The Union Cabinet approved for signing of an MoU between the Forum of Regulators (FOR) and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) in the area of large-scale Grid Integration of Renewable Energy.
The MoU provides the following broad areas for cooperation in the area of large scale integration of renewable energy.
i)        Design of frameworks for renewable energy procurement
ii)       Regulatory interventions for the development of renewable energy such as State and national Renewable  Purchase  Obligations  (RPOs),  Renewable  Energy Certificate (REC) framework.
iii)Â Â Â Â Â Load forecasting techniques and processes
iv)Â Â Â Â Â Contracting and Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)
v)Â Â Â Â Â Â Renewable energy forecasting methods
vi)     Renewable Energy integration
vii)Â Â Â Â Regulatory framework for ensuring grid discipline by generators, including deterrents in the form of penalty for breach of discipline
viii)Â Â Ancillary services including physical mechanisms, regulations and markets.
ix)Â Â Â Â Â Data analysis and cost-benefit analysis for regulatory decision-making.
Benefits of MoU
• The MoU envisages to promote information exchanges in the areas of renewable energy integration regulations and balancing using gas, storage, and demand-side approaches and energy imbalance markets.
• It will enhance the efforts of India's power system for better management of large-scale integration of renewable energy into the power grid.
About Forum of Regulators
The Forum of Regulators was constituted by the Union Ministry of Power under provisions of section 166 (2) of the Electricity Act, 2003.
The primary objective of the forum is to harmonize regulations in the power sector framed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) and Joint Electricity Regulatory Commissions (JERCs).
In the past, in order to work on areas such as Demand Side Management and Energy Efficiency, Forum of Regulators had signed an MoU with The California Energy Commission, The California Public Utilities Commission and the University of California.
About National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC)
The NARUC is the National Association in United States that represent the State Public Service Commissioner.
The proposed MoU is under the larger bilateral agreement on Energy Efficiency Commercialization and Innovation signed between the USA and India.
Further, the MoU is being pursued as a component of 'Greening the Grid' project, launched under US-India 'Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Deployment' (PACE-D).
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