Open Access : A mystery for consumers

The Electricity Act 2003 (EA-2003), introduced new term name as  “ Open Access ( OA )”, the act defines OA as “non-discriminatory provision for use of transmission lines or distribution system or associated facilities with such lines or system  by any licensee or consumer or a person engaged in generation in accordance with the Regulations specified by Appropriate Commission.”

However, after 11 years the Open Access still remain a mystery for most of the eligible consumers. The government support in this matter is limited and very less initiatives were taken up to educate the consumers about OA. On the other hand the DisComs are most of the time reluctant to provide clearances for OA with fear of losing their premium consumers. All this led to the uprising of many consultants/service providers which provide services regarding OA.

The Regulations for availing Open access have been formulated by CERC for accessing the national transmission network; followed by SERC’s for accessing the state owned Transmission and Distribution network in respective states.

Open Access is one of the most important act of EA 2003 wherein, distribution companies and eligible consumers have the freedom to buy electricity directly from generating companies or trading licensees of their choice and correspondingly the generating companies have the freedom to sell to any licensee or to any eligible consumer.

Below report showcasing some of the states with snapshot of how to get OA and what are the different charges applicable. The report is a Pre-cursor to the next extensive report on Open Access market in India. The gist of the report can be summarized in the table below:

	Challenge	Remarks
Approvals from Govt Officials	Biggest challenge in front of various solar generators and consumers is to get approvals from Govt officials of discoms and sldc’s	Before applying to discoms and SLDC, a generator or consumer should know the proper procedure and application formats
Lack of Knowledge	In various approval you have to deal with assistant engg., junior engg. whom has little or no knowledge of Open Access	Commission should make a single window clearance system for Open Access
High Open Access Charges	Some states like Punjab, Maharashtra has a very high open Access Charges which is a major roadblock in the implementation of Open Access	Solar Developers should try to identify those states where the Open Access charges are low
Cross Subsidy Surcharge	Some states has a high mismatch between the tariff of different category of consumers resulting in high cross subsidy surcharge	Nation Tariff Policy says tariff should be in the range of +/-20% of the average cost of supply, so all states are moving towards it and gradually in future css becomes zero
Installation of ABT meter	ABT meter is to be installed at respective substation of the clients but space avalabilty is biggest problems at these substations	Transmission companies should develop more spacious substation seeing the growing demand of Opne Access
Independent Feeder	Open Access in most states is allowed to only the consumers connected on Independent feeder but most of the substations are already overloaded in our country	More capacity substation should be planned

Source Indianpowersector.com, Google, Electricity Act 2003