Gujarat Regulatory Commission Exempted Aspen Park Infra From RPO Compliance

In a recent order Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) exempted M/S Aspen Park Infra from their renewable purchase obligation (RPO) for FY 2019-2020. Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Department of Commerce), Government of India, vide its Notification No. S.0. 1084 (E) dated 03.07.2007 granted SEZ status to Aspen Park Infra & subsequently distribution licensee status was granted by commission to the company. Though Aspen Park is a distribution licensee, still they consume power from one of the Gujarat DISCOM named MGVCL.

Accordingly, M/S Aspen Park Infra filed a petition to commission for exemption of RPO compliance as the petitioner is consumer of MGVCL though petitioner has been acted as distribution licensee of the SEZ. As per the petitioner RPO compliance can be enforced on petitioner when they will procure power directly from generator or through open access.

The Petitioner is complying all the necessary regulatory accountabilities on timely basis like ARR filing etc. The Commission is regularly determining tariff has approved power purchase cost for FY 2016-17 to 2020-21 as given below.

The details of actual power purchase provided by the Petitioner from MGVCL is as under:

It was noted by commission that for FY 2019-20 the RPO has been fixed at 14.30% which consists of 8.05% for Wind, 5.50% for Solar and 0.75% from ‘Others’ Renewable Sources (Biomass, Bagasse, MSW and Hydro) for the obligated entities of the State.

After analyzing all inputs from petitioner, the commission exempted petitioner from comply with the RPO requirement on standalone basis only for FY 2019-2020. Further, the commission dismissed petitioner’s prayers for exemption from an “obligating entity” until they procure power from MGVCL and also RPO exemption up to FY23.