Cabinet approves amendments to power tariff policy
06 Jan 2011
The centre today approved the power ministry's proposal for amending the tariff policy to provide for mandatory purchase of power from non-conventional sources of power.
The union cabinet has approved the proposal of the ministry of power for a partial amendment of the tariff policy, to provide for non-conventional sources of energy generation, including co-generation.
The centre, which notified the tariff policy on 6 January 2006, had subsequently amended it in 2008. The present amendment is as per the proposal of the National Solar Mission strategy, which was approved by the cabinet on 19 November 2009.
The amended tariff policy requires state electricity regulators to fix a percentage of energy purchase from solar power under the RPOs.
The solar power purchase obligation for states may start with 0.25 per cent in Phase I (by 2013) and go up to 3 per cent by 2022.
This will be complemented by solar specific Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) mechanism to allow solar power generation companies to sell certificates to the utilities to meet their solar power purchase obligations.
The amendment will come into effect from the date of its publication in the official gazette, an official release said.
