The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) has directed the State Load Despatch Centre to evolve a protocol for curtailment of renewable energy for reasons like transmission constraints, grid safety and security.
Curtailment shall be done after communicating the reasons of curtailment to generators in writing, or through the State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC) website, it said.
The directions come in separate petitions filed by the Indian Wind Power Association, The Tata Power Company Limited, Ushdev Power Holidays Private Ltd and Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association among others. The petitions sough the issuing of directions to Tangedco and the State Load Despatch Centre to ensure “must run” status on all wind energy generations (WEGs) in Tamil Nadu and not to issue orders to switch off generation or to back down generation. It also sought deemed generation benefits to WEGs for loss of generation due to the back down instructions.
TNERC noted that there is nothing to adjudicate on these petitions as The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (Aptel) has already issued an order, which affirmed both the ‘must run’ status and deemed generation benefit as well.
It directed Tangedco and SLDC to follow Aptel’s order and avoid deemed generation in its own interest and warned that if the directions were not followed, this would attract proceedings for non-compliance under section 142 of the Electricity Act.
TNERC noted that the issue of curtailment has become a subject of never-ending debate with both parties sticking to their position with tenacity and as there was no solution in sight for years, issued directions to be followed.
There is a need to frame regulations to suit State-specific needs and direct the appointment of a committee on the lines of a Code Review Panel or a State Power Committee to monitor cases of wilful backing down, and to set right the matter then and there, it added. The State Power Committee formulated under the Commission’s deviation settlement mechanism regulations, 2019 shall review the back down instructions issued to the generators and verify if the curtailments have been made in accordance with the directions of Aptel.
Curtailments shall be done on a rotational basis. The Director/Operation shall monitor the procedure followed for curtailment and data would be published on SLDC’s website, TNERC said.
