India’s commitment to reach net zero by 2070 and meet 50% of its cumulative installed capacity from non-fossil fuel energy resources is a significant milestone in its fight against climate change. India has also updated its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce emissions intensity of its gross domestic product (GDP) by 45 percent by 2030 (from 2005 levels). One of the initiatives to achieve these targets is to increase the share of renewable energy (RE) in the energy supply mix. To date, various policies and guidelines have been issued to enhance the uptake of RE, green energy open access being one of them.
Open access is a mechanism through which consumers with a connected load (sum of all loads) of 1 MW or more can directly purchase energy from the generators or open market instead of distribution companies (DISCOMs, as was the case earlier).
Green energy open access is advantageous over fossil-fuel-based open access in terms of transmission availability as it can be authorised for short, medium, and long terms. Short- and medium-term open access is permitted when there is enough spare capacity in the transmission system without requiring augmentation. However, for long-term open access, augmentation of the transmission system may be necessary.
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