India Energy Regulatory Partnership:
Enabling a Facilitative Market Structure for Renewable Energy Grid-Integration 

The Energy Sector

Since 2008, the Government of India has been actively committed to expanding its supply of clean energy and reducing its carbon intensity through its National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The government set a target to reach 15% renewable energy of the total electricity supply by 2020. 

A significant component of India’s future success in expanding renewable energy generation is the development of its capacity to plan and maintain grid stability and reliability while promoting flexibility throughout the power system. Efforts are underway to accomplish these goals such as a reform of the electricity grid code, studies on transmission planning, and large-scale renewable energy integration.

To accomplish those goals, the Government of India has identified a strong need to strengthen communications among utilities, grid operators and regulators regarding the net-benefits of a cohesive, harmonized, national and regional regulatory framework.

 

Our Work

With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the India Energy Regulatory Partnership was uniquely positioned to assist the Indian Forum of Regulators and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission in learning how to transition from its existing market structure to one that is more facilitative of the renewable energy.

As the India Energy Regulatory Partnership was part of USAID's Greening the Grid project, the partnership's particular focus was on improving the grid integration of renewable energy and providing regulatory frameworks for increasing renewable energy generation in India. 

 

Selected Results

Renewable Energy
In support of efforts to improve market facilitation of new renewable energy generation, NARUC collaborated with Indian partners to develop a Regulatory Practices Analysis and Primer. The document examined the national regulatory market structure and reforms and regulatory market structures in two states (Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu) to provide sufficient context for baseline discussions related to improved facilitation of the market.

NARUC also collaboratively produced a Key Takeaways from the Primer document, which shed light on further areas for enhancement to increase renewable energy integration, including regional coordination, renewable energy planning, forecasting, scheduling and balancing.