Renewable Energy Integration: Regulatory Framework, Operational Experience, Challenges and Way Forward

About 5,000 trillion kWh per year of solar energy is incident over India's land area with most parts receiving 4–7 kWh per sq. mtr. per day. National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) has calculated the State wise solar potential in the country estimated at about 748 GWp^[1]. The huge potential of solar energy and emphasis to provide electricity to all with focus on green energy, an ambitious target to install 175 GW renewable power including 100 GW solar power by 2022 has been put forth by the Government of India. The integration of such large scale RE power into the Grid needs a facilitative policy framework, appropriate regulatory framework, transparent and dispute free commercial mechanism, robust transmission system and institutional capacity building etc., for safe, secure and reliable operation of the grid. In addition to the existing policy and regulatory framework, the proposed acts, policies, regulations like-Renewable Energy Act 2015, amendment in the Electricity Act 2003, Framework for Forecasting, Scheduling & Imbalance Handling for Renewable Energy (RE) Generating Stations based on wind and solar at Inter-State Level by CERC, draft National Wind Energy Mission, Ultra mega solar park 2015 etc. will give impetus to the promotion of RE sources in the country. This paper present the existing legal & regulatory framework for RE integration, new developments in the area of policy and regulatory environment, Operational experience, challenges and way forward for RE integration.