apply to these generating stations.
CHAPTER: 2
GENERAL CONDITIONS
4. Eligibility Criteria for qualifying as Generating Station based on Non-Conventional/ Renewable Energy Source
(1) For the purposes of these regulations, generation from all types of Renewable Energy Sources and non-fossil fuel based Co-generating Plants, as approved by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India shall be considered and such generating stations shall be collectively referred to as RE Based Generating Stations and Co-generating Stations.
(2) At present, generation from following sources and technologies shall qualify to be covered under these regulations:
(a) Small hydro Project – Generating Stations with capacity lower than or equal to 25 MW at single location, using new plant and machinery.
(b) Wind power project – located at the wind sites having minimum annual mean Wind Power Density (WPD) of 200 Watt/m2 measured at hub height of 50 meters and using turbine generators.
(c) Solar PV and Solar Thermal Power Projects– Based on Technologies approved by MNRE.
(d) Biomass power project - Biomass power projects using new plant and machinery based on Rankine Cycle technology and using biomass fuel sources, provided use of fossil fuel is restricted only to 15% of total fuel consumption on annual basis;
(e) Non-fossil fuel based Co-generating Stations using new plant and machinery;
Topping cycle mode of co-generation – Any facility that uses non-fossil fuel input for the power generation and also utilizes the thermal energy generated for useful heat applications in other industrial activities simultaneously.
Provided that for the co-generation facility to qualify under topping cycle mode, the sum of useful power output and one half the useful thermal output be greater than 45% of the facility’s energy consumption, during season.
Explanation- For the purpose of this clause,
(i) “Useful power output” is the gross electrical output from the generator. There will be an auxiliary consumption in the cogeneration plant itself (e.g. the boiler feed pump and the FD/ID fans). In order to compute the net power output it would be necessary to subtract the auxiliary consumption from the gross output. For simplicity of calculation, the useful power output is defined as the gross electricity (kWh) output from the generator.
(ii) “Useful Thermal Output” is the useful heat (steam) that is provided to the process by the cogeneration facility.
(iii) “Energy Consumption” of the facility is the useful energy input that is supplied by the fuel (normally bagasse or other such biomass fuel).
(f) Solar rooftop PV systems and other small Solar Power Projects – Based on Technologies approved by MNRE.
(g) Municipal waste based power plants – Based on Technologies approved by MNRE.
(3) Any new source or technology would qualify as “renewable energy”, only after the Commission has approved the technology based on MNRE approval. Further, the Commission shall determine tariffs separately for each technology.