Appellate Tribunal’s Judgment dated 27/04/2021 in respect of Open Access and Banking to RE Generators
The APTEL in a detailed Judgment has adjudicated on the denial of open access and banking facilities by the Maharashtra Distribution Companies to various Renewable Energy Generators in the State of Maharashtra. The APTEL has interpreted the open access regulations and the practice directions on open access issued by the MERC and held the only test to be applied by the distribution licensee is to verify the feasibility of infrastructure/capacity of the distribution system so that the resultant power flow can be accommodated in the existing distribution system and the same was not done by the MSEDCL in the present matters. Further, the APTEL observed that the MERC by its Wind Tariff Order 2003 has decided that the period of banking of energy by RE Projects is one year and the banking can be done any time during day and night. The use of expression ’10% of the energy (kWh) fed into the grid’ is only in the context of limited procurement of unutilised banked energy at the end of financial year by the distribution utility and cannot be interpreted in any other manner and cannot be the basis for curtailment of open access quantum.
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