400 companies register for renewable energy certificate
More than 400 companies situated in the Northern region comprising Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have registered themselves with renewable energy certificate registry of India under open access category to purchase renewable energy certificates (REC).
REC is a market-based instrument which enables the obligated entities to meet their renewable purchase obligation (RPO). Under the Government of India's renewable purchase obligation scheme, registered renewable energy producers, such as wind power and hydro power companies get the RECs which they sell to ‘obligated entities', who are obliged to buy either ‘green power' or the RECs.
In India, all energy distribution licensee and consumers (generally industries), which use thermal power or buy power on exchange under open access category are entitled to buy a minimum level of renewable energy as per the Act imposed by the state electricity regulatory commission (SERC).
According to the data, about 300 companies from Punjab, 70 from Rajasthan and 30 companies from Haryana have registered themselves with renewable energy certificate registry of India under open access category to purchase renewable energy certificates.
On being asked about trend, Indian Energy Exchange, AVP business development, Bikram Singh said, "This is a nascent market and there is immense potential. Substantial capacity registered under the scheme will come to the market in the coming future and there should be sufficient demand too." Trading in renewable energy certificates has picked up, significantly in the last few months.
In March, 240 RECs were sold on Indian Energy Exchange platform. while in September, the volume reached to 41,000 RECs.
He further mentioned that two hydro projects in Jammu & Kashmir having combined generation capacity of 20 Mw and two in Himachal Pradesh having installed capacity of 16 Mw have been actively involved in selling RECs on Indian Energy exchange. He added while across India about 1090 MW capacity has already been registered waiting to participate in the future REC trade session.
It is worth mentioning that trading in RECs happens in the two power exchanges (Indian Energy Exchange Ltd and Power Exchange of India Ltd) on the last Wednesday of each month, between 1 pm and 3 pm
According to the CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission) regulations, two types of certificates would be issued — solar and non-solar. The solar certificates will be given to those who would generate solar power, while the non-solar certificates are meant for companies generating electricity from other renewable energy sources like wind and hydro.