JAMMU, Nov 30: The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has notified the “Framework for Resource Adequacy Regulations, 2024, ” inviting suggestions from the various stakeholders.
Representing a significant step towards modernizing the power infrastructure in the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, the framework envisages to meet the needs of the region while paving the way for a greener, more resilient energy future.
The regulations, applicable to all electricity-related stakeholders within the UTs, focus on enabling a robust Resource Adequacy (RA) framework. It aims to accurately forecast and plan generation and transmission resources to meet projected demand, promote an optimal mix of power generation while ensuring compliance with reliability standards, support the integration of renewable energy technologies and other environmentally friendly resources.
A core feature of the regulation is a multi-tier demand forecasting mechanism, covering short-term (hourly/sub-hourly), medium-term (up to 5 years), and long-term (beyond 5 years) horizons. The regulation introduces detailed guidelines for evaluating existing and future generation resources.
The distribution licensees, State Transmission Utility and State Load Dispatch Centre shall provide requisite information and data including demand forecasts for a period up to 10 years to various Agencies to enable Central Electricity Authority and Grid India/NLDC to undertake LT-NRAP and ST-NRAP studies, respectively, as per CEA RA Guidelines.
The distribution licensee shall determine the load forecast for each consumer category for which the Commission has determined separate retail tariff. Load forecast for a customer category shall be determined by adopting scientific methodologies.
For the purpose of ascertaining hourly load profile and for assessment of contribution of various customer categories to peak demand, load research analysis shall be conducted and influence of demand response, load shift measures, time of use shall be factored in by distribution licensee with inputs from state load dispatch center.
The distribution licensee shall produce hourly or sub-hourly 1-year short-term (ST) and 5-year medium-term (MT) forecasts on a rolling basis and submit to SLDC by 30th April of each year for the ensuing year(s). SLDC shall aggregate demand forecasts by distribution licensees, consider the load diversity, congruency, seasonal variation aspects and shall submit UT-level aggregate demand forecasts (MW and MWh) to the Authority and NLDC and RLDC by 31st May of each year.
Generation resource assessment and planning is the second step after demand assessment and forecasting and entails assessment of the existing and contracted resources considering their capacity credit and identification of incremental capacity requirement to meet forecasted demand including planning reserve margin.
Generation resource planning shall entail the capacity crediting of generation resources, assessment of planning reserve margin, and ascertaining resource adequacy requirement and allocation for obligated entities within control area (regional/state).
The distribution licensee shall map all its contracted existing resources, upcoming resources, and retiring resources to develop the existing resource map in MW for the long term and medium term. The mapping shall include critical characteristics and parameters of the generating machines, such as heat rate, auxiliary consumption, ramp-up rate, ramp-down rate, etc, for thermal machines; hydrology and machine characteristics, etc, for hydro machines; and renewable resources, their Capacity factors/CUFs, etc for renewable resource–based power plants to be considered in the resource plan.
Procurement planning shall consist of determining the optimal power procurement resource mix, deciding on the modalities of procurement type and tenure, and engaging in the capacity trading or sharing to minimize risk of resource shortfall and to maximize rewards of avoiding stranded capacity or contracted generation.
Distribution Licensee shall maintain at least past 10 years of statistics in its database pertaining to consumption profiles for each class of consumers, such as domestic, commercial, public lighting, public water works, irrigation, LT industries, HT industries, railway traction, bulk (non-industrial HT consumers), open access, captive power plants, insights from load survey, contribution of consumer category to peak demand, seasonal variation aspects, etc.
The distribution licensee shall share information and data pertaining to the existing and contracted capacities with their technical and financial characteristics including hourly generation profiles with STU and SLDC for computation of UT-level capacity credit factors and for preparation of UT-level assessment.
SLDC and STU shall aggregate generation data and share UT-level assessment with the Authority and NLDC for assessment of RA requirement. STU shall communicate allocation of regional and national RA requirement to the distribution licensees.
Distribution licensees shall submit demand forecasts to SLDC by 30th April of each year for the ensuing year(s). SLDC shall aggregate and submit UT-level forecasts to the Authority and the NLDC by 31st May of each year for the ensuing year(s). Distribution licensees shall perform MT-DRAP and ST-DRAP exercise by31stAugust of each year for the ensuing year(s). STU and SLDC shall submit UT-level aggregated plan to NLDC by January of each year.
The regulation enforces strict compliance with RA targets. Non-compliance may result in penalties. Monitoring will be facilitated through collaboration among State Load Dispatch Centres (SLDCs), State Transmission Utilities (STUs), and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
Licensees are obligated to maintain comprehensive data repositories and share critical information with STUs and SLDCs to facilitate regional and national assessments. Data points include historical demand trends, policy influences, renewable energy contributions, and consumer behavior.
The regulation will be effective upon its publication in the official gazette. JERC will oversee the implementation, issue directives as required, and has reserved the right to relax or amend provisions to address potential challenges.
Notifying the draft regulations, the Commission has sought suggestions/objections from the consumers and other stakeholders in the matter, before finalizing the same. The suggestions/objections may be submitted to the JERC through e-mail or in person or by post within 21 days.
