Delhi – Regulations on Net Metering for Renewable Energy notified by DERC

After some false starts, Delhi now officially has a net metering regulation. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission(DERC) has released the notification formalizing net-metering in Delhi. It may be recalled that the previous version of Delhi’s net-metering policy was scrapped in February 2012, citing loopholes and possibilities of scams(More here).
Some of the highlights of the regulations are reproduced below.
General conditions
a. The Distribution Licensee shall allow connectivity to the Renewable Energy System, on first come first serve basis, subject to operational constraints
b. The capacity of Renewable Energy System to be installed at any premises shall be subject to;
(i) the feasibility of interconnection with the grid;
(ii) the available capacity of the service line connection of the consumers of the premises; and
(iii) the sanctioned load of the Consumer of the premises;
c. The capacity of Renewable Energy system to be installed at the Premises of any consumer shall not be less than one kilo watt peak.
Metering
Two meters to be installed – a renewable energy meter to measure the generation of renewable energy, and a net meter to measure the total import/export of electricity to the grid.
Billing and Energy Accounting
a. If during any billing period, the export of units exceeds the import of units consumed, such surplus units injected by the consumer shall be carried forward to the next billing period as energy credit and shown as energy exported by the consumer for adjustment against the energy consumed in subsequent billing periods within the settlement period.
b. The surplus energy measured in kilo-watt hour shall be utilized to offset the consumption measured in kilo-watt hour only unless otherwise allowed by the Commission from time to time. In case the Consumer is billed on kVAh, during injection of surplus energy to the grid, the Power Factor shall be assumed equal to unity.
c.  At the end of the each Financial Year, any net energy credits, which remain unadjusted, shall be paid for by the distribution licensee to the consumers as per the rates notified by the Commission from time to time.
d. There shall be no deemed generation charges payable to the Renewable Energy Generator or consumer of the premises
The Renewable Energy system under net metering arrangement shall be exempted from wheeling, banking, cross subsidy and other charges for a period of Five years, unless extended thereafter.
Renewable Purchase Obligation(RPO)
The quantum of electricity generated under these Regulations shall qualify towards compliance of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) for the distribution licensee if Renewable Energy Generator is not an obligated entity.
The notification can be downloaded here and a brief note on the regulations are available here.
News and analysis on the Delhi netmetering policy can be read here, here and here.
(Thanks to Ankit Gupta @ank7471 for the alert on the DERC notification)

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