Report of the Expert Group:

Review of Indian Electricity

Grid Code

New Delhi
January, 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MEMBERS OF THE EXPERT GROUP ....................................................................................... 3
Foreword ....................................................................................................................................... 4
Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................. 6
List of Acronyms ..................................................................................................................... 7
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. 11
Context, Rationale and Justification for changes and
additions proposed in the new IEGC 2020 .......................................................... 16
1. Evolution of Grid Code....................................................................................................... 16
2. Background ......................................................................................................................... 16
3. Preamble .............................................................................................................................. 17
4. Definitions ............................................................................................................................ 17
5. CHAPTER 2: STRUCTURE OF GRID CODE............................................................... 17
6. CHAPTER 3: ROLE OF VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS ............................................. 17
7. CHAPTER 4: PLANNING CODE .................................................................................... 19
(1) Planning Dimensions ............................................................................................................ 19
(a) Demand forecasting by State ............................................................................................ 20
(b) Generation resource planning ........................................................................................... 20
(c) Inter-State Transmission Planning .................................................................................... 21
8. CHAPTER 5: CONNECTION CODE .............................................................................. 22
9. CHAPTER 6: PROTECTION AND COMMISSIONING CODE ................................. 23
(1) Protection Code ..................................................................................................................... 23
(2) Commissioning Code ............................................................................................................ 24
10. CHAPTER 7: OPERATING CODE ................................................................................. 26
(1) Under Frequency Relay (UFR) Settings: .......................................................................... 27
(2) Highlights of the new provisions added: ........................................................................... 29
(3) Generation Reserve Estimation and Frequency Control ................................................... 30
Secondary Control ........................................................................................................................... 33
Tertiary Control: .............................................................................................................................. 34
(4) Operational Planning Studies: ........................................................................................... 34
(5) Post Despatch Analysis ..................................................................................................... 35
(6) Field Testing for Model Validation................................................................................... 36
International Practices on Model Validation: .................................................................................. 36
11. CHAPTER 8: UNIT COMMITMENT, SCHEDULING AND DESPATCH CODE
FOR PHYSICAL DELIVERY OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY ................................................. 37
(1) Role of QCA ..................................................................................................................... 37
(2) Minimum turndown level: ................................................................................................ 38

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 (3) Scheduling of Inter-Regional and Cross-Border Transactions: ......................................... 39
(4) Security Constrained Unit Commitment (SCUC) ............................................................. 39
(5) Must Run Plants: ............................................................................................................... 39
(6) Flexibility in Scheduling from various contracts upto approved LTA/ MTOA................ 40
12. CHAPTER 9: CYBER SECURITY .................................................................................. 43
13. CHAPTER 10: MONITORING AND COMPLIANCE CODE ..................................... 43
14. List of Annexure .................................................................................................................. 44
15. Issues for consideration of Commission which have not been included in Grid Code . 45
(1) Compensation to seller/buyer due to outage of ISTS/STU systems ................................. 45
(2) Virtual Power Plant (VPP) ................................................................................................ 46
(3) Fuel availability with generating stations ......................................................................... 46
References ............................................................................................................................................ 48
LIST OF INTERNATIONAL REFERENCES: .............................................................................. 48
LIST OF REFERENCES FROM INDIA: ....................................................................................... 50
Annexure I: Office Order dated 28.5.2019
Annexure II: Draft IEGC 2020
Annexure- III: Gist of comments received

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 MEMBERS OF THE EXPERT GROUP

1. Shri Rakesh Nath, Ex-Chairperson, CEA Chairman

2. Shri A.S.Bakshi, Ex-Member, CERC Member

3. Shri Ravinder, Ex-Chairperson, CEA Member

4. Shri S R Narasimhan, Director (S.O), POSOCO Member

5. Shri Hemant Jain, Chief (Engg.), CEA Member

6. Shri S.C. Shrivastava, Chief (Engg.), CERC Member, Convenor

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 FOREWORD

The Commission vide office order dated 28.5.2019 constituted an Expert Group to review
“Indian Electricity Grid Code and other related issues” under the Chairmanship of Shri
Rakesh Nath, Ex-Chairperson, CEA & Ex-Member (Tech) of APTEL with Shri A.S.Bakshi,
Ex-Chairperson, CEA & Ex-Member, CERC, Shri Ravinder, Ex-Chairperson, CEA & Ex-
Chief (Engg.), CERC as Members and Shri S.C.Shrivastava, Chief (Engg.), CERC as
Member, Convenor. The group co-opted Shri S.R.Narasimhan, Director (S.O), POSOCO and
Shri Hemant Jain, Chief Engineer (G.M), CEA as Members of the Expert Group. The Terms
of Reference (TOR) are as follows:
a) To review the provisions of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Indian
Electricity Grid Code) Regulations, 2010 based on past experience, recent
developments in the power system of India, changes in market structure and the future
challenges which includes high level of renewable penetration in the grid,
introduction of new products in market.

b) Suggest appropriate regulatory intervention and prepare draft IEGC making

recommendation for proposed amendment or changes in the existing Grid Code.

The Expert Group held twenty-six meetings between June 2019 - December 2019.
Consultations were held with broad spectrum of stakeholders including thermal, hydro and
renewable generators, RPCs, RLDCs, SLDCs, CTU, Discoms, international experts, Shri
S.K.Soonee, Ex-CEO (POSOCO), Dr. Pukhraj Singh, Head of R&D, Suzlon, Germany,
Solvina International, forecasting and scheduling agencies, Association of Power Producers
(APP), SECI and OEM Manufactures for Wind turbines generators and PV inverters and
Energy Storage Solutions.

The Expert Group has finalized its recommendation in the form of draft Indian Electricity
Grid Code (IEGC), 2020. The Report provides rationale and explanation for the changes and
addition carried out while drafting the new Grid Code with a view to improving grid security,
stability and flexibility in the operation of generating resources in the context of national
targets for high renewable energy penetration. Further, a few suggestions which cannot be
included in the Grid Code, but are, nevertheless relevant in a larger context, have been listed
in the Report for perusal of the Commission.

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LIST OF ACRONYMS

ACE : Area Control Error

AEC : Auxiliary Energy Consumption
AG : Actual Generation
AGC : Automatic Generation Control
AMR : Automatic Meter Reading
ATC : Available Transfer Capability
ATRS : Automatic Turbine Run-Up Scheme
AVR : Automatic Voltage Regulator
BBMB : Bhakra Beas Management Board
BUL : Block Unit Loading
CEA : Central Electricity Authority
CERC : Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
CVT : Capacitive Voltage Transformer
CII : Critical Information Infrastructure
CISO : Chief Information Security Officer
COD : Date of Commercial Operation
CT : Current Transformer
CTU : Central Transmission Utility
DAS : Data Acquisition System
DC : Declared Capacity
DOP : Detailed Operating Procedure
DR : Disturbance Recorder
DSM : Deviation Settlement Mechanism
DVC : Damodar Valley Corporation
EL : Event Logger
EMS : Energy Management System
ESS : Energy Storage System

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FACTS : Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System
FGMO : Free Governor Mode of Operation
FL : Fault Locator
FRAS : Fast Response Ancillary Services
FRC : Frequency Response Characteristics
FRL : Full Reservoir Level
FRO : Frequency Response Obligation
FRP : Frequency Response Performance
FRS : Frequency Response Service
FOLD : Forum of Load Despatchers
GD : Grid Disturbance
GI : Grid Incident
HVDC : High Voltage Direct Current
HP : High Pressure
HVRT : High Voltage Ride Through
IEEE : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IEGC : Indian Electricity Grid Code
IEM : Interface Energy Meters
IMD : Indian Meteorological Department
ISC : Information Security Committee
ISGS : Inter State Generating Station
ISTS : Inter State Transmission System
LGBR : Load Generation Balance Report
LP : Low Pressure
LTA : Long Term Access
LVRT : Low Voltage Ride Through
MCR : Maximum Continuous Rating
MDDL : Minimum Drawdown Level
MSC : Mechanically Switched Capacitor Banks
MSR : Mechanically Switched Reactor Banks
MTOA : Medium Term Open Access

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NER : North Eastern Region
NCIIPC : National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre
NLDC : National Load Despatch Center
NPC : National Power Committee
OCC : Operation Coordination Sub-Committee
PAF : Plant Availability Factor
PLCC : Power Line Carrier Communication
PMU : Phasor Measurement Unit
PPA : Power Purchase Agreement
POD : Power Oscillation Damping
PSS : Power System Stabilizers
PT : Potential Transformer
QCA : Qualified Co-ordinating Agency
RAS : Reserves Ancillary Service
RE : Renewable Energy
REA : Regional Energy Account
RGMO : Restricted Governor Mode of Operation
RLDC : Regional Load Despatch Center
RPC : Regional Power Committee
RRAS : Reserves Regulation Ancillary Services
RSD : Reserve Shutdown
RTA : Regional Transmission Account
RTM : Real Time Market
SCADA : Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
SCED : Security Constrained Economic Despatch
SCUC : Security Constrained Unit Commitment
SERC : State Electricity Regulatory Commission
SG : Scheduled Generation
SHR : Station Heat Rate
SLD : Single Line Diagram
SLDC : State Load Despatch Center

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SNA : State Nodal Agency
SPS : System Protection Scheme
SSP : Sardar Sarovar Project
STOA : Short Term Open Access
STU : State Transmission Utility
SVC : Static Var Compensators
TCC : Technical Co-ordination Committee
TCSC : Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor
TRM : Transmission Reliability Margin
TTC : Total Transfer Capability
UFLS : Under Frequency Load Shedding
UFR : Under Frequency Relays
UVLS : Under Voltage Load Shedding
VSC : Voltage Source Convertor
VDCOL : Voltage Dependent Current Order Limiter
VWO : Valve Wide Open

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
When the first Grid Code was prepared in 1999, Indian electricity grid was divided and
operating at four independent frequencies. Since then the grid has expanded and grown
rapidly and has been strongly integrated in to one synchronous grid operating at a
common frequency. It has increased the grid stability and its capacity to accommodate the
variability of renewable generation. The nominal operating frequency band has been
progressively narrowed and deviations from the schedules have been checked,
significantly controlling frequency excursions. Operating an integrated national grid with
cross-border interconnections makes the task of grid operation, one of immense
responsibility.

2. The Expert Group received several responses from various stakeholders. The same have
been uploaded on the Commission’s website. A gist of the comments is enclosed as
Annexure-III. The Expert Group also undertook an extensive literature survey to
understand the practices prevalent in large power systems of the world such as
Continental Europe, North America and other continents. The important international
references in this regard are given at the end of this report. The two decades of rich
history and journey of Indian Electricity Grid Code evolution was also traversed. The List
of these references from India are also given at the end of this report.

3. The Expert Group feels that each Power system is unique in terms of its evolution and
development and the practices followed. The grid code is a dynamic document evolving
over time recognising the current operating environment, future mix of energy-resources,
technological advancements and the maturity of the system.

4. The draft IEGC 2020 proposes further measures to strengthen grid security and resilience
with emphasis on flexibility of resources and ensuring automatic response to frequency
excursions. Various measures proposed to be enforced for grid security, reliability and
renewable integration are technically feasible, in compliance with CEA standards and
established in renewable rich countries.

5. The planning code has been thoroughly overhauled covering all facets of power system
planning including demand forecasting, generation resource planning (flexibility,

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 ramping, minimum turndown level), requirements of energy storage system, system
reserves, system inertia for grid stability, inter-state system planning (including re-
optimization system study, adequacy, enhancement of total transfer capability (TTC)
across inter-regional boundaries as well as ISTS interfaced with STU network).

6. The Connection Code has been reviewed and made applicable to the generators as well as
the transmission licensees. This code specifies the requirements to be fulfilled by the
connectivity grantees prior to obtaining the permission of the RLDC/NLDC/SLDC for
first time energizing of a new or modified power system element. In addition to above,
this code specifies the technical requirements to be complied by a transmission licensee
including deemed transmission licensees or cross-border entity prior to being allowed by
RLDC/NLDC/SLDC to energize a new or modified power system element. The code also
specifies the tests required before trial run.

7. A new code namely, protection and commissioning code has been added. A centralized
data base containing details of relay setting for grid elements shall be maintained by RPC
and system wide study twice a year for validating the protection setting shall be carried
out by RPC secretariat. The new protection code provides for annual self-audit and third
party once in five years. In the commissioning code procedure for trial run and
declaration of CoD for renewable generators has been included. Further, to confirm the
flexibility of generators for grid security, some necessary tests prior to trial run have been
prescribed for different type of conventional and renewable generators.

8. The draft IEGC 2020 has suggested frequency response measures to correct the load-
generation imbalances in an automated manner with the help of primary, secondary and
tertiary reserves coupled with demand response as a last resort. In view of the
comfortable power supply position, it is now possible to have reserve generating capacity
on bar for a quick response. NLDC has already done the preparatory work with regard to
automatic generation control or AGC. We are getting initial or primary response at the
rate of about 12–14 GW/Hz to contain frequency excursions. In place of restricted
governor mode of operation (RGMO), the new Grid Code has proposed free governor
mode of operation (FGMO) for all generating units in the country in order to arrest stead
fall in the frequency in the event of a major grid disturbances. The primary response shall
be provided by the generating machines immediately up to five minutes by which time

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 the secondary response shall take over through automatic generation control to recover
the frequency.

9. The quantum of reserve capacity required to be maintained for grid security is related to
credible contingency including net error in the forecasts of demand and renewable
generation. In the draft IEGC 2020, demand forecasting activity has been properly
organized and there is a monitoring mechanism for errors in demand forecasting. The
operating code provides for ensuring and monitoring of availability of reserve capacity.

10. In order to minimize forecasting errors of renewable generators, aggregation of renewable

energy has been allowed at one or more pooling stations for the purpose of deviation
settlement. An institutional mechanism (QCA) for the composite scheduling and common
deviation settlement of renewable generating stations at one or more pooling stations has
been provided. The role and functions of QCA has been specified in the Grid Code.

11. The nominal frequency band has been narrowed from 49.90- 50.05 Hz to 49.95-50.05 Hz
band. The power system condition has been categorized in to normal, alert, emergency,
extreme emergency and restoration state. The role of users has been defined for each
state. Structured demand estimation for operational planning studies has been described
on daily, monthly and yearly basis.

12. In order to accurately forecast grid behavior in different eventualities it is necessary to

validate the performance characteristics of power system elements particularly,
generating units. Therefore, field testing of machines for validation of their mathematical
models to be used in power system studies has been mandated once in five year.

13. The draft IEGC 2020 mandates adequacy of generation resources for round the clock
supply to all consumer categories. It proposes load shedding through demand response
contracts or through special protection schemes in the event of an emergency situation.

14. There is emphasis on continuous re-optimisation of interstate transmission system with a

view to achieving economy and efficiency in operation. In addition to inter-regional
power transfer capability, both CTU and NLDC shall be required to declare import/export
transfer capability at the electrical periphery of a state in coordination with the STU.

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15. Wind, solar, wind-solar hybrid and hydro plants (in case of excess water leading to
spillage) shall be treated as MUST RUN power plants and shall not be subjected to
curtailment on account of merit order despatch or any other commercial consideration.

16. In the event of transmission or system security constraint, the renewable generation may
be curtailed after harnessing available flexible resources including energy storage
systems.

17. In the event of extreme circumstances when any MUST RUN plant has to be curtailed,
the details shall be published on the RLDC/SLDC website the following day, as the case
may be, giving the date, name of RE generation plant, installed capacity, curtailment
quantum in MWh, duration of curtailment and detailed reasons thereof.

18. Flexibility has been granted to the distribution utilities/ buyers having long-term
transmission access for scheduling power out of their basket of power purchase
agreements, including short-term contracts, up to the approved quantum of LTA. This
will facilitate the distribution utilities to optimize their power procurement cost.

19. Distribution utilities/ buyers having short-term bilateral access shall be able to revise their
schedule as per the same timelines provided for the long-term or medium-term schedule.

20. With a view to enhancing the flexibility of coal, lignite and gas based thermal generating
stations for the emerging scenarios of high renewable energy penetration the
compensatory mechanism for below the normative plant load factor has been reviewed
and rationalized. The compensation for degradation in performance parameters resulting
in higher cost of energy shall be calculated for each time block and settled on monthly
basis. However, the extant mechanism has been retained for sharing of efficiency gain for
power plants.

21. A new Code namely, Cyber Security has been added. The code provides for identification
of Critical Information Infrastructure, appointment of Information Security Officer as per
the Information Technology Rules 2018 and take necessary measures in accordance with
guidelines by National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre.

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22. In line with the above considerations, the various chapters on operating code and
scheduling and despatch code have been thoroughly overhauled. The draft IEGC 2020
has been organized into the following chapters:

Chapter 1: Preliminary
Chapter 2: Structure of Grid Code
Chapter 3: Role of Various Organizations and their Linkages
Chapter 4: Planning Code
Chapter 5: Connection Code
Chapter 6: Protection, Testing and Commissioning Code (NEW)
Chapter 7: Operating Code
Chapter 8: Unit Commitment, Scheduling and Despatch Code
Chapter 9: Cyber Security (NEW)
Chapter 10: Monitoring and Compliance Oversight (NEW)
Chapter 11: Miscellaneous

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 CONTEXT, RATIONALE AND JUSTIFICATION FOR
CHANGES AND ADDITIONS PROPOSED IN THE
NEW IEGC 2020

1. Evolution of Grid Code

After the formation of the Commission in 1998, a draft Grid Code was prepared by
POWERGRID in 1999 and the same was approved by the Commission in Dec 1999.
The Grid Code was re-notified on 14th March 2006 and again on 28th April, 2010. The
Grid Code 2010 was amended from time to time to address requirements of the sector.
The Commission notified six amendments in the Grid Code 2010. The major
amendments were related to inclusion of forecasting, scheduling framework for
renewable generation, compensation for part load operation of thermal stations for
absorbing renewable energy and procedure for declaration of commercial operation
date.

2. Background
When the first Grid Code was prepared by POWERGRID in 1999, the all India
installed generation capacity was 89 GW which, in Dec 2019 has crossed 360 GW,
out of which renewable capacity alone is 82 GW. Since then, the annual all India
electricity generation has trebled to 1250 billion units. The average renewable energy
penetration is presently in the order of 9% but is expected to cross 20% in the few
next years. Even now, the renewable rich states are finding it difficult to manage
renewable generation during high renewable generation season. So far, grid operators
have been trying to manage the variability and intermittency of solar and wind
generation with minor innovations such as asking the solar and wind generators to
forecast their output and backing down thermal units during high renewable season.
We have reached an inflection point of renewable energy growth curve beyond which
it is becoming necessary to adopt structured and organised approach for larger
absorption of variable renewable energy in order to respect its must-run status as an
environmentally benign resource.

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3. Preamble
The preamble has been redrafted to reflect focus on reliable Grid operation and
integration of renewable energy as follows:
…. The IEGC lays down regulations to be followed by various persons and
participants to plan, develop, maintain and operate power system in the country in a
secure, economic, reliable, resilient and efficient manner. The regulations provide for
integration of renewable energy resources in the grid, flexible operation of energy
resources, optimum scheduling & despatch, open access, promoting competition in
the generation sector and various measures including reserves necessary for grid
stability. It seeks to create a robust framework for maintaining demand-supply
balance under credible contingencies and an enabling framework for transition to
clean energy sources. According to clause (h) of sub-section (1) of Section 86, the
State Commission shall specify its state grid code consistent with the IEGC.

4. Definitions
Definition has been updated according to the terminology used in the Grid Code.

5. CHAPTER 2: STRUCTURE OF GRID CODE

The new structure of the Grid Code is listed below:
Chapter 1: Preliminary
Chapter 2: Structure of Grid Code
Chapter 3: Role of Various Organizations and their Linkages
Chapter 4: Planning Code
Chapter 5: Connection Code
Chapter 6: Protection, Testing and Commissioning Code (NEW)
Chapter 7: Operating Code
Chapter 8: Unit Commitment, Scheduling and Despatch Code
Chapter 9: Cyber Security (NEW)
Chapter 10: Monitoring and Compliance Oversight (NEW)
Chapter 11: Miscellaneous

6. CHAPTER 3: ROLE OF VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

(1) Activities of CTU has been redrafted as follows:
(1) The Central Transmission Utility (CTU) shall carry out the functions
in accordance with the section 38 of Act.
(2) CTU shall also perform following activities:

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 (a) Be responsible for consultation with stakeholders such as generators,
STU, RLDC, SLDC and distribution licensees and maintain transparency at
all stages of planning of augmentation or strengthening of ISTS.
(b) Planning activities as specified under Central Electricity Regulatory
Commission (Planning, Coordination and Development of Economic and
Efficient Inter-State Transmission System by Central Transmission Utility and
other related matters) Regulations, 2018.
(c) Nodal agency for the connectivity, long-term access and medium- term
open access in accordance with the Central Electricity Regulatory
Commission (Grant of Connectivity, Long-term Access and Medium-term
Open Access in Inter-State Transmission and related matters) Regulations,
2009, as amended from time to time.
(d) Activities assigned under these regulations or any other CERC
regulations.

(2) Role of National Power Committee (NPC) has been included as follows:
The functions of NPC shall be in accordance with Order no A-60016/24/2012-Adm-I
dated 25th March 2013 as follows:
a) Discuss and resolve issues referred to NPC requiring consultation among
one or more RPCs, concerning inter-alia inter-regional implication or any other
issue affecting more than one region or all regions.
b) To resolve issues amongst RPCs.

(3) Role of QCA has been included as follows:

As pointed out during interaction with stakeholders the cost of forecasting
infrastructure and error in forecasting can be reduced by doing a forecast over a
large geographical area. This is a practice followed in Europe and this was
recommended in a study sponsored by MNRE through GIZ, Germany for India.
This has been successfully demonstrated for intra-state renewable generators in
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. Therefore, renewable energy has been
allowed at one or more pooling stations for the purpose of deviation settlement.
An institutional mechanism through Qualified Coordinating Agency (QCA) for
scheduling and common deviation settlement of renewable generating stations at
one or more pooling stations has been provided. The name QCA has been
adopted as the same is already in vogue at intra-state level. The role and functions
of QCA has been specified in the Grid Code.

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 (1) The roles and functions of QCA shall be as follows:
(a) To act as the nodal agency on behalf of the wind, solar and hybrid
generators including energy storage system connected to one or more
pooling stations represented by it for the purpose of Grid Code in
general and operational and scheduling liaison in particular.
(b) To undertake generation forecasting, declaration of combined capability
on behalf of generators, energy storage system at one or more pooling
stations to the concerned load despatch centre for the purpose of
scheduling.
(c) To undertake scheduling, metering and accounting of energy. QCA shall
be responsible for pooling of declared availability, de-pooling of
despatch schedule and DSM account as necessary.
(d) To operate and maintain a co-ordination centre manned by qualified
and competent personnel for round the clock operational co-ordination
and information exchange with the concerned Load Despatch Centre
and generating stations.
(e) To settle all payments as per DSM Regulations arising out of deviations
from its aggregated schedule given by relevant LDC.
(2) Any instruction or direction given by the LDC to QCA shall be deemed to have
been given to the renewable generator represented by it.

7. CHAPTER 4: PLANNING CODE

In the earlier Grid Code, the scope in the planning Code was limited to transmission
planning only and it basically reiterated salient aspects of CEA Transmission Planning
Criteria. It was pointed out during the stakeholders consultation that apart from
adequacy of transmission resources, adequacy of generation resources, flexibility of
conventional generation, system inertia, adequacy of primary reserve to prevent
frequency fall during grid emergency, adequacy of secondary and tertiary reserve to
restore the grid frequency, planning of energy storage devices for energy shift to
absorb excess renewable energy such as stand-alone pump storage plants and battery
energy storage system, an institutional mechanism for long-term and short-term
demand forecasting by each control area are equally important for secure, reliable and
resilient grid operation and the same should be the part of the Planning Code.
Accordingly, the new planning code covers the system planning in the holistic manner
and the Code has been re-drafted as highlighted below:

(1) Planning Dimensions

(1) The integrated power system planning shall include:

(a) Probabilistic assessment by the designated agency of a State of its
future demand pattern under different scenarios.

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 (b) Adequacy of generation resources taking into account loss of load
probability and energy not served as specified by CEA.
(c) Adequate generation reserves and demand response for maintaining
grid stability.
(d) Validation of adequacy of transmission resources through system
studies considering economic despatch under various demand and generation
scenarios including must run generation.
(e) Validation of adequate power transfer capability to be carried out for
the entire grid in a comprehensive manner by CTU:
– adequate power transfer capability across each flow-gate
– import and export capability for each control area
– import and export capability between regions
– cross-border import and export capability

(f) Validation of adequate power transfer capability to be carried out by

STU:
– Adequate power transfer capability across each flow-gate
– Import and export capability across ISTS and STU interface

(2) The following aspect of system planning have been described in the new Planning
Code:
(a) Demand forecasting by State

i. Each distribution licensee of the state shall estimate the demand in its control
area including the demand of open access consumers for next five years starting
from 1st April of the next year and submit to STU by 30th September every year.
ii. STU, in co-ordination with all distribution licensees, shall estimate the
demand by 31st October of every year for the entire state duly considering the
diversity, for the next five (5) years starting 1st April of the next year using trend
method, time series, econometric methods or any state of the art methods and
submit the same to CEA and CTU.
iii. CTU, in consultation with STUs, shall estimate by 31st December every year,
the demand for each region as well as the entire country taking into account the
diversity for the next five (5) years starting 1st April of the next year based on the
inputs from STU.
iv. The demand estimation shall include daily load curve (hourly basis) for a
typical day for each month.

(b) Generation resource planning

i. Each distribution licensee shall ensure demonstrable resource adequacy as

specified by the respective SERC for the next five (5) years starting 1st April of
the next year. Adequacy statement containing a list of such resources along with
associated capacities shall be submitted to the respective STU and SERC. STU
shall submit the same to CTU.

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 ii. The National Electricity Plan may consider the following from grid operation
perspective:
(a) Generation flexibility, ramping and minimum turndown level and start-stops
(b) Requirement of energy storage systems and demand response measures
(c) Generation reserve requirement
(d) System inertia for grid stability
(e) Cross-border electricity exchange
(f) Fuel security
iii. While finalizing transmission plan for implementation, CTU shall simulate
the economic despatch considering grid security under various scenarios based
on adequacy statement furnished by STU and provide feedback to CEA.

(c) Inter-State Transmission Planning

i. The inputs for inter-state transmission planning shall be collated by CTU

based on the National Electricity Plan of CEA and conventional and renewable
generation capacity addition assessment of various agencies, estimates of renewable
energy potential in different areas as assessed by MNRE and demand forecast of
Electric Power Survey. The CTU shall interact with various stakeholders such as
CEA, MNRE, state renewable development agencies, STUs, distribution licensee,
SLDC, RLDC, NLDC and generation developers to make a comprehensive
assessment of inter-state transmission plan covering power evacuation schemes,
pooling stations, enhancement of power transfer capability between regions and
enhancement of power transfer capability for each STU system.

ii. Based on the inputs compiled and collated by CTU for preparation of
transmission planning, load generation balance scenarios shall be prepared by CTU
and disseminated in public domain for comments. The finalized load generation
balance for transmission planning shall be shared with stakeholders.

iii. The CTU shall carry out the planning of inter-state transmission system
based on the following:

(a) Manual on Transmission Planning Criteria issued by CEA

(b) Central Electricity Authority (Technical Standards for Connectivity to the

Grid) 2007

(c) Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Planning, Coordination and

Development of Economic and Efficient Inter-State Transmission System by Central
Transmission Utility and other related matters) Regulations, 2018

(d) Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Grant of Connectivity, Long-

Term Access and Medium-Term Open Access in interstate transmission and related
matters) Regulations 2009

iv. While planning the ISTS transmission system, the following shall be duly
considered by CTU:

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 (a) CTU shall analyze N-2 contingencies which could lead to cascade tripping.
Special Protection Schemes (SPS) with adequate redundancies may be designed
wherever necessary.

(b) While planning the transmission system, CTU shall consider resilience in
terms of nearby black start resources and building up of the cranking path to load
centres and thermal generating stations.

v. The transmission planning alternatives shall be shared with stakeholders for

consultation through a national level workshop before finalization.

vi. CTU shall carry out periodic all India transmission review and re-
optimization study in collaboration with STUs on yearly basis and its report shall be
submitted to CEA for remedial measures under intimation to CERC by 1st April every
year. In the summary of the report, immediate priorities shall be highlighted for the
purpose of improving reliability, adequacy and opportunities increasing TTC across
inter regional boundaries as well as well as ISTS interface with state control areas.
Emerging pattern of power flows based on economic despatch shall be captured by
the CTU in its re-optimization studies.

vii. In order to achieve economy, before planning new transmission corridors,

CTU shall endeavor to maximize the utilization of existing transmission corridors by
considering reconfiguration, re-conductoring, use of flexible AC technologies, series
and shunt compensation and dynamic line rating options.

8. CHAPTER 5: CONNECTION CODE

(1) This code has been redrafted and it now clearly specifies the requirements to be
fulfilled by the connectivity grantees prior to obtaining the permission of the
RLDC/NLDC/SLDC for first time energizing of a new or modified power system
element. In addition to above, this code specifies the technical requirements to be
complied by a transmission licensee including deemed transmission licensees or
cross-border entity prior to being allowed by RLDC/NLDC/SLDC to energize a
new or modified power system element. The connectivity must ensure the
security of the grid as well as element getting connected to the grid as provided in
the CEA (Technical Standards for connectivity to the Grid) Regulations. Physical
connection of the element to the grid is transition from construction phase to
operation phase.

(2) Therefore, NLDC/RLDC in consultation with CTU shall carry out a joint system
study six (6) months before expected date of first energization of a new power
system element to identify operational constraints, if any. For this purpose, the

22
 connectivity grantee, transmission licensee and SLDC/STU shall furnish all
technical data including that of its embedded generators and other elements to the
CTU/NLDC for necessary technical studies.
(3) It includes for the first-time tests to be performed after connectivity and prior to
Trial Run for Declaration of Commercial Operation.

(4) The Connection Code covers the following aspects:

i. Procedure for Connection
ii. Technical Requirements
iii. Data and Communication Facilities
iv. Tests prior to Trial Run for Declaration of Commercial Operation

9. CHAPTER 6: PROTECTION AND COMMISSIONING CODE

(1) Protection Code

(a) This code has been newly added to have a common protection philosophy
amongst users of the grid, to provide proper co-ordination of protection system
in order to isolate the faulty equipment and avoid unintended operation of
protection system, to have a repository of protection system and settings at
regional level, to have a repository of events, timelines for submission of data
and ensure healthiness of recording equipment’s along with time
synchronization, to provide for periodic audit of protection system.

(b) It is observed that in absence of a coordinated procedure and specific guidelines

of protection systems the desired outcomes are not being witnessed. It is
therefore recommended that a coordinated protection setting are adopted by all
users of regional grid. The provision of protection philosophy to be adopted at
regional level has been added to achieve a uniformity in the procedure for
adopting protection settings. The guideline and recommendation provided under
various committee Report as constituted under the various orders (Report of the
Task Force on Power System Analysis under Contingencies (2013), TASK II
PHASE I AND PHASE II – FINAL REPORT (2017), CBIP Manual on Power
System Protection (Publication No. 328), Protection philosophy of different
RPC (Regional Power Committee)/ NPC (National Power Committee) and any
other as prescribed by commission) may form the basis for finalising the
protection philosophy by all RPCs uniformly.

23
 (c) The Protection Code covers the following aspects:
i. Protection philosophy
ii. Protection Settings
iii. Protection Audit Plan
iv. System Protection Schemes (SPS)
v. Recording Instruments

(2) Commissioning Code

(a) The Commissioning Code covers the Notice of Trial Run and declaration of
Date of Commercial Operation (COD) of generating stations, ESS and
transmission elements. The declaration of Date of Commercial Operation
(COD) of generating stations including wind, solar, hybrid, ESS has been added
for the first time.

(b) The criteria for date of commercial operation and successful trial run were
earlier a part of the scheduling code. However, the expert group found it
necessary to create a separate code in order to provide clarity on the same.

(c) In its current state, the grid code incorporates the criteria for trial run and data of
commercial operation for conventional generators, transmission elements and
communication systems.

(d) Stakeholders have submitted the necessity to include the same for renewable
energy generating stations. It has been observed that the conditions regarding
date of commercial operation has been dealt in the PPA which varies from PPA
to PPA. Further, the PPAs may not include provision of successful trial
operation of renewable energy generating stations. MNRE bidding guidelines
allow part commissioning upto 50 MW for both wind and solar generation in
ISTS system. Further, any unit partly commissioned becomes eligible for tariff.
MNRE in its bidding guidelines provides as follows:

i. Guidelines for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding Process for Procurement of

Power from Grid Connected Wind Power Projects (Resolution dated: 8th
December 2017)

“Part Commissioning: Part Commissioning of the project shall be

accepted by procurer subject to the condition that the minimum capacity
24
 for acceptance of first part commissioning shall be 50% of project cost or
50 MW, whichever is lower, without prejudice to the penalty, in terms of
the PPA on the part which is not commissioned. However, in case of inter-
state project, minimum capacity for acceptance of first part commissioning
shall be atleast 50 MW. A project of capacity 100 MW or less can be
commissioned in maximum two parts. The projects with capacity more
than 100 MW can be commissioned in parts of atleast 50 MW each, with
last part could be the balance capacity, However, the SCD shall not get
altered due to part commissioning. Irrespective of dates of part
commissioning, the PPA will remain in full force of 25 years from the SCD
or from the date of full commissioning, whichever is earlier.

Early Commissioning: The Wind Power Generator shall be eligible for full
commissioning as well as part commissioning even prior to the SCD
subject to the availability of transmission Connectivity and Long-Term
Access (LTA). In cases of part commissioning, till the achievement of full
commissioning or SCD, whichever is earlier, the Procurer may purchase
the generation at 75% (seventy-five percent) of the PPA tariff.

Commercial Operation Date (COD): The commercial operation date shall

be considered as the actual date of commissioning of the project as
declared by the Commissioning Committee constituted by SNA. In case of
part commissioning, COD will be declared only for that part of the project
capacity.”

ii. Guidelines for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding Process for Procurement of
Power from Grid Connected Solar PV Power Projects (Resolution dated: 3rd
August 2017)

Part Commissioning:
Part commissioning of the Project shall be accepted by Procurer subject
to the condition that the Minimum Capacity for acceptance of first and
subsequent part(s) commissioning shall be 50 MW, without prejudice to
the imposition of penalty, in terms of the PPA on the part which is not
commissioned. However, the SCD will not get altered due to part-
commissioning. Irrespective of dates of part commissioning or full
commissioning, the PPA will remain in force for a period of 25 (twenty-
five) years from the SCD.

Early Commissioning:
The Solar Power Generator shall be permitted for full commissioning as
well as part commissioning of the Project even prior to the SCD. In cases

25
 of early part-commissioning, till SCD, the Procurer may purchase the
generation till SCD, at 75% (seventy-five per cent) of the PPA tariff.
However, in case the entire capacity is commissioned prior to SCD, the
Procurer may purchase the generation at PPA Tariff.

Commercial Operation Date (COD):

Commercial Operation Date (COD) shall be the date on which the
commissioning certificate is issued upon successful commissioning of the
full capacity of the Project or the last part capacity of the Project as the
case may be.

(3) Rationale for proposed amendment:

(a) It is necessary to harmonize the criteria for commercial operation date

declaration across all generators to maintain consistency and clarity. It is
proposed to allow part commissioning for a capacity of 50 MW for both wind
and solar generators. This may also benefit the consumers since it will help meet
the adequacy targets and RPO obligations.

(b) Provisions for trial run have been included where corroboration of test results
with plant parameters have been mandated so that any variability of solar
irradiance and wind generation is taken into account.

(c) The date of declaration of commercial operation has been mandated as within
fifteen days from date of achieving trial operation. It is observed that there
should not be inordinate delays in declaration of COD post declaration of
successful trial run.

(d) Stakeholders had requested to specify COD criteria of rooftop solar and off-
shore wind. As rooftop solar will have connectivity to the state grid, the SERC
regulations shall apply. The connectivity of off-shore wind shall be governed in
accordance with connectivity to ISTS or state. Hence, no separate provisions
have been introduced.

10. CHAPTER 7: OPERATING CODE

The following aspects of grid operation have been added in this chapter:
i. Under frequency Relay Load Shedding settings

26
 ii. Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Reserves and its activation for frequency
control
iii. Operational Planning Studies
iv. Post-Desptach Analysis
v. Field testing for model validation

(1) Under Frequency Relay (UFR) Settings:

(a) Considering the All India electricity grid operating as a synchronous grid and
being one of the largest grids in the world, the defence plans now need to be
looked at from a national level rather than regional level. The same needs to be
mandated in the IEGC itself rather than any discussion at the RPC level. As
indicated in the section on primary response, for the reference contingency of
4500 MW generating station outage, the frequency would dip to 49.50 Hz and
quickly recover to 49.70 Hz. So, the chances of the frequency falling below
49.50 Hz in an integrated large power system like India would be rare. The
frequency would fall below this value only in case of part separation of systems
leading to a generation deficit in one system.

(b) At present, there are four stages of Under-Frequency Load-Shedding (UFLS)

relays which are set at 49.2 Hz, 49.0 Hz, 48.8 Hz, and 48.6 Hz in NR, WR, ER,
SR, and NER. These settings were last raised in end 2013 before
synchronization of Southern region with rest of the grid. In addition to UFLS
relays, df/dt relays are also installed in NR, WR, and SR grids. In NR and WR
df/dt relays are set to get armed at 49.9 Hz to shed load automatically if the rate
of fall of frequency is faster than 0.1, 0.2, or 0.3 Hz/s (i.e., three stages). In SR,
however, the frequency at which UFLS is armed and the rate thresholds are 49.5
Hz & 0.2 Hz/s, 49.3 Hz & 0.2 Hz/s, and 49.3 Hz & 0.3 Hz/s for the three stages,
respectively.

(c) During any contingency, the grid frequency will start to drop and UFLS along
with df/dt relays (if required) may be activated to arrest its fall. Governor
response will play a key role in this regard, as well as in settling at the final
frequency. Another important consideration is possible islanding, consequential
load shedding and over voltages which might occur due to lightly loaded lines.
Thus, excitation systems are equally important, as well as timely switching of

27
 shunt reactor/capacitor banks. This aspect is particularly important in the case of
Southern Region and North Eastern Region as they are importing regions and
there is a stray chance of islanding.

(d) AUFLS is an important feature of emergency control in system operation. It is

recommended to raise the set point for first stage of under frequency operation
to 49.4 Hz. The quantum of load shedding at each stage of underfrequency may
be set in terms of percentage of total load at regional as well as national level.
The similar practice is being followed in Continental Europe as brought out in
“Commission Regulation on establishing a network code on emergency and
restoration.” The table used as reference for automatic low frequency demand
disconnection scheme is given below:

(e) The number of steps and quantum of load shedding at each step is decided based
on recommendations of consultant as well as the NERC standard. The strength
has been derived from the following documents:

28
 (i) North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) standard PRC-
006-2 — Automatic Underfrequency Load Shedding mentions that “Each
Planning Coordinator shall develop a UFLS program, including notification
of and a schedule for implementation by UFLS entities within its area, that
meets the following performance characteristics in simulations of
underfrequency conditions resulting from an imbalance scenario, where an
imbalance = [(load — actual generation output) / (load)], of up to 25 percent
within the identified island(s).” On the similar lines, in Indian power system,
25% load may be identified for disconnection during low frequency.

(ii) This is also available in recommendation of consultant appointed by

“Taskforce on Power System Analysis under Contingencies” in December
2012 as a follow up of the recommendations of Enquiry Committee under
Chairperson, Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on Grid Disturbances of
2012 in Indian Grid.

(f) At the implementation stage, it is very important that status of wired loads
envisaged for shedding during under frequency are monitored at SLDC/RLDC.
The SLDC/RLDC may be provided with real time power flow display for the
feeders identified for AUFLS. The periodic mock testing to verify the status of
UFR and df/dt relays at RPC level is recommended. The periodic testing of
relays comprising of site inspection of random location to ensure the relay is
working (properly wired), monitoring of active power (MW) trend etc. It is
suggested that SLDCs shall furnish the status of UFR and df/dt relays to
respective RPC on monthly basis which shall be uploaded on RPC website.
Similarly, any modification/update made to the UFR & df/dt relays may also be
reviewed at RPC level.

(2) Highlights of the new provisions added:

All distribution licensees/STUs/bulk consumers shall provide automatic under-

frequency and df/dt relays for load shedding in their respective systems to arrest
frequency decline that could result in a collapse/disintegration of the grid, as per the
plan given in Table-1 given below. The following common points need to be factored for
design and implementation of the scheme:

29
 Table 1: UFR Settings

Stage of UFR Load Shedding (% of All

S. No. Frequency (Hz)
Operation India demand)
1 Stage-1 49.40 6%
2 Stage-2 49.20 6%
3 Stage-3 49.00 6%
4 Stage-4 48.80 7%
Total (Cumulative) 25%
Note 1: All states shall plan further UFR settings for frequency below 48.8 Hz and df/dt load
shedding schemes depending on their local load generation balance. The same shall be
coordinated and agreed by the concerned RPC.

Note 2: Pumped storage hydro plants or ESS operating in pumping or charging mode shall be
automatically disconnected before the first stage of UFR.

(3) Generation Reserve Estimation and Frequency Control

(a) The Commission has through periodic amendments in the Indian Electricity
Grid Code (IEGC) tightened the allowable frequency band from a range of 49.0-
50.5 Hz in Feb 2000 to the range 49.90-50.05 Hz since February 2014.
Maintaining frequency profile within the allowable band was mainly through
the frequency linked Unscheduled Interchange (UI) or Deviation Settlement
Mechanism (DSM) Regulations (Passive Balancing).

(b) The primary control has been emphasised by Commission in various

amendments of IEGC and orders from time to time, similarly the secondary
control has now been mandated by the Commission in its order recently. Slow
tertiary control through Ancillary Services has been implemented pan India
since April 2016. Though all these efforts have resulted in improved frequency
profile but a lot need to be done in this regard. The Indian system is growing at
large pace and with expected integration of large quantum of renewable
generation in near future, it would be desirable to manage system operation with
stringent frequency controls. A list of frequency control required to be
implemented in Indian power system have been mentioned in this grid code.

(c) The frequency band has been tightened further and made 49.95 Hz to 50.05 Hz
in line with practices adopted in large power systems of the world. No further
tightening of this band would be required. Rather, all efforts by way of primary,

30
 secondary and tertiary control should be exercised to bring the frequency back
to within band in 15 minutes or less in case it goes outside the band due to any
contingency.

(d) It would be worthwhile to discuss the frequency controls available in major

systems like North America and Continental Europe for implementation in
Indian context.

North America

(i) In respect of primary response, the NERC Reliability Standards (BAL-003-1)

define the Interconnection Frequency Response Obligation (IFRO) which
usually considers the largest generation loss possible and the Under-Frequency
Load Shedding (UFLS) setting. In case of Eastern Interconnection (the largest
system in US), this is 4500 MW and 59.5 Hz giving an IFRO of 1002 MW/0.1
Hz. The actual Frequency Response Characteristics (FRC) observed for the
Eastern Interconnection as well as Western Interconnection is much above the
IFRO, at least 2.5 to 3 times the IFRO. This IFRO is apportioned amongst all
entities depending on their load and generation.

(ii) In respect of secondary control through AGC, termed as regulation services,

standards exist for setting the frequency bias (BAL-003-1.1) as well as Control
Performance Standard 1 or CPS1. CPS1 is calculated on monthly basis and has
to remain above 100 for a Control Area to ensure compliance. CPS1 is mainly
calculated from the Area Control Error (ACE). Apart from CPS1, a balancing
area must also ensure that its ACE does not exceed the Balancing Authority
ACE Limit or BAAL for more than 30 minutes. Violations of CPS1 and BAAL
would make the Balancing Authority liable for penalties. The third category of
reserves deployed as part of any contingency is termed as contingency reserve
or supplemental reserve.

Continental Europe

(i) For the Continental Europe (CE), the frequency is expected to be within the
49.95-50.05 Hz band. Following a reference contingency of 3000 MW
generation outage, the instantaneous frequency could dip to 49.20 Hz and
recover to 49.8 Hz through primary response.

31
(ii) The frequency, once outside the range, has to be restored to within the 49.95-
50.05 Hz band within fifteen (15) minutes. As per Article 127 of the EU
Regulation, the frequency can be outside the defined range for a maximum of
15000 minutes per year. Thus, frequency has to be within the band for 49.95-
50.05 Hz for 97.15% of the time in a year. The frequency is maintained within
the range with the combined efforts of all the TSOs and obligation to have
reserves. Reserves are of the following types:

 Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR) similar to primary control

 Frequency restoration Reserves (FRR) similar to secondary control
through AGC
 Restoration Reserves (RR) to replace FRR similar to tertiary control.
Primary Control

(e) Wind/Solar generating units need a different treatment from conventional

generating units as far as primary response is concerned. The Central Electricity
Authority (Technical Standards for Connectivity to the Grid) (Amendment)
Regulations, 2019 (effective for units commissioned on or after 6th Aug 2019)
have specified the requirement of primary response from wind/solar/hybrid
generating units and ESS. The same has been adopted upto 31 March 2022. It is
plausible that during certain hours of the day the spare capacity may be
available with wind/solar generators. The IEGC facilitates the absorption of
such energy by way of primary response without binding them to restrict output
upto the installed capacity.

(f) The present installed capacity of RE based generation is 85 GW and with the
target of Government of India to integrate 175 GW of RE based generation into
the grid. It is imperative that in future primary response is also contributed by
renewable generators. Accordingly, it has been provided in the IEGC that Wind/
Solar/Hybrid plant commissioned after 31st March 2022 shall have the option
to provide primary response individually through BESS or through a common
BESS installed at its pooling station.

32
Secondary Control
(g) The quantum of reserves which need to be earmarked for secondary control
need to be assigned equitably between all the control areas In Continental
Europe, ENTSOE System Operation Guidelines, mention the procedure to
dimension the secondary reserve as 99 percentile value of previous years
Frequency Restoration Control Error(FRCE) (similar quantity as ACE), both in
positive and negative direction. The quantum of reserves will be taking care of
exceptional high values due to weather related phenomenon or any other
exceptional circumstances. It is also recommended that s, the obligated entities
may provide secondary control through ESS. SLDC/RLDC shall calculate the
desired secondary reserve to be kept in their control areas at the beginning of
each financial year and submit to NLDC.

(h) The AGC need to act as early as possible after the event, a time of 30 seconds
has been provided for activation of secondary reserves considering the delays in
the scheme. The secondary control thus activated will be deployed fully within
15 minutes and continue at this level for next 30 minutes.

(i) AGC has been implemented as a pilot project at five power plants (one in each
region) in line with the Commission order dated 6th Dec 2016 and with the order
of Commission dated 28th August 2019 in Petition No. 319/RC/2018, it is
expected that AGC will be operationalised shortly in all regional entity
generating units whose Tariff is regulated/adopted by Commission. The
Unrequisitioned Surplus available in these power plants would be utilised for
secondary control as per the orders of Commission. Security Constrained Unit
Commitment (SCUC) and Security Constrained Economic Despatch (SCED)
would ensure availability of suitable margins for AGC. Presently, the payments
for Ancillary Services (Regulation Services) are being met through the pool
account, this mechanism may be further modified by the Commission from time
to time covering other resources such as Demand Response, Energy Storage etc.

(j) The various cut-off dates for implementing AGC on generating units/Resources
capable of providing secondary control under RLDC as well as SLDC
jurisdiction has been brought out.

33
 (k) It is desirable that reserves should be provided locally by the control area. The
responsibility to provide reserve response should be shared by all Control Areas
in a distributed manner in the interest of grid security and in a participative
manner so that there is no tendency to pass on the responsibility to other
entities. Only in exceptional cases where a control area doesn’t have generation
resources within the Control Area, the responsibility of frequency control
response may be taken over by the RLDC/NLDC. However, it may be added
that with the advent of new technologies such as BESS, it may be possible to
provide frequency response even without physical generation assets in its
control area.

Tertiary Control:
(l) Tertiary reserves may be arranged from the generating stations, ESS and/or
through demand response. Tertiary reserve shall be greater or equal to
secondary reserves to take care of contingencies, and shall be maintained at both
regional entity level as well as state control area. Tertiary reserves are to be
activated in response to various contingencies as defined in grid code. Tertiary
reserves will act as replenishment for secondary reserves as secondary reserves
are to be restored back to their original level for preparation towards next
contingency. Tertiary reserves activation would restore the secondary reserves
to the desired level. The tertiary reserve shall be fully activated within fifteen
(15) minutes of operator’s instructions from appropriate load despatch centre
and shall be capable of delivering until next 60 minutes.

(4) Operational Planning Studies:

(a) Operational Planning Studies & Definition of System States

(i) The draft IEGC 2020 provides for Operational Planning Studies to be carried
out in different time horizons viz Yearly, Monthly, Weekly, Day-ahead and
intra-day. The yearly and monthly studies shall be done by study committee
at the RPC level while other studies shall be done at each LDC level. Such
studies would cover:
i. Inter-regional, intra-regional, inter-state, intra-state total

transfer capability/available transfer capability assessment

ii. Planned outage assessment

34
 iii. Special scenario assessment

iv. System protection scheme assessment

v. Natural disaster assessment

vi. Any other study relevant in operational scenario

(ii) Emphasis has been placed on real-time network applications available in the
EMS SCADA systems at LDCs.

(iii) The annual load-generation balance review (LGBR) at the national level shall
be a comprehensive document considering overall overall economy,
absorption of renewable energy, anticipated cross-border energy exchange,
requirement of reserves and overall grid security. All India LGBR shall
assess likely flow on inter-regional, HVDC and major transmission corridors
and moderate the LGBR such that transmission constraint are honored.

(iv) The system states pertaining to the real time operation have been introduced
such as Normal, Alert, Emergency, Extreme Emergency and Restorative
State.

(5) Post Despatch Analysis

(a) In a large power system such as India with a large transmission network, events in
the generation and transmission system have increased manifold. Equipment
failures, incorrect operation of protective systems, human error, extreme weather
conditions etc. lead to multiple tripping of transmission elements and/or
generating units. Loss of generation or load at local level is generally the
consequence but it could also lead to cascading failures and widespread
interruption of loads. Hence post despatch analysis or event analysis is an
important step in enhancing reliability of the system as till the root cause is
identified, analysed and remedial measures taken across all utilities, the system
remains vulnerable.

(b) The Draft IEGC accordingly provides a timeline for event analysis,
responsibilities of the different agencies in event analysis and disseminating the
lessons learnt. The CEA Grid Standards classify Grid Disturbances on a scale of 1

35
 to 5 depending on the percentage load or generation lost in any region. However,
the Standards don’t cover ‘near misses’ which are also important and needs a
thorough analysis. The Draft IEGC defines as to what constitutes a ‘near-miss’’.

(6) Field Testing for Model Validation

(a) This section specifies the periodicity and tests to be carried out on power system
elements for ascertaining correctness of mathematical models used for simulation
studies as well as ensuring desired performance during an event in the system.

International Practices on Model Validation:

(i) NERC in USA through MOD -025-2,MOD-026-1, MOD-027-1 and MOD-033-1
standards have mandated the verified and validated data submission by generation
owner, transmission owner and other power system instrument owner which are
provided to Planners and System operators for simulation activity for planning as
well as operation on the regular basis.

(ii) ENTSOE Network Code provides that the relevant Network Operator in
coordination with the Relevant TSO shall have the right to obtain the simulation
models, that shall properly reflect the behaviour of the Power Generating Module
in both steady-state and dynamic simulations (50 Hz component) and, where
appropriate and justified, in electromagnetic transient simulations. The models
shall be verified against the results of compliance tests as given in the code. They
shall then be used for the purpose of verifying the requirements of Network Code
and for use in studies for continuous evaluation in system planning and operation.

(iii)EIRGRID provides for Dynamic Model Specifications for Users in their Code. It
states that users applying for connection to the Transmission System must
provide the TSO with relevant dynamic models and supporting documentation.
The model documentation should clarify the range of short circuit levels for
which the model is expected to perform to expected equipment behaviour.

(b) The following tests shall be carried out on respective power system elements:

Power System
Tests Applicability
Elements
Synchronous (1) Real and Reactive Power Capability assessment. Individual Unit
Generator (2) Reactive Power Control Capability (As per CEA of rating
(Technical Standards for Connectivity to the Grid) 100MW and
Regulations, 2007) assessment. above for

36
 Power System
Tests Applicability
Elements
(3) Model Validation and verification test for the complete Coal/lignite,
Generator and Excitation System model including PSS. 50MW and
(4) Model Validation and verification of Turbine/Governor above gas
and Load Control or Active Power/ Frequency Control turbine and 25
Functions. MW and above
(5) Testing of Governor performance and Automatic for Hydro.
Generation Control.
Non (1) Real and Reactive Power Capability for Generator Applicable as
synchronous (2) Power Plant Controller Function Test per CEA
Generator (3) Frequency Response Test (Technical
(Solar/Wind) (4) Fault Ride through Test (sample testing of a unit in the Standards for
generating stations). Connectivity to
the Grid)
Regulations,
2007
HVDC/FACTS (1) Damping capability of HVDC/FACTS Controller To all ISTS
Devices (2) Frequency Controller Capability of HVDC Controller HVDC as well
(3) Reactive Power Controller (RPC) Capability for as Intra-State
HVDC/FACTS HVDC/FACTS
(4) Validation of voltage dependent current order limiter
(VDCOL) characteristic for ensuring proper validation of
HVDC performance
(5) Filter bank adequacy assessment based on present grid
condition.
(6) Validation of response by FACTS devices as per settings.

11. CHAPTER 8: UNIT COMMITMENT, SCHEDULING AND DESPATCH

CODE FOR PHYSICAL DELIVERY OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY

The existing scheduling and despatch Code has been reviewed thoroughly and
redrafted to the extent necessary in line with the new features such as real time
market, combined scheduling for QCA, Security Constrained Unit Commitment. The
scheduling and curtailment of must run plants has been prescribed in detail.

(1) Role of QCA

The role of QCA for scheduling and coordination has been prescribed as follows:

(1) Scheduling of wind and solar generation by QCA:

(i) The wind, solar or hybrid generator including energy storage systems shall, on
their behalf, appoint the QCA by mutual consent to undertake scheduling for a
particular ISTS pooling station or combined scheduling for more than one
pooling station. Provided that:
a) where there is no consensus among wind, solar or hybrid generator,
the QCA may be appointed by majority vote (51% of installed
capacity) by the concerned generators. The voting rights allocated to

37
 each generator shall be based on the capacity connected to the
concerned ISTS pooling station(s);
b) Till the QCA has not been appointed, the lead generator or the
individual generator, as the case may be, shall undertake the
responsibilities of QCA.
c) NLDC shall notify a procedure for aggregation of pooling stations for
the purpose of combined scheduling and deviation settlement for
multiple pooling stations wind/solar/hybrid generating stations within
six (6) month.
d) RLDC shall recognise QCA as user, on submission of authorisations
from the concerned generating station and after registration with the
concerned RLDC (as user) and RPC.
(ii) For the purpose of scheduling clause (i) above, the QCA shall undertake the
activities to the extent of authorisation by wind, solar or hybrid generators
which shall include:
(a) facilitate the concerned RLDC in the scheduling of power including
periodic revisions and settlement of energy accounts in accordance with
grid code;
(b) responsible for metering, data collection and submission, coordination
with SLDC, RLDC and NLDC;
(c) undertake commercial settlement of deviation pool account with RLDC in
accordance with grid code and applicable regulations.
(iii) the concerned wind, solar or hybrid generators including energy storage
system shall indemnify RLDC for all act or conduct of QCA including
compliance with the Grid Code and settlement of its financial liability in the
pooled account.
(iv) The scheduling, energy accounting and settlement among the concerned wind,
solar or hybrid generators, the terms and the extant of authorization of the
QCA will be governed as per their mutually agreed terms:
Provided that any dispute arising between the generators and QCA shall
be resolved in accordance with the contract. During the period of
dispute, the generators and QCA shall not suspend any activities with
regard to compliance of the Grid Code.

(2) Minimum turndown level:

The technical minimum operating level has been reworded as minimum turn down
level. Minimum turndown level has been defined as minimum station loading
corresponding to the units on bar upto which a regional entity generating stations is
required to be on bar on account of less schedule by its buyers or as per the direction
of RLDC. The thermal generating stations shall be compensated for generation
below the normative level as per the mechanism given in Annexure – 5 of the Grid
Code.

38
(3) Scheduling of Inter-Regional and Cross-Border Transactions:
NLDC shall be responsible for scheduling and despatch of electricity over inter-
regional links and cross-border links in accordance with the grid code specified by
Central Commission in coordination with Regional Load Despatch Centres. The
schedules prepared by NLDC for inter-regional and cross-border exchange of power
shall be on net of the regions and net of the country basis respectively.

(4) Security Constrained Unit Commitment (SCUC)

(1) The SCUC exercise shall be carried out to facilitate reliability of supply to the
regional entities/beneficiaries taking into account optimal cost, adequate reserves, ramping
requirements factoring security constraints:
Provided that, the payment of carrying cost for the generation reserves committed through
SCUC shall be as specified by the commission.

(2) In order to ensure availability of adequate secondary and tertiary reserves with
sufficient ramping capability, NLDC shall identify the generating unit for purpose of unit
commitment at the national level three (3) days in advance of actual day of scheduling for
regional entity generating stations on a rolling basis. NLDC, through RLDC shall advise the
regional entity generators to commit or de-commit the unit. (Refer ANNEXURE – 7:
Detailed Operating Procedure for Backing Down of Coal/Lignite/Gas unit(s) of the Central
Generating Stations, Inter-State Generating Stations and other Generating Stations and for
taking such units under Reserve Shut Down on scheduling below Minimum Turndown
Schedule.)
Provided that as and when enabling framework is in place, reserves may be procured
through the market.

(3) Based on the SCUC instructions from RLDC, the generating station shall revise the
on-bar DC (with due consideration to ramp up/down capability), off-bar DC and ramp
up/down rate.

(4) SLDC shall perform similar SCUC exercise at the intra-state level.

(5) Must Run Plants:

Wind, solar, wind-solar hybrid and hydro plants (in case of excess water leading to
spillage) shall be treated as MUST RUN power plants and shall not be subjected to
curtailment on account of merit order despatch or any other commercial
consideration.
(1) Must Run Plants:
(a) Wind, solar, wind-solar hybrid and hydro plants (in case of excess water leading
to spillage) shall be treated as MUST RUN power plants and shall not be
subjected to curtailment on account of merit order despatch or any other
commercial consideration.

39
 (b) In the event of transmission or system security constraint, the renewable
generation may be curtailed after harnessing available flexible resources
including energy storage systems.
(c) In the event of extreme circumstances when any MUST RUN plant has to be
curtailed, the details shall be published on the RLDC/SLDC website the following
day, as the case may be, giving the date, name of RE generation plant, installed
capacity, curtailment quantum in MWh, duration of curtailment and detailed
reasons thereof.

Explanation:

(i) In the event of constraints in the transmission system, the renewable

generation may be curtailed if it is the only source which relieves the
constraint. Curtailment could also be required in case all the flexible
resources are harnessed by the Appropriate LDC but frequency remains
above 50.05 Hz and the Area Control Error (ACE) remains high (high
level of underdrawal) and any further reduction in conventional
generation would necessitate de-commitment of units leading to shortage
conditions and possible load shedding during the peak hours.

(ii) Accommodating a larger percentage share of renewable energy in the

system can lead to a few hours of over-supply in a year necessitating
curtailment of renewable energy as an economic option.

(6) Flexibility in Scheduling from various contracts upto approved LTA/ MTOA

(a) It is observed that a distribution utility may enter into long term PPA and
obtain long term access towards such PPA. Such utility may enter into short
term contract as per its estimate of demand forecasting and as per relative
economics of cost of power. Hence while placing requisition on day ahead
basis, it may not need the entire quantum of power under long-term PPA and
short-term contract entered into by such Utility. For scheduling such short-
term contract, the Utility obtains short term open access which is granted upto
3 months in advance. Under current Regulations, short term open access is
granted with firm power contract only and once granted the schedules under
such short-term open access cannot be changed on day ahead basis. The same
can be changed only with a notice of 2 days.

40
(b) It is observed that distribution utility who obtains advance STOA, may not
require entire power under such STOA if merit Order is followed, however
since schedule under STOA cannot be changed with a notice of 2 days, such
STOA is scheduled fully. The same is illustrated with an example. A
distribution company say “DISCOM 1” enters into long term PPA with
generating station namely “GEN A” for 1000 MW @ Rs 2/unit variable cost.
DISCOM 1 also enters into short term contract with generating station namely
“GEN B” for 200 MW @ Rs. 4/unit and obtains STOA for same, 3 months in
advance considering its demand forecasting and uncertainty of availability of
capacity GEN A. Suppose on day ahead basis DISCOM1 needs 900 MW
power, it has to schedule full 200 MW under STOA and will requisition 700
MW under long term PPA despite such power being cheaper @2/unit.

(c) A distribution utility enters into PPAs as per its estimate of demand
forecasting which gets accurate in nearer term time frame. However,
distribution utility should be provided flexibility to finalise its day ahead
schedule based on merit order as per its demand forecasting for the next day.

(d) The draft IEGC 2020 provides such flexibility to buyer/distribution utility to
place requisition on day ahead basis from its long term or medium term or
short-term contract once it has obtained access under such contracts.

(e) For example, DISCOM1 situated in Northern Region has following PPAs with
indicated generating stations:

Type of Quantum Generating Price Location of Access

PPA Station Generating granted
Station
Long term 1000 MW GEN A Rs 2 / Western LTA
unit VC region
Medium 500 MW GEN B Rs.3 / Southern MTOA
term unit VC Region
Short term 500 MW GEN C Rs 4 / Eastern STOA
unit Region

(f) Suppose Short term PPA is for month of March 2020. Day ahead schedule for
2 march 2020 shall be finalised on 1 March 2020. On 1 March 2020,

41
 DISCOM1 estimates a requirement of 1500 MW. GEN A, GEN B provides
full Availability towards such PPA. DISCOM1 shall have to provide
requisition among Declared capacity provided by GEN A and GEN B since
they are under LTA and MTOA. DISCOM1 shall also be provided flexibility
to requisition from GEN C as per its short-term contract while placing day
ahead requisition. For example, in the instant example, DISCOM1 may place
requisition of 1000 MW from GEN A and 500 MW from GEN B and doesn’t
requisition anything from GEN C.

(g) Suppose in the above example GEN A declares its availability as 500 MW for
2.3.2020, DISCOM1 may place requisition as 500 MW from GEN A, 500
MW from GEN B and 500 MW from GEN C. DISCOM1 may decide to place
requisition as 500 MW from GEN A, 500 MW from GEN B, 200 MW from
GEN C and decides to procure 300 MW from day ahead power exchange. The
same shall be scheduled as requested by DISCOM subject to availability of
transmission system.

(h) In the above example, LTA has been granted on WR-NR corridor, MTOA on
SR-NR corridor and STOA on ER-NR corridor. It is proposed that if
DISCOM1 does-not requisition full 500 MW under STOA, the balance
quantum which is 300 MW in ER-NR corridor in the above example shall be
released under day ahead power exchange and real time power exchange.
DISCOM1 shall not be provided flexibility to reschedule the power not
requisitioned under STOA from 7th/8th block which is allowed for long term or
medium-term open access. This has been proposed to ensure that DISCOM1
does-not block the corridor under STOA, at the same time it is allowed
flexibility to ensure economy in scheduling on day ahead scheduling. The left-
over corridors shall be released for market.

(i) The flexibility of scheduling on day ahead basis under STOA shall only be
available with DISCOM/buyer and not with generating station or seller to
avoid any gaming by generator.

(j) There may be short term contracts where even if DISCOM schedules less
power on day ahead basis, it has to pay full like “Take or Pay”. On

42
 introduction of such flexibility in Grid Code, it is expected that contracts will
be entered into keeping in view such flexibility.

(k) The flexibility to revise schedule under STOA on day ahead basis shall only
be provided for upto LTA or MTOA quantum only. For example, DISCOM1
in above example will have flexibility to requisition power under STOA on
day ahead basis only upto 1500 MW since it has LTA +MTOA for 1500 MW.
In case DISCOM1 needs 1600 MW for 2.3.2020, on 1.3.2020 if it schedules
1000 MW under Long term PPA and 500 MW under medium term PPA it
won’t be provided flexibility to revise its STOA of 500 MW on day ahead
basis, since it has already exhausted its LTA+MTOA.

Accordingly, following has been specified in the draft IEGC 2020:

“A Distribution utility/ buyer shall have the flexibility to requisition/schedule such

quantum of power as per its preference from its portfolio of power contracts
(long/medium/short-term agreements) upto the approved quantum of long-term access
and/or medium-term open access to such User.
Provided that:
(a) for scheduling power under short-term bilateral contract, the user shall be
required to obtain STOA as per CERC (Open Access in Interstate Transmission)
Regulations 2008.
(b) If the user does not fully requisition its short-term access before the opening of
day-ahead bidding in power exchanges, the unused corridor(s) against such
access shall be forfeited, and released in the day ahead and real time markets.
NLDC shall include the modalities of implementation in the Detailed Procedure and
Timelines for Scheduling and Despatch of Regional Entities.”

12. CHAPTER 9: CYBER SECURITY

A new Code namely, Cyber Security has been added. The code provides for
identification of Critical Information Infrastructure, appointment of Information
Security Officer as per the Information Technology Rules 2018 and take necessary
measures in accordance with guidelines by National Critical Information
Infrastructure Protection Centre.

13. CHAPTER 10: MONITORING AND COMPLIANCE CODE

A separate chapter on monitoring and compliance code has been added which
provides for self-audit as well as third party audit for the performance of all users,

43
 CTU, STU, NLDC, RLDC, SLDC and RPC with respect to grid code compliance
shall be assessed periodically. All users, CTU, STU, NLDC, RLDC, RPC and SLDC
shall conduct annual self-audits to review compliance of the regulations and submit
by 31st July of every year. CERC may order independent third-party compliance audit
for any user, CTU, NLDC, RLDC and RPC as deemed necessary.

14. List of Annexure

The following annexures comprise integral part of the Grid Code. All the annexure
has been reviewed and redrafted to the extant required to align the new Grid Code.

Contents
ANNEXURE – 1 Generation Reserve Estimation and Frequency Control
ANNEXURE – 2 Third Party Protection System checking & validation
template for a substation
ANNEXURE – 3 Reporting Requirements
ANNEXURE – 4 Reactive Power Compensation
ANNEXURE – 5 Minimum Turndown Level for Operation of Regional
Entity Generating Stations
ANNEXURE – 6 Mechanism for Compensation for Degradation of Heat
Rate, Aux Consumption and Secondary Fuel Oil
Consumption, due to Part Load Operation and Multiple
Start/Stop of Units
ANNEXURE – 7 Detailed Operating Procedure for Backing Down of
Coal/Lignite/Gas unit(s) of the Central Generating
Stations, Inter-State Generating Stations and other
Generating Stations and for taking such units under
Reserve Shut Down on scheduling below Minimum
Turndown Schedule
ANNEXURE – 8 Procedure for implementation of the Framework on
Forecasting, Scheduling and Imbalance handling of
Renewable Energy Generating Stations including power
parks based on Wind and Solar at inter-state level
ANNEXURE -9 Accounting and Pool settlement system

44
15. Issues for consideration of Commission which have not been included in Grid
Code
(1) Compensation to seller/buyer due to outage of ISTS/STU systems
At present there is no direct accountability of the transmission licensee if power
supply to users is disrupted due to poor maintenance and faulty operation or
design of the transmission line and substation equipment. The same is only partly
accounted for by recovery based on availability. On the other hand, the
transmission licensees get incentive on the average availability of their system
aggregated on a regional basis. This is not sending the right signal to the
transmission licensees. It may happen that due to inadequate supervision, poor
preventive maintenance or faulty design outages of transmission lines due to
tower failure, insulator tracking faults, touching of tree branches etc. or
maloperation of relays or any other reason, generating station or buyer may not be
able to schedule the power under long term access or medium-term open access.
The incidents of tower failures including on relatively new lines during the last
few years compiled by POSOCO are given below as an illustration to emphasise
the need for regulatory oversight over the performance of transmission licensees.
There are daily mal-tripping’s due to faulty protection operation, but there is no
penalty.

45
 It is suggested that cases of transmission system outage due to poor performance
of the transmission licensee leading to interruption of supply to consumers,
penalty should be levied on the transmission licensee for paying compensation to
affected LTA holders. In Norway, the state transmission licensee has to arrange
power from alternate sources in the event of congestion. The commission may
review the conditions of transmission licence and create more accountability for
deemed and other transmission licensees. This will go a long way in improving
reliability of Grid operation.

(2) Virtual Power Plant (VPP)

Stakeholders have requested that Virtual power plant may be defined in the Grid
Code as “A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is an aggregated power plant, which is
spatially distributed, connected to the grid at multiple points and remotely
controllable from a common control centre. Acting as a single despatchable
power plant, a VPP aggregates the capacities of heterogeneous energy resources,
and Energy Storage(s) for the purposes of providing renewable energy on
demand.”. The matter was discussed in the Expert group and it was a general view
that transmission adequacy has to be ensured before allowing a spatially
distributed generation complex, flexibility of delivering power to different points
in the grid. As a matter of fact, nobody has approached the Commission with a
formal request to recognise VPP as a single dispatchable unit. The Commission
may take appropriate view at appropriate time.

(3) Fuel availability with generating stations

Unencumbered fuel/coal availability free from conditionalities is ideal for a free
and intense competition in the electricity market to drive prices down and give
impetus to efficiency and innovation. In the future, a situation could arise leading
to deficient or negative generation reserves during peak hours although spare
installed capacity of conventional generation plants is available yet are inoperative
due to paucity of coal. Since CERC is responsible for market development under
the Act, it may like to take up the issue of liberalisation of coal market to
synergize with the liberalisation of the electricity market which has enabled the
country to get rid of chronic power shortages.

46
16. Office Order dated 28.5.2019 is attached at Annexure I.

17. Draft IEGC 2020 is attached at Annexure II.

18. Gist of comments received is attached at Annexure- III.

47
REFERENCES

LIST OF INTERNATIONAL REFERENCES:

[1] Reliability Standards for the Bulk Electric Systems of North America, Updated
April 17, 2019, North American Electric Reliability Corporation.
[2] COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2017/1485 of 2 August 2017, Official
Journal of the European Union establishing a guideline on electricity transmission
system operation.
[3] THE GRID CODE, National Grid Electricity System Operator Limited, United
Kingdom.
[4] National Electricity Rules Version 122, Australia, 30 May 2019.
[5] Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), Mar 2018, Power system
requirements, Reference Paper.
[6] REPORT ON ASEAN GRID CODE COMPARISON REVIEW, ASEAN Centre
for Energy (ACE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
(GIZ) GmbH, Energynautics GmbH, with the support of the German Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the
ASEAN-German Energy Programme (AGEP).
[7] Review of International Grid Codes, Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts
Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, February 2018.
[8] Scaling up variable renewable power: the role of grid codes, International
Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
[9] PJM Resource Adequacy Analysis Revision: 10, Effective Date: March 21, 2019,
Prepared by: Resource Adequacy Planning
[10] 2018 Long-Term Reliability Assessment, December 2018, North American
Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
[11] Mid-term Adequacy Forecast, 2018 Edition, European Network of Transmission
System Operators, ENTSO-E
[12] Power System Stability and Control, Prabha Kundur, McGrawHill, Inc.
[13] REPORT ON COORDINATION OF GRID CODES AND GENERATOR
STANDARDS: Consequences of Diverse Grid Code Requirements on
Synchronous Machine Design and Standards, IEEE-PES, Electrical Machinery
Committee Task Force on Grid Code Impacts on Generator Standards

48
[14] 2018 Frequency Response Annual Analysis, November 2018, North American
Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)

49
LIST OF REFERENCES FROM INDIA:

[1] Electricity Act, 2003, Govt. of India, Jun-2003

[2] Tariff Policy, Ministry of Power, Govt. of India, 2016
[3] Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Indian Electricity Grid Code)
Regulations, 2010
[4] Central Electricity Authority (Technical Standards for Construction of
Electrical Plants and Electric Lines) Regulations, 2010
[5] Central Electricity Authority (Technical Standards for Connectivity to the
Grid), Regulations, 2007
[6] Central Electricity Authority (Grid standards), Regulations, 2010
[7] Manual on Transmission Planning Criteria, January 2013, Central Electricity
Authority
[8] National Electricity Plan, Central Electricity Authority, January 2018
[9] Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Ancillary Services Operations)
Regulations, 2015.
[10] Report of the Committee on Fixation of Tariffs for Central Sector Power
Stations, CEA, Govt. of India, Jun-1990
[11] Model Regulations on Forecasting, Scheduling and Deviation Settlement of
Wind and Solar Generating Stations at the State Level. (2015), Forum of
Regulators, http://www.forumofregulators.gov.in/Data/study/MR.pdf]
[12] Large Scale Integration of Renewable Energy Sources - Way Forward, Central
Electricity Authority, Govt. of India, Nov-2013
[13] Report on India's Renewable Electricity Roadmap 2030, Niti Ayog, Govt. of
India, Feb-2015
[14] Report of the Expert Group on 175 GW RE by 2022, Niti Ayog, Govt. of
India, Dec-2015
[15] POSOCO – Requirement of equipment for AGC implementation at power
plants Sep 2019
[16] CERC order (02/SM/19) on implementation of Security Constrained
Economic Despatch (SCED) on pilot basis – 31 Jan 2019
[17] CERC order on extension of Security Constrained Economic Despatch
(SCED), Sep 2019

50
[18] POSOCO Detailed procedure for implementation of SCED (Rev-01, April
2019 and Rev 02, October 2019)
[19] POSOCO Interim report on pilot on implementation (Security Constrained
Economic Despatch) August 2019
[20] POSOCO Implementation of pilot project on Hydro as fast response ancillary
services – half yearly analysis report, 30th Jul 2019 https://posoco.in/wp-
content/uploads/2019/08/POSOCO_FRAS_Feedback.pdf
[21] CERC - Report of Expert Group to review and suggest measures for bringing
power system operation closer to National Reference Frequency (Volume-I)
[22] POSOCO - Flexibility Requirement in Indian Power System, Jan 2016
[23] POSOCO Analysis of ramping capability of coal fired stations in India Apr
2019

51
Based on recommendations of Expert Group
constituted by the Central Electricity Regulatory
Commission

Draft
Indian Electricity
Grid Code 2020

New Delhi, January 2020

1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREAMBLE ........................................................................................................................................... 6

CHAPTER 1: PRELIMINARY .............................................................................................................. 7

1. Short Title, Extent and Commencement ........................................................................ 7

2. Scope and Extent of Application .................................................................................... 7

3. Definitions......................................................................................................................... 8

CHAPTER 2: STRUCTURE OF GRID CODE ................................................................................. 26

4. Structure of the Grid Code ............................................................................................ 26

CHAPTER 3: ROLE OF VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS .................................................................. 29

5. Objective......................................................................................................................... 29

6. Role of NLDC ................................................................................................................. 29

7. Role of RLDC ................................................................................................................. 31

8. Role of RPC ................................................................................................................... 32

9. Role of CTU ................................................................................................................... 33

10. Role of SLDC ................................................................................................................. 34

11. Role of STU.................................................................................................................... 35

12. Role of QCA ................................................................................................................... 35

13. Role of National Power Committee (NPC) .................................................................. 36

CHAPTER 4: PLANNING CODE ...................................................................................................... 37

14. Objective......................................................................................................................... 37

15. Planning Dimensions..................................................................................................... 37

16. Technical Details and Co-ordination ............................................................................ 42

CHAPTER 5: CONNECTION CODE ................................................................................................ 43

17. Objective......................................................................................................................... 43

18. Compliance with Existing Rules and Regulations....................................................... 43

19. Procedure for Connection ............................................................................................. 44

20. Technical Requirements ............................................................................................... 45

2
 21. Data and Communication Facilities ............................................................................. 45

22. Tests prior to Trial Run for Declaration of Commercial Operation ............................ 46

CHAPTER 6: PROTECTION AND COMMISSIONING CODE ....................................................... 51

A. Protection Code..................................................................................................................... 51

23. Objective......................................................................................................................... 51

24. Basic Features ............................................................................................................... 51

25. Protection Philosophy and Settings ............................................................................. 51

26. Protection Audit Plan ..................................................................................................... 53

27. System Protection Schemes (SPS) ............................................................................. 55

28. Recording Instruments .................................................................................................. 55

B. Commercial Operation Declaration Code ........................................................................... 55

29. Notice of Trial Run ......................................................................................................... 55

30. Trial Run of GENERATING UNIT/Station ................................................................... 56

31. Trial Run of Inter-state Transmission System ............................................................. 59

32. Declaration of Date of Commercial Operation (COD) ................................................ 59

CHAPTER 7: OPERATING CODE ................................................................................................... 64

33. Operating Philosophy .................................................................................................... 64

34. System Security Aspects .............................................................................................. 65

35. Generation Reserve Estimation and Frequency Control ........................................... 71

36. Operational Planning ..................................................................................................... 81

37. Outage Planning ............................................................................................................ 84

38. Operational Planning Study .......................................................................................... 88

39. System Restoration ....................................................................................................... 91

40. Real Time Operation ..................................................................................................... 92

41. Demand Management ................................................................................................... 96

42. Post Despatch Analysis ................................................................................................ 97

43. Periodic Reports .......................................................................................................... 100

44. Reactive Power Management .................................................................................... 101

3
 45. Field Testing for Model Validation .............................................................................. 103

46. Capacity Building and Certification ............................................................................ 105

CHAPTER 8: UNIT COMMITMENT, SCHEDULING AND DESPATCH CODE FOR PHYSICAL

DELIVERY OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY ........................................................................................ 107

47. Introduction................................................................................................................... 107

48. Objective....................................................................................................................... 107

49. Control Area Jurisdiction ............................................................................................. 107

50. Functions of Control Area ........................................................................................... 109

51. General Provisions ...................................................................................................... 111

52. Security Constrained Unit Commitment (SCUC) ...................................................... 123

53. Procedure for Scheduling and Despatch for Inter-State Transactions ................... 124

CHAPTER 9: CYBER SECURITY .................................................................................................. 139

54. Identification of Critical Information Infrastructure .................................................... 139

55. Appointment and Responsibilities of Information Security Committee and Chief

Information Security Officer .................................................................................................... 139

56. Measures to be undertaken for ensuring Cyber Security: ........................................ 140

57. Contingency Measures ............................................................................................... 141

58. Mechanism of Reporting ............................................................................................. 141

CHAPTER 10: MONITORING AND COMPLIANCE CODE ......................................................... 142

59. Assessment of compliance: ........................................................................................ 142

60. Monitoring of Compliance ........................................................................................... 142

CHAPTER 11: MISCELLANEOUS ................................................................................................. 144

61. Power to Relax............................................................................................................. 144

62. Power to Remove Difficulty......................................................................................... 144

ANNEXURE - 1 ................................................................................................................................. 145

Generation Reserve Estimation and Frequency Control ........................................................... 145

ANNEXURE - 2 ................................................................................................................................. 151

Third Party Protection System checking & validation template for a substation ..................... 151

4
ANNEXURE- 3 .................................................................................................................................. 155

A. Reporting Requirements .......................................................................................................... 155

B. Procedure Drafting Requirements .......................................................................................... 156

ANNEXURE - 4 ................................................................................................................................. 158

A. Reactive Power Compensation ............................................................................................... 158

B. Payment for Reactive Energy Exchanges On State-Owned Lines ...................................... 158

ANNEXURE – 5 ................................................................................................................................ 160

Minimum Turndown Level for Operation of Regional Entity Generating Stations ................... 160

ANNEXURE – 6 ................................................................................................................................ 166

Mechanism for Compensation for Degradation of Heat Rate, Aux Consumption and
Secondary Fuel Oil Consumption, due to Part Load Operation and Multiple Start/Stop of Units
........................................................................................................................................................ 166

ANNEXURE – 7 ................................................................................................................................ 178

Detailed Operating Procedure for committing and de-committing of Coal/Lignite/Gas unit(s) of

the regional entity generating stations......................................................................................... 178

ANNEXURE – 8 ................................................................................................................................ 181

Procedure for forecasting, scheduling and imbalance handling for renewable energy (re)
generating stations at inter-state level......................................................................................... 181

Annexure- 9 ....................................................................................................................................... 196

Accounting and Pool settlement system ..................................................................................... 196

Metering, Accounting and Settlement system: ...................................................................... 196

Regional Energy Accounts: .......................................................................................................... 196

Deviation accounts: ................................................................................................................. 197

Reactive energy accounts: ..................................................................................................... 197

Ancillary Services and SCED pool ......................................................................................... 198

Real time Congestion charge account ................................................................................... 198

5
 CENTRAL ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION
NEW DELHI

No. …….. Dated:……….., 2020

PREAMBLE

No. ….. -The Indian Electricity Grid Code (IEGC) is a regulation made by the Central Commission

in exercise of powers under clause (h) of sub-section (1) of Section 79 read with clause (g) of

sub-section (2) of Section 178 of the Act. The IEGC lays down regulations to be followed by

various persons and participants to plan, develop, maintain and operate power system in the

country in a secure, economic, reliable, resilient and efficient manner. The regulations provide for

integration of renewable energy resources in the grid, flexible operation of energy resources,

optimum scheduling & despatch, open access, promoting competition in the generation sector

and various measures including reserves necessary for grid stability. It seeks to create a robust

framework for maintaining demand-supply balance under credible contingencies and an enabling

framework for transition to clean energy sources. According to clause (h) of sub-section (1) of

Section 86, the State Commission shall specify its state grid code consistent with the IEGC.

NOTIFICATION (DRAFT)

In exercise of powers conferred under clause (h) of sub-section (1) of Section 79 read with clause

(g) of sub-section (2) of Section 178 of the Electricity Act, 2003 (36 of 2003), and all other powers

enabling it in this behalf, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission hereby makes the

following regulations.

6
 CHAPTER 1: PRELIMINARY

1. SHORT TITLE, EXTENT AND COMMENCEMENT

i. These regulations may be called the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Indian

Electricity Grid Code) Regulations, 2020.

ii. These regulations shall come into force from the date notified by the Commission.

iii. These regulations shall supersede the Indian Electricity Grid Code, 2010 read with

amendments thereof.

2. SCOPE AND EXTENT OF APPLICATION

These regulations shall apply to:

i. All users, State Load Despatch Centres, Regional Load Despatch Centres, National Load

Despatch Centre, Central Transmission Utility, State Transmission

Utilities, licensees, National Power Committee, Regional Power Committees, and Power

Exchanges are required to abide by the principles and procedures defined in the IEGC to

the extent applicable.

ii. For the purpose of the IEGC, the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) shall be treated as

regional entity and a separate control area. The DVC Load Despatch Centre shall perform

functions of a SLDC for the control area of DVC.

iii. The generating stations of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) and Sardar

Sarovar Project (SSP) shall be treated as regional entities and their generating units shall

be scheduled and despatched in coordination with BBMB or Narmada Control Authority,

as the case may be, with regard to the irrigation requirements.

iv. A neighboring country inter-connected with the National/Regional Grid shall be treated as

a separate control area.

7
 v. The State Grid Code specified by the State Commission shall be consistent with the IEGC.

3. DEFINITIONS

(1) In these regulations unless the context otherwise requires:

S. No. Particulars Definition

1. ‘Act’ means the Electricity Act, 2003;

2. ‘Alert State’ means the state in which the system is within the
operational parameters as defined in the code
but a contingency has occurred;

3. ‘Ancillary Services’ means in relation to power system (or grid)

operation, the services necessary to support the
power system (or grid) operation in maintaining
power quality, reliability and security of the grid
and includes secondary response, tertiary
response, active power support for load
following, reactive power support and black start;

4. ‘Area Control Error’ or means the instantaneous difference between a

‘ACE’ control area’s net actual and scheduled
interchange, taking into account the effects of
Frequency Bias and correction of meter error.
Mathematically, it is equivalent to:

ACE = Deviation (∆P) + (Frequency Bias) (K) *

(Deviation from nominal frequency) (∆f) + meter
error;

5. ‘Automatic Generation means a mechanism that automatically adjusts

Control’ or ‘AGC’ the generation of a control area to maintain its
Interchange Schedule Plus its share of frequency
response;

8
S. No. Particulars Definition

6. ‘Automatic Voltage means a continuously acting automatic excitation

Regulator’ or ‘AVR’ control system to control the voltage of a
generating unit measured at the generator
terminals;

7. ‘Available Transfer means power transfer capability of the inter-

Capability’ or ‘ATC’ control area transmission system or across
electrical regions or between ISTS and state
network or between cross-border
interconnections available for scheduling
transactions in a specific direction, taking into
account the network security declared by the
concerned load despatch centre. Mathematically,
ATC is the Total Transfer Capability less
Transmission Reliability Margin;

8. ‘Beneficiary’ means a person who has a share or entitlement

in an ISGS

9. ‘Bilateral Transaction’ means a transaction for exchange of energy

(MWh) between a specified buyer and a specified
seller, directly or through a trading licensee or
discovered at Term Ahead Market at power
exchange through anonymous bidding, from a
specified point of injection to a specified point of
drawal for a fixed or varying quantum of power
(MW) for any time period during a month;

10. ‘Blackout State’ means a part or all the operations of power

system have got suspended;

11. ‘Black Start Procedure’ means the procedure necessary to recover from
a partial or a total blackout in the region;

9
S. No. Particulars Definition

12. ‘Bulk Consumer’ shall have the same meaning as defined in

Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
(Grant of Connectivity, Long-term Access and
Medium-term Open Access in inter-State
Transmission and related matters)
Regulations,2009 including its amendments and
subsequent re-enactment;

13. ‘Captive Generating Plant’ means a power plant set up by any person to
generate electricity primarily for his own use and
includes a power plant set up by any co-operative
society or association of persons for generating
electricity primarily for use of members of such
cooperative society or association;

14. ‘Central Generating means the generating station owned by a

Station’ company owned or controlled by the Central
Government;

15. ‘Central Transmission means any government company, which the

Utility’ or ‘CTU’ Central Government may notify under sub-
section (1) of Section 38 of the Act;

16. ‘Cogeneration’ means a process which simultaneously produces

two or more forms of useful energy (including
electricity);

17. ‘Cold Start’ in relation to steam turbine means start up after

a shutdown period exceeding 72 hours (turbine
metal temperatures below approximately 40% of
their full load values);

18. ‘Collective Transaction’ means a set of transactions discovered in power

exchange through anonymous, simultaneous
competitive bidding by buyers and sellers;

10
S. No. Particulars Definition

19. ‘Communication System’ means a collection of individual communication

networks, communication media, relaying
stations, tributary stations, terminal equipment
usually capable of inter-connection and inter-
operation to form an integrated communication
backbone for power sector;

20. ‘Congestion’ means a situation where the demand for

transmission capacity or power flow on any
corridor exceeds its Available Transfer
Capability;

21. ‘Connection Agreement’ means an agreement between CTU, inter-state

transmission licensee and any person setting out
the terms relating to a connection to and/or use
of the Inter State Transmission System;

22. ‘Connectivity’ means the state of getting connected to the inter-

State transmission system by a generating
station, including a captive generating plant, a
bulk consumer or a person or an Inter-State
Transmission licensee;

23. ‘Control Area’ means an electrical system bounded by

interconnections (tie lines), metering and
telemetry which controls its generation and/or
load to maintain its interchange schedule with
other control areas and contributes to regulation
of frequency as specified;

24. ‘Control Centre’ means NLDC or RLDC or REMC or SLDC or

Area LDC or Sub-LDC or DISCOM LDC including
main and backup as applicable;

11
S. No. Particulars Definition

25. ‘Critical Information means the computer resource, the incapacitation

Infrastructure’ or destruction of which, shall have debilitating
impact on national security, economy, public
health or safety;

26. ‘Date of Commercial shall have the same meaning as provided in

Operation’ or ‘COD’ Regulation 32 of these regulations;

27. ‘Declared Capacity’ or ‘DC’ in relation to a generating station means, the

capability to deliver ex-bus electricity in MW
declared by such generating station in relation to
any time-block of the day as defined in the Grid
Code or whole of the day, duly taking into account
the availability of fuel or water, and subject to
further qualification in the relevant regulations;

28. ‘Demand’ means the demand of active power in MW;

29. ‘Demand Response’ means variation in electricity usage by end

customers/control area manually or
automatically, as per system requirement
identified by concerned load despatch centre;

30. ‘Despatch Schedule’ means the ex-power plant net MW and MWh
output of a generating station, scheduled to be
exported to the Grid from time to time;

31. ‘Deviation Settlement means Central Electricity Regulatory

Mechanism (DSM) Commission (Deviation Settlement Mechanism
Regulations’ and related matters) Regulations, 2014 including
any subsequent amendments thereof;

32. ‘Disturbance Recorder’ or means a device provided to record the behavior

‘DR’ of the pre-selected digital and analog values of
the system parameters during an event;

12
S. No. Particulars Definition

33. ‘Data Acquisition System’ means a system provided to record the

or ‘DAS’ sequence of operation in time, of the
relays/equipment as well as the measurement of
pre-selected system parameters;

34. ‘Drawal Schedule’ means the summation of the station-wise ex-

power plant drawal schedules from all ISGS and
drawal from/injection to regional grid consequent
to other long-term access, medium term and
short-term open access transactions;

35. ‘DVC’ means the Damodar Valley Corporation

established under sub-section (1) of Section 3 of
the Damodar Valley Corporation Act, 1948;

36. ‘Emergency State’ means the state in which one or more variables
are outside their operating limit or many of the
equipment are above their operational limit;

37. ‘Energy Storage System’ or means any system or device capable of storing
‘ESS’ electrical energy in any form using any
technology and delivering it back in the form of
electrical energy;

38. ‘Event’ means an unscheduled or unplanned occurrence

on a grid including faults, incidents and
breakdowns;

39. ‘Event Logging Facilities’ means a device provided to record the

chronological sequence of operations, of the
relays and other equipment;

40. ‘Ex-Power Plant’ means net MW/MWh output of a generating

station, after deducting auxiliary consumption
and transformation losses;

13
S. No. Particulars Definition

41. ‘Fault Locator’ or ‘FL’ means a device provided at the end of a

transmission line to measure/ indicate the
distance at which a line fault may have occurred;

42. ‘Flexible Alternating means a power electronics based system and

Current Transmission other static equipment that provide control of one
System’ or ‘FACTS’ or more AC transmission system parameters to
enhance controllability and increase power
transfer capability;

43. ‘Flow-gate’ Means a group of parallel transmission line (s),

outage of which may lead to cascade tripping or
separation of systems or loss of generation
complex or load centre;

44. ‘Forced Outage’ means an outage of a generating unit or a

transmission facility due to a fault or other
reasons which has not been planned;

45. ‘Frequency Response means automatic, sustained change in the power

Characteristics’ or ‘FRC’ consumption by load or output of the generators
that occurs immediately after a change in the
control area’s load-generation balance and which
is in a direction to oppose a change in
interconnection’s frequency. Mathematically it is
equivalent to

FRC = Change in Power (∆P) / Change in

Frequency (∆f)

46. ‘Frequency Response is defined as the minimum frequency response a

Obligation’ or ‘FRO’ control area has to provide in the event of any
frequency deviation;

47. ‘Frequency Response means the ratio of actual frequency response

Performance’ or ‘FRP’ with frequency response obligation;

14
S. No. Particulars Definition

48. ‘Frequency Stability’ means the ability of the transmission system to

maintain frequency stable in the normal state and
after being subjected to a disturbance;

49. ‘Gate Closure’ means the time after which the bids submitted to
the Power Exchange cannot be modified for a
specified delivery period;

50. ‘Generating Unit’ means

a) For all generating stations except solar photo

voltaic, wind and hybrid stations:
an electrical generator coupled to a prime
mover within a power station together with
all plant and apparatus at the power
station which relate exclusively to
operation of that turbo-generator;
b) For solar photo voltaic generating stations
including hybrid, each inverter along with
associated modules will be reckoned as a
separate generating unit;
c) For wind generating stations including hybrid:
each wind turbine generator with associated
equipment shall be reckoned as a separate
generating unit;

51. ‘Governor Droop’ in relation to the operation of the governor of a

generating unit means the percentage drop in
system frequency which would cause the
generating unit under governor action to change
its output from zero to full load;

52. ‘Grid Security’ means the power system's capability to retain a

normal state or to return to a normal state as soon

15
S. No. Particulars Definition

as possible, and which is characterized by

operational security limits;

53. ‘Grid Standards’ means the standards specified by the Authority

under clause (d) of the Section 73 of the Act;

54. ‘Hot Start’ in relation to steam turbine, means start up after

a shutdown period of less than 10 hours (turbine
metal temperatures below approximately 80% of
their full load values);

55. ‘Inertia’ means the contribution to the capability of the

power system to resist changes in frequency by
means of an inertial response from a generating
unit, network element or other equipment that is
coupled with the power system and synchronized
to the frequency of the power system;

56. ‘Infirm Power’ means electricity injected into the grid prior to the
date of commercial operation of a unit of the
generating station;

57. ‘Inter-State Generating means a central generating station or other

Station’ or ‘ISGS’ generating station having a scheme of generation
and sale of electricity in more than one state;

58. ‘Inter-State Transmission shall have the same meaning as defined in the
System’ or ‘ISTS’ Act;

59. ‘Licensee’ means a person who has been granted a license

under Section 14 of the Act;

60. ‘Load’ means the active, reactive or apparent power

consumed by a utility/installation of consumer;

61. ‘Long-Term Access’ shall have the same meaning as specified by the
Commission in Central Electricity Regulatory

16
S. No. Particulars Definition

Commission (Grant of Connectivity, Long term

Access and Medium-term Open Access in inter-
State Transmission and related matters)
Regulations, 2009;

62. ‘Long-Term Customer’ shall have the same meaning as specified by the
Commission in Central Electricity Regulatory
Commission (Grant of Connectivity, Long term
Access and Medium-term Open Access in inter-
State Transmission and related matters)
Regulations, 2009;

63. ‘Maximum Continuous means the maximum continuous output in MW at

Rating’ or ‘MCR’ the generator terminals guaranteed by the
manufacturer at rated parameters;

64. ‘Medium-Term Open shall have the same meaning as specified by the
Access’ Commission in Central Electricity Regulatory
Commission (Grant of Connectivity, Long term
Access and Medium-term Open Access in inter-
State Transmission and related matters)
Regulations, 2009;

65. ‘Medium-Term Customer’ means a person who has been granted medium-
term open access;

66. ‘Merit Order’ means the order of ranking of available electricity

generation in ascending order from least energy
charge to highest energy charge to be used for
deciding despatch instruction to minimize the
overall cost of generation.

67. ‘Merit Order Despatch’ means despatch of generating stations to supply

electricity variable in accordance with the merit order

17
S. No. Particulars Definition

taking into account any technical and operational limits

of generation and transmission facilities;

68. ‘Minimum Turndown Level’ means minimum station loading corresponding to

the units on bar upto which a regional entity
generating stations is required to be on bar on
account of less schedule by its buyers or as per
the direction of RLDC as detailed in Chapter 8;

69. ‘Nadir Frequency’ means minimum frequency after a contingency in

case of generation loss and maximum frequency
after a contingency in case of load loss;

70. ‘National Grid’ means the entire inter-connected electric power

network of the country;

71. ‘Net Drawal Schedule’ means the drawal schedule of a regional entity
after deducting the apportioned transmission
losses (estimated);

72. ‘National Load Despatch means the centre established under sub-section
Centre’ or ‘NLDC’ (1) of Section 26 of the Act;

73. ‘National Power means a committee established by Ministry of

Committee’ or ‘NPC’ Power, Government of India to deliberate and
resolve the issues requiring consultation on
issues affecting more than one region or all
regions;

74. ‘Normal State’ means the state in which the system is within the
operational parameters as defined in this Grid
Code;

75. ‘On-Bar Declared Capacity’ in relation to a generating station means the

capability to deliver ex-bus electricity in MW from
the units on-bar declared by such generating
station in relation to any time block of the day as

18
S. No. Particulars Definition

defined in the Grid Code or whole of the day, duly

taking into account the availability of fuel and
water and subject to further qualification in the
relevant regulations;

76. ‘On-Bar Installed Capacity’ means the summation of name plate capacities
or the capacities as approved by the Commission
from time to time, of all units of the generating
station in MW which are on- bar. In case of a
combined cycle module of a gas/liquid fuel-based
stations, the installed capacity of steam turbine
shall be in proportion to the on-bar capacity of
gas turbines of the module;

77. ‘Off-Bar Declared shall be considered as the difference between

Capability’ Declared Capacity and On-Bar Declared
Capacity in MW;

78. ‘Operation Co-ordination means a sub-committee of RPC which

Sub-Committee’ or ‘OCC’ deliberates the operational aspects of the
regional grid;

79. ‘Primary Reserve’ means the maximum quantum of power which

will immediately come into service through
governor action of the generator in the event of
sudden change in frequency. This reserve
response shall start instantaneously and attain its
peak in less than 30 seconds, and shall sustain
upto 5 minutes;

80. ‘Pool Account’ means regional account for

i. Payments regarding deviation

settlement/ancillary services or

19
S. No. Particulars Definition

ii. reactive energy exchanges (Reactive

Energy Account) or
iii. congestion charge, as the case may be;

81. ‘Pooling Station’ means the ISTS grid sub-station where pooling of
generation of individual generators is done for
interfacing with the next higher voltage level;

82. ‘Power Exchange’ means an exchange registered under CERC

(Power Market), Regulations 2010;

83. ‘Power System’ means all aspects of generation, transmission,

distribution and supply of electricity and includes
one or more of the following, namely:

i. generating stations;
ii. transmission or main transmission lines;
iii. sub-stations;
iv. tie-lines;
v. load despatch activities;
vi. mains or distribution mains;
vii. electric supply lines;
viii. overhead lines;
ix. service lines;
x. works;

84. ‘Protection Co-ordination means a sub-committee of RPC with members

Sub-Committee’ from all the regional entities which decides on
the protection aspects of the regional grid;

85. ‘Qualified Coordinating means the lead generator or any authorized

Agency’ or ‘QCA’ agency on behalf of wind, solar and hybrid
generators including Energy Storage Systems
connected to one or more pooling station(s) for

20
S. No. Particulars Definition

coordinating with concerned load despatch

centre for scheduling, operational coordination
and deviation settlement;

86. ‘Ramp Rate’ means rate of change of a generating station

output expressed in %MW per minute;

87. ‘Rate of Change of means the time derivative of the power system
Frequency’ or ‘df/dt’ frequency which negates short term transients
and therefore reflects the actual change in
synchronous network frequency;

88. ‘Reference contingency’ means the maximum positive power deviation

occurring instantaneously between generation
and demand and considered for dimensioning of
reserves;

89. ‘Regional Entity’ means such persons who are in the RLDC control
area and whose metering and energy accounting
is done at the regional level;

90. ‘Regional Power means a Committee established through a

Committee’ or ‘RPC’ resolution by the Central Government for a
specific region for facilitating the integrated
operation of the power systems in that region;

91. ‘Restorative State’ means a condition in which control action is

being taken to reconnect the system elements
and to restore system load;

92. ‘RPC Secretariat’ means the Secretariat of the RPC;

93. ‘Regional Energy Account’ means regional accounts of energy and other
or ‘REA’ parameters issued by the RPC Secretariat for
the purpose of billing and settlement of charges
of ISGS and other users;

21
S. No. Particulars Definition

94. ‘Regional Transmission means regional accounts of transmission issued

Account’ or ‘RTA’ by the RPC Secretariat for the purpose of billing
and settlement of transmission charges of ISTS;

95. ‘Regional Grid’ means the entire inter-connected electric power

network of the concerned region;

96. ‘Regional Load Despatch means the Centre established under sub-
Centre’ or ‘RLDC’ section (1) of Section 27 of the Act;

97. ‘Secondary Reserve’ means the maximum quantum of power which

can be activated through Automatic Generation
Control (AGC) to free the capacity engaged by
the primary control. This reserve response shall
come into service starting from 30 seconds and
shall sustain up to 15 minutes;

98. ‘Security Constrained means operation of generation facilities to

Economic Despatch’ or produce energy at lowest cost to reliably serve
‘SCED’ consumers, recognizing any operational and
technical limits of generation and transmission
facilities;

99. ‘Security Constrained Unit means committing/de-committing generating

Commitment’ or ‘SCUC’ units while respecting limitations of the
transmission system and unit operating
characteristics;

100. ‘SERC’ means State Electricity Regulatory Commission;

101. ‘Settlement Nodal Agency’ means the nodal agency as notified by Ministry of
or ‘SNA’ Power, Government of India for each neighboring
country for settlement of grid operation related
charges in terms of CERC (Cross Border Trade
of Electricity) Regulations, 2019;

22
S. No. Particulars Definition

102. ‘Share’ means percentage or MW entitlement of a

beneficiary in an ISGS either notified by
Government of India or agreed through
contracts and implemented through long-term
access and medium-term open access;

103. ‘Short-Term Open Access’ means open access for a period as specified by
the Commission;

104. ‘State Load Despatch means the Centre established under subsection
Centre’ or ‘SLDC’ (1) of Section 31 of the Act;

105. ‘State Transmission Utility’ means the board or the government company
or ‘STU’ specified as such by the state government under
sub-section (1) of section 39 of the Act;

106. ‘System Constraint’ means a situation in which there is a need to

prepare and activate a remedial action in order to
respect operational security limits;

107. ‘System State’ means the operational state of the power system
in relation to the operational security limits which
can be normal state, alert state, emergency state,
extreme emergency state and restoration state;

108. ‘Technical Co-ordination means the sub-committee set up by RPC to

Committee’ or ‘TCC’ coordinate the technical and commercial aspects
of the operation of the regional grid;

109. ‘Tertiary Reserve’ means the quantum of power which can be

activated, in order to restore an adequate
secondary reserve. Fast Tertiary Reserve
Response shall come into service starting from
five (5) minutes and shall sustain upto thirty (30)
minutes. Slow Tertiary Reserve Response shall

23
S. No. Particulars Definition

come into service starting from fifteen (15)

minutes and shall sustain upto sixty (60) minutes;

110. ‘Time Block’ means block of duration as specified by the

Commission for which energy meters record
values of specified electrical parameters with first
time block starting at 00.00 Hours, presently
fifteen (15) minutes;

111. ‘Total Transfer Capability’ means the amount of electric power that can be
or ‘TTC’ transferred reliably over the inter-control area
transmission system under a given set of
operating conditions considering the effect of
occurrence of the worst credible contingency;

112. ‘Transmission Planning means the manual issued by CEA for

Criteria’ transmission system planning;

113. ‘Transmission Reliability means the amount of margin kept in the total
Margin’ or ‘TRM’ transfer capability to ensure that the
interconnected transmission network is secure
under a reasonable range of uncertainties in
system conditions;

114. ‘Trial Operation’ or ‘Trial shall have the same meaning as provided in
Run’ Regulation 29 of these regulations;

115. ‘User’ means a generating company, captive

generating plant, energy storage system,
transmission licensee including deemed
transmission licensee, distribution licensee, solar
park developer, wind park developer, wind-solar
photo voltaic hybrid system, or bulk consumer
whose electrical plant is connected to the Grid at
voltage level 33 kV and above;

24
 S. No. Particulars Definition

116. ‘Voltage Stability’ means the ability of a transmission system to

maintain steady acceptable voltages at all nodes
in the transmission system in the normal situation
and after being subjected to a disturbance;

117. ‘Warm Start’ means in relation to steam turbine means start up

after a shutdown period between 10 hours and 72
hours (turbine metal temperatures between
approximately 40% to 80% of their full load
values);

(2) Words and expressions used in these regulations and not defined herein but defined in the

Act or other relevant regulations of the Commission shall have the meaning as assigned to

them under the Act or relevant regulations of the Commission.

25
 CHAPTER 2: STRUCTURE OF GRID CODE

4. STRUCTURE OF THE GRID CODE

(1) Chapter 3: Role of Various Organizations and their Linkages

This chapter defines the functions and activities of various organizations and entities

relevant to the Grid Code.

(2) Chapter 4: Planning Code

This chapter covers the following aspects:

i. Integrated planning and development of adequate resources including demand

estimation, active and reactive power resources, reserves and energy storage

resources required for secure grid operation.

ii. Planning of transmission system for safe, reliable, economic and resilient power

system.

iii. Exchange of information amongst the stakeholders and planning agencies.

(3) Chapter 5: Connection Code

This chapter covers the technical and design criteria for connectivity, procedure and

requirements for physical connection and integration of new grid elements. It includes

tests to be performed after connectivity and prior to Trial Run for Declaration of

Commercial Operation.

(4) Chapter 6: Protection and Commissioning Code

This chapter covers the protection requirement and protection settings of electrical

systems, performance monitoring of protection system, protection audit and procedure

26
 and requirements for declaration of commercial operation of a generating unit or a

generating station or a transmission element of an interstate transmission system.

(5) Chapter 7: Operating Code

This chapter describes the operational philosophy, operational requirements, technical

capabilities and procedures or methodologies to maintain secure and reliable grid

operation including aspects related to real time operation, outage planning and system

restoration. As maintenance of load-generation balance is avital aspect of reliable

system operation and significant challenges are associated with increasing penetration

of renewables (both wind and solar) in the country, the chapter, thus, also deals with

generation reserves estimation and frequency control.

(6) Chapter 8: Unit Commitment, Scheduling and Despatch Code for Physical Delivery of

Electricity

This chapter deals with the procedure to be adopted for forecasting of demand and

generation resources in a control area, scheduling and despatch of generation of the

Inter-State Generating Stations (ISGS) and scheduling for other transactions through

long-term access, medium-term and short-term open access, on a day-ahead and intra-

day basis along with scheduling and despatch of ancillary services and reserves. This

chapter shall also deal with the process of the flow of information between the ISGS,

National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC), Regional Load Despatch Centre (RLDC),

Power Exchanges and State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC) and other concerned

persons for the secure and reliable operation of the grid.

(7) Chapter 9: Cyber Security

This chapter deals with measures to be taken to safeguard the national grid from spyware,

malware, cyber-attacks, network hacking, procedure for security audit from time to time,

27
 upgradation of system requirements and keeping abreast of latest developments in the

area of cyber-attacks and cyber security requirements.

(8) Chapter 10: Monitoring and Compliance Oversight

This chapter deals with monitoring of compliance of Grid Code by various entities in the

Grid by RLDC and RPC or any other person and manner of reporting the instances of

violations of Grid Code and taking remedial steps or initiating appropriate action. This

chapter also covers compliance audit.

(9) Chapter 11: Miscellaneous

28
 CHAPTER 3: ROLE OF VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

5. OBJECTIVE

This chapter specifies the roles and functions of the various organizations involved in the grid

operation and management and their organizational linkages so as to facilitate development

and smooth operation of the grid at large.

6. ROLE OF NLDC

(1) According to notification dated 2nd March 2005 by Ministry of Power, Government of India

issued under Section 26(2) of the Act, NLDC shall be the apex body to ensure integrated

operation of the national power system and shall discharge the following functions:

(a) Supervision over the Regional Load Despatch Centers.

(b) Scheduling and despatch of electricity over inter-regional links in accordance with

Grid Standards specified by the Authority and Grid Code specified by Central

Commission in coordination with Regional Load Despatch Centers.

(c) Coordination with Regional Load Despatch Centers for achieving maximum

economy and efficiency in the operation of National Grid.

(d) Monitoring of operations and grid security of the National Grid.

(e) Supervision and control over the inter-regional links as shall be required for ensuring

stability of the power system under its control.

(f) Coordination with Regional Power Committees for regional outage schedule in the

national perspective to ensure optimal utilization of power resources.

(g) Coordination with Regional Load Despatch Centers for the energy accounting of

inter-regional exchange of power.

(h) Coordination for restoration of synchronous operation of national grid with Regional

Load Despatch Centers.

29
 (i) Coordination for trans-national exchange of power.

(j) Providing operational feedback for national grid planning to the Authority and the

Central Transmission Utility.

(k) Levy and collection of such fee and charges from the generating companies or

licensees involved in the power system, as shall be specified by the Central

Commission.

(l) Dissemination of information relating to operations of transmission system including

inter-regional ATC and ISTS–STU ATC in accordance with directions or regulations

issued by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and the Central Government

from time to time.

(2) NLDC shall also carry out the following activities:

(a) NLDC shall be the nodal agency for power exchanges, collective transactions and

ancillary services.

(b) NLDC would act as the central control room in case of natural & man-made

emergency/disaster where it affects the power system operation.

(c) Scheduling and despatch of electricity over transnational links.

(d) Operation of Security Constrained Unit Commitment / Economic Despatch

(SCUC/SCED).

(e) NLDC shall perform the roles as defined under Central Electricity Regulatory

Commission (Cross Border Trade of Electricity) Regulations, 2019.

(f) NLDC shall perform the roles as defined under Central Electricity Regulatory

Commission (Measures to relieve congestion in real time operation) Regulations,

2009.

(g) Activities assigned to NLDC under these regulations.

(h) Any other activities as maybe assigned by the Central Government or Central

Commission.

30
7. ROLE OF RLDC

(1) The functions of RLDC shall be in accordance with section 28 of the Act.

(2) In accordance with sub-section (1) of section 29 of the Act, the RLDC may give such

directions and exercise such supervision and control as may be required for ensuring the

integrated grid operations and for achieving the maximum economy and efficiency in the

operation of power system in that region. Every licensee, generating company,

generating station, sub-station and any other person connected with the operation of the

power system shall comply with the directions issued by the State Load Despatch Centre

under sub-section (1) of Section 29 of the Act.

(3) RLDC shall also be responsible for following activities:

(a) System operation and control including inter-state transfer of power, covering

contingency analysis and operational planning on real time basis;

(b) Scheduling / re-scheduling of generation;

(c) System restoration following grid disturbances;

(d) Meter data processing;

(e) Compiling and furnishing data pertaining to system operation;

(f) Operation of regional DSM pool account, regional reactive energy account and

congestion charge account, provided that such functions shall be undertaken by any

entity other than RLDC, if the Commission so directs.

(g) Operation of ancillary services as required.

(h) Regional renewable energy forecasting week ahead, day ahead and intra day

(i) Monitoring the absorption of renewable energy by the constituents from contracted

sources and adherence to must run status of regional entity renewable plants.

(j) Activities assigned to RLDC under CERC regulations.

31
8. ROLE OF RPC

(1) The RPC in the Region may, from time to time, agree on matters concerning the stability

and smooth operation of the integrated grid and economy and efficiency in the operation

of the power system in that region.

(2) The functions of RPC in accordance with Ministry of Power Resolution dated 25 th May

2005 shall be to:

(a) Undertake Regional Level operation analysis for improving grid performance.

(b) Facilitate inter-state/inter-regional transfer of power.

(c) Facilitate all functions of planning relating to inter-state/intra- state transmission

system with CTU/STU.

(d) Coordinate planning of maintenance of generating machines of various generating

companies of the region including those of interstate generating companies

supplying electricity to the Region on annual basis and also to undertake review of

maintenance programmed on monthly basis.

(e) Undertake planning of outage of transmission system on annual / monthly basis.

(f) Undertake operational planning studies including protection studies for stable

operation of the grid.

(g) Undertake planning for maintaining proper voltages through review of reactive

compensation requirement through system study committee and monitoring of

installed capacitors.

(h) Evolve consensus on all issues relating to economy and efficiency in the operation

of power system in the region.

(3) RPC shall also be responsible for the following activities:

(a) To perform the functions as mandated under the Central Electricity Regulatory

Commission (Ancillary Services Operation) Regulations, 2015.

32
 (b) A database of protection settings in this regard shall be maintained by RPC and

updated time to time.

(c) Activities assigned under these regulations.

(4) RPC Secretariat shall perform following activities:

(a) Member Secretary, RPC shall certify transmission system availability factor for

regional AC and HVDC transmission systems separately for the purpose of payment

of transmission charges and publish the details thereof on the RPC website.

(b) RPC Secretariat shall prepare monthly Regional Energy Account (REA), Regional

Transmission Account (RTA), Compensation account for Part Load Operations as

per Annexure- 5, weekly deviation settlement account, RRAS account, SCED

account, FRAS account, reactive energy account, and congestion charge account,

based on data provided by RLDC, and any other charges specified by the

Commission for the purpose of billing and payments of various charges.

(c) Carry out intra-regional optimization studies with a view to enhancing ISTS-STU

ATC of the constituent states and take further necessary action in the matter.

(d) Activities assigned under CERC regulations from time to time.

(5) The decisions of RPC with regard to functions assigned by the Grid Code shall be followed

by the concerned RLDC, SLDC, CTU, STU and users, subject to directions/regulations of

the Commission, if any.

9. ROLE OF CTU

(1) The Central Transmission Utility (CTU) shall carry out the functions in accordance with

the section 38 of Act.

(2) CTU shall also perform following activities:

33
 (a) Be responsible for consultation with stakeholders such as generators, STU, RLDC,

SLDC and distribution licensees and maintain transparency at all stages of planning

of augmentation or strengthening of ISTS.

(b) Planning activities as specified under Central Electricity Regulatory Commission

(Planning, Coordination and Development of Economic and Efficient Inter-State

Transmission System by Central Transmission Utility and other related matters)

Regulations, 2018.

(c) Nodal agency for the connectivity, long-term access and medium- term open access

in accordance with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Grant of

Connectivity, Long-term Access and Medium-term Open Access in Inter-State

Transmission and related matters) Regulations, 2009, as amended from time to

time.

(d) Activities assigned under these regulations or any other CERC regulations.

10. ROLE OF SLDC

(1) The functions of State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC) shall be in accordance with section

32 of the Act. Every licensee, generating company, generating station, sub-station and

any other person connected with operation of power system shall comply with the

directions issued by SLDC under sub-section (1) of Section 33 of the Act. The SLDC

shall comply with the directions of the RLDC.

(2) State Load Despatch Centre shall also be responsible for following activities:

(a) Ensuring adequate primary, secondary and tertiary reserves.

(b) Ensuring must-run status of renewable sources of energy contracted by the state.

(c) In case of inter-state bilateral and collective short-term open access transactions

having a state utility or an intra-state entity as a buyer or a seller, SLDC shall accord

concurrence or no objection or a prior standing clearance, as the case may be, in

34
 accordance with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Open Access in

Inter-State transmission) Regulations,2008.

(d) Activities assigned under these regulations.

11. ROLE OF STU

(1) STU shall perform its functions in accordance with Section 39 of the Act.

(2) STU shall perform activities as assigned under these regulations.

12. ROLE OF QCA

(1) The roles and functions of QCA shall be as follows:

(a) To act as the nodal agency on behalf of the wind, solar and hybrid generators

including energy storage system connected to one or more pooling stations

represented by it for the purpose of Grid Code in general and operational and

scheduling liaison in particular.

(b) To undertake generation forecasting, declaration of combined capability on behalf

of generators, energy storage system at one or more pooling stations to the

concerned load despatch centre for the purpose of scheduling.

(c) To undertake scheduling, metering and accounting of energy. QCA shall be

responsible for pooling of declared availability, de-pooling of despatch schedule

and DSM account as necessary.

(d) To operate and maintain a co-ordination centre manned by qualified and

competent personnel for round the clock operational co-ordination and

information exchange with the concerned Load Despatch Centre and generating

stations.

(e) To settle all payments as per DSM Regulations arising out of deviations from its

aggregated schedule given by relevant LDC.

35
 (2) Any instruction or direction given by the LDC to QCA shall be deemed to have been

given to the renewable generator represented by it.

13. ROLE OF NATIONAL POWER COMMITTEE (NPC)

The functions of NPC shall be in accordance with Order no A-60016/24/2012-Adm-I dated

25th March 2013 as follows:

a) Discuss and resolve issues referred to NPC requiring consultation among one or more

RPCs, concerning inter-alia inter-regional implication or any other issue affecting more

than one region or all regions.

b) To resolve issues amongst RPCs.

36
 CHAPTER 4: PLANNING CODE

14. OBJECTIVE

The objective of the Planning Code is to set out principles for planning of generation and

transmission resources for reliably meeting the projected demand in compliance with specified

reliability standards for serving the load with optimum generation mix, and to create framework

for integration of environmentally benign technologies for electricity generation. It factors large

scale absorption of renewable energy in accordance with national policy taking into account

measures, including flexible resources, storage systems for energy shift and demand

response measures for managing the intermittency and variability of renewable energy

sources.

15. PLANNING DIMENSIONS

(1) The integrated power system planning shall include:

(a) Probabilistic assessment by the designated agency of a State of its future demand

pattern under different scenarios.

(b) Adequacy of generation resources taking into account loss of load probability and

energy not served as specified by CEA.

(c) Adequate generation reserves and demand response for maintaining grid stability.

(d) Validation of adequacy of transmission resources through system studies

considering economic despatch under various demand and generation scenarios

including must run generation.

(e) Validation of adequate power transfer capability to be carried out for the entire grid

in a comprehensive manner by CTU:

37
 – adequate power transfer capability across each flow-gate

– import and export capability for each control area

– import and export capability between regions

– cross-border import and export capability

(f) Validation of adequate power transfer capability to be carried out by STU:

– Adequate power transfer capability across each flow-gate

– Import and export capability across ISTS and STU interface

(2) The following approach would be adopted to ensure the same:

(a) Demand forecasting by state

i. Each distribution licensee of the state shall estimate the demand in its control

area including the demand of open access consumers for next five years starting

from 1st April of the next year and submit to STU by 30 th September every year.

ii. STU, in co-ordination with all distribution licensees, shall estimate the demand

by 31st October of every year for the entire state duly considering the diversity,

for the next five (5) years starting 1st April of the next year using trend method,

time series, econometric methods or any state of the art methods and submit the

same to CEA and CTU.

iii. CTU, in consultation with STUs, shall estimate by 31st December every year,

the demand for each region as well as the entire country taking into account the

diversity for the next five (5) years starting 1st April of the next year based on the

inputs from STU.

38
 iv. The demand estimation shall include daily load curve (hourly basis) for a typical

day for each month.

(b) Generation resource planning

i. Each distribution licensee shall ensure demonstrable resource adequacy as

specified by the respective SERC for the next five (5) years starting 1st April of

the next year. Adequacy statement containing a list of such resources along with

associated capacities shall be submitted to the respective STU and SERC. STU

shall submit the same to CTU.

ii. The National Electricity Plan may consider the following from grid operation

perspective:

(a) Generation flexibility, ramping and minimum turndown level and start-stops

(b) Requirement of energy storage systems and demand response measures

(c) Generation reserve requirement

(d) System inertia for grid stability

(e) Cross-border electricity exchange

(f) Fuel security

iii. While finalizing transmission plan for implementation, CTU shall simulate the

economic despatch considering grid security under various scenarios based on

adequacy statement furnished by STU and provide feedback to CEA.

39
(c) Inter-State Transmission Planning

i. The inputs for inter-state transmission planning shall be collated by CTU based

on the National Electricity Plan of CEA and conventional and renewable

generation capacity addition assessment of various agencies, estimates of

renewable energy potential in different areas as assessed by MNRE, demand

forecast of Electric Power Survey and demand estimates by CTU as per clause

15(2)(a)(iii). The CTU shall interact with various stakeholders such as CEA,

MNRE, state renewable development agencies, STUs, distribution licensee,

SLDC, RLDC, NLDC and generation developers to make a comprehensive

assessment of inter-state transmission plan covering power evacuation

schemes, pooling stations, enhancement of power transfer capability between

regions and enhancement of power transfer capability for each STU system.

ii. Based on the inputs compiled and collated by CTU for preparation of

transmission planning, load generation balance scenarios for each month [as

specified in clause 15(2)(a)(iv)] shall be prepared by CTU and disseminated in

public domain. The finalized load generation balance for transmission planning

shall be shared with stakeholders.

iii. The CTU shall carry out the planning of inter-state transmission system based

on the following:

(a) Manual on Transmission Planning Criteria issued by CEA

(b) Central Electricity Authority (Technical Standards for Connectivity to the

Grid) 2007

(c) Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Planning, Coordination and

Development of Economic and Efficient Inter-State Transmission System

40
 by Central Transmission Utility and other related matters) Regulations,
2018

(d) Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Grant of Connectivity, Long-

Term Access and Medium-Term Open Access in interstate transmission
and related matters) Regulations 2009

iv. While planning the ISTS transmission system, the following shall be duly

considered by CTU:

(a) CTU shall analyze N-2 contingencies which could lead to cascade tripping.

Special Protection Schemes (SPS) with adequate redundancies may be

designed wherever necessary.

(b) While planning the transmission system, CTU shall consider resilience in

terms of nearby black start resources and building up of the cranking path

to load centres and thermal generating stations.

v. The transmission planning alternatives shall be shared with stakeholders for

consultation through a national level workshop before finalization.

vi. CTU shall carry out periodic all India transmission review and re-optimization

study in collaboration with STUs on yearly basis and its report shall be submitted

to CEA for remedial measures under intimation to CERC by 1st April every year.

In the summary of the report, immediate priorities shall be highlighted for the

purpose of improving reliability, adequacy and opportunities for increasing TTC

across inter regional boundaries as well as well as ISTS interface with state

control areas. Emerging pattern of power flows based on economic despatch

shall be captured by the CTU in its re-optimization studies.

41
 vii. In order to achieve economy, before planning new transmission corridors, CTU

shall endeavor to maximize the utilization of existing transmission corridors by

considering reconfiguration, re-conductoring, use of flexible AC technologies,

series and shunt compensation and dynamic line rating options.

16. TECHNICAL DETAILS AND CO-ORDINATION

(1) All STUs, RLDCs, SLDCs and Users shall furnish the data as desired by CEA and CTU

from time to time to enable them to formulate and finalize the National Electricity Plan

and planning of ISTS.

(2) STU shall put in place systems at the intra state level for getting timely updates from the

distribution companies in respect of developments related to distributed energy

resources and electric vehicles charging stations.

(3) All study models related to transmission planning shall be periodically updated by CTU

and STU. A similar system shall be developed for cross border transmission planning

studies.

(4) CTU may organize periodic capacity building workshops so that all stakeholders have a

shared vision in respect of generation and transmission resource planning.

(5) CTU shall publish on its website the planned inter-regional and ISTS-STU power transfer

capability for the next 3-5 years in coordination with the respective STU.

42
 CHAPTER 5: CONNECTION CODE
17. OBJECTIVE

(1) The connectivity to ISTS shall be granted by CTU as per the regulations laid down by

CERC and the detailed procedure specified therein. The connectivity to intra-state

transmission system shall be granted by STU as per the regulations laid down by

respective SERC and the detailed procedure specified therein.

(2) This code specifies the requirements to be fulfilled by the connectivity grantees prior to

obtaining the permission of the RLDC/NLDC/SLDC for first time energizing of a new or

modified power system element. In addition to above, this code specifies the technical

requirements to be complied by a transmission licensee including deemed transmission

licensees or cross-border entity prior to being allowed by RLDC/NLDC/SLDC to energize

a new or modified power system element.

(3) It includes tests to be performed after connectivity and prior to Trial Run for Declaration

of Commercial Operation

18. COMPLIANCE WITH EXISTING RULES AND REGULATIONS

All users connected to or seeking connection to grid shall comply with applicable regulations

as under:

i. Central Electricity Authority (Technical Standards for Connectivity to the Grid)

Regulations, 2007

ii. Central Electricity Authority (Technical Standards for Construction of Electrical Plants and

Electric Lines) Regulations, 2010

iii. Central Electricity Authority (Measures Relating to Safety & Electric Supply) Regulations,

2010

43
 iv. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Communication System for Inter-State

Transmission of Electricity) Regulations,2017

v. Central Electricity Authority (Installation and Operation of Meters) Regulations, 2006

vi. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Grant of Connectivity, Long-term Access and

Medium-term Open Access in Inter-State Transmission and related matters)

Regulations,2009

vii. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Planning, Coordination and Development of

Economic and Efficient Inter-State Transmission System by Central Transmission Utility

and other related matters) Regulations, 2018

viii. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Fees and Charges for Regional Load

Despatch Centres) Regulations, 2019

ix. Any other regulations and standards specified from time to time

19. PROCEDURE FOR CONNECTION

(1) The grant of connectivity by CTU to ISTS shall be governed by Central Electricity

Regulatory Commission (Grant of Connectivity, Long-term Access and Medium-term

Open Access in Inter-State Transmission and related matters) Regulations, 2009.

(2) Post completion of all physical arrangements of connectivity and completing the

necessary site tests, the connectivity grantee and/or licensee shall request the RLDC for

permission of first energization in the specified format as per the procedure for first time

energization of power system elements.

(3) NLDC shall publish a detailed procedure covering modalities for first time energization

and integration of new or modified power system elements. The procedure shall specify

requirements for integration with the grid such as protection, telemetry and

44
 communication systems, metering, statutory clearances and modelling data

requirements for system studies.

(4) SLDC shall prepare procedure for first time energization of new or modified elements

power system elements to intra-State transmission system in line with the procedure

developed by NLDC. In the absence of such procedure of SLDC, the NLDC procedure

shall apply.

20. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

NLDC/RLDC in consultation with CTU shall carry out a joint system study six (6) months

before expected date of first energization of a new power system element to identify

operational constraints, if any. The connectivity grantee, transmission licensee and

SLDC/STU shall furnish all technical data including that of its embedded generators and other

elements to the CTU/NLDC for necessary technical studies. Similar exercise shall be done by

STU and SLDC for the intra-state system.

21. DATA AND COMMUNICATION FACILITIES

(1) Reliable speech and data communication systems on path diversified data links shall be

provided to facilitate necessary communication and data exchange and

supervision/control of the grid by the NLDC, RLDC and SLDC in accordance with CERC

(Communication System for Inter-State Transmission of Electricity) Regulations, 2017 and

CEA standards.

(2) The associated communication system to facilitate data flow up to appropriate data

collection point on CTU/STU system including inter-operability requirements shall also be

established by the concerned user or STU as specified by CTU in the connection

agreement. All users/STU/participating entities in case of cross-border trade, in

coordination with CTU, shall provide the required facilities at their respective ends as

45
 specified in the connection agreement. The communication system along with data links

provided for speech and real time data communication shall be monitored in real time by

all users, CTU, STU and RLDC shall ensure high reliability of the communication links.

22. TESTS PRIOR TO TRIAL RUN FOR DECLARATION OF COMMERCIAL OPERATION

Notwithstanding the requirements in other standards, codes and contracts, the following tests

shall be scheduled and carried out in coordination with NLDC/RLDC by the generating

company and transmission licensee, as the case may be, before being allowed to proceed for

the trial run for declaration of commercial operation. These tests shall be performed for

ensuring grid security and relevant reports shall be submitted to NLDC/RLDC.

(1) Tests required for thermal (coal/lignite) generating stations

(a) Operation of control load of fifty (50) percent of MCR as per CEA standards for a

sustained period of four (4) hours.

(b) Ramp-up from fifty (50) percent MCR to rated capacity at a ramp rate of atleast

three (3) percent of MCR per minute. Sustained operation at MCR for one (1) hour.

(c) To demonstrate overload capability with valve wide open as per Central Electricity

Authority (Technical Standards for Construction of Electrical Plants and Electric Lines)

Regulations, 2010. Sustained operation at this level for atleast five (5) minutes.

(d) Ramp-down from MCR to fifty (50) percent of MCR at a ramp rate of atleast three

(3) percent of MCR per minute.

(e) Testing primary response through injecting a frequency test signal with a step

change of ± 0.1 Hz at 60%, 75% and 100% load.

(f) Reactive power capability test as per the generator capability curve considering

over-excitation and under-excitation limiter settings.

46
(2) Tests/Documents required for hydro stations

Documents

(a) The generating company shall submit the document for turbine characteristics

curve indicating the operating zone(s) and prohibited zone(s). In order to demonstrate

operating flexibility of generating unit, it shall be operated below and above the prohibited

zone(s).

Tests

(b) Testing primary response through injecting a frequency test signal with a step

change of ± 0.1 Hz for various loadings within the operating zone.

(c) Reactive power capability test as per the generator capability curve considering

over-excitation and under-excitation limiter settings.

(d) Black start capability.

(e) Operation in synchronous condenser mode wherever designed.

The tests will be performed considering the water availability and head.

(3) Tests/Documents required for gas turbine based generating stations

Documents

(a) Submit documents having information about starting time of gas turbine from cold

and warm conditions and ramping up from no load to full load at design ramp rate.

Tests

(b) Testing primary response through injecting a frequency test signal with a step

change of ± 0.1 Hz for various loadings within the operating zone.

47
 (c) Reactive power capability test as per the generator capability curve considering

over-excitation and under-excitation limiter settings.

(d) Test to validate Black start capability upto 100 MW capacity wherever designed.

(e) Test to validate Operation in synchronous condenser mode wherever designed.

(4) Tests/Documents required for wind/solar generating stations

Documents

(a) Submission of certificate confirming compliance to CEA (Technical Standards for

Connectivity to the Grid) Regulations, 2007

Tests

(b) To demonstrate the frequency response of machines as per CEA (Technical Standards

for Connectivity to the Grid) Regulations, 2007 Reactive power capability test as per OEM

rating at the available irradiance or the wind energy, as the case may be.

(c) To demonstrate the Grid forming capability, wherever provided.

(5) Tests/Documents required for Energy Storage Systems

Documents

(a) Submission of certificate confirming compliance to CEA connectivity standards.

Tests

(b) To demonstrate the frequency response of ESS.

(c) To demonstrate the ramping capability as per design.

48
 (d) To demonstrate rated power output capability in MW and energy output capacity

in MWh.

(6) Tests/Documents required for HVDC transmission elements

Documents

(a) Submission of technical particulars including operating guidelines such as filter

bank requirements at various operating loads and monopolar/bipolar configuration,

reactive power controller, power demand overrides, run-back features, frequency

controller, reduced voltage mode of operation, power oscillation damping.

Tests

(b) Minimum load operation.

(c) Ramp rate

(d) Overload capability

(e) Black start capability in case of Voltage source convertor (VSC) HVDC.

(7) Tests /Documents required for SVC/STATCOM

Documents

(a) Submission of technical particulars including operating guidelines such as number

of blocks and rating of each block, single line diagram, V/I characteristics, rating of

coupling transformer, MSR/MSC design parameters, different operating modes, IEEE

standard Model, Power Oscillation Damping (POD) enabled and tuned (if not then reasons

for same). The results for Offline simulation-based study to validate the performance of

POD

49
Tests

(b) Tests to validate full reactive power capability of SVC/STATCOM in both the

directions i.e. absorption as well as injection mode, POD performance, dynamic

performance testing

50
 CHAPTER 6: PROTECTION AND COMMISSIONING
CODE

A. PROTECTION CODE

23. OBJECTIVE

(1) To have a common protection philosophy amongst users of the grid.

(2) To provide proper co-ordination of protection system in order to isolate the faulty

equipment and avoid unintended operation of protection system.

(3) To have a repository of protection system and settings at regional level.

(4) To have a repository of events, timelines for submission of data and ensure healthiness

of recording equipment’s along with time synchronization.

(5) To provide for periodic audit of protection system.

24. BASIC FEATURES

(1) All users connected to the integrated grid shall provide and maintain effective protection

system having reliability, selectivity, speed and sensitivity to isolate faulty section and

protect element(s) as per CEA (Grid Standards) Regulations, 2010, CEA (Technical

Standards for Connectivity to the Grid) Regulations, 2007 and CEA (Technical Standards

for Construction of Electrical Plants and Electric Lines), Regulations 2010.

(2) Back-up protection system shall be provided to protect an element in the event of failure

of the primary protection system.

25. PROTECTION PHILOSOPHY AND SETTINGS

(1) Protection philosophy

51
 (a) RPC shall develop the protection philosophy, and review and revise from time to time,

in consultation with stakeholders in the concerned region, and in doing so shall be

guided by minimum electrical protection functions for equipment connected with the

grid shall be provided as per CEA (Technical Standards for Construction of Electrical

Plants and Electric Lines) Regulations 2010, CEA (Technical standards for

Connectivity to the Grid) Regulations 2007, CEA (Measures relating to Safety and

Electric Supply) Regulations2010 and any other CEA standards specified time to time.

(b) The protection philosophy in a particular system may vary depending upon operational

experience in the broad contours of above protection design guidelines. However,

such changes shall be carried out after deliberation and approval at RPC level.

(2) Protection Settings

(a) RPC shall undertake review of the protection settings, assess the requirement of

revisions in protection setting and develop revised protection settings in consultation

with stakeholders in the concerned region. The necessary studies in this regard shall

be carried out by RPC.

(b) All users connected to the grid shall:

i. ensure correct and appropriate settings of protection as per RPC approved

protection philosophy.

ii. cooperate for proper coordinated protection settings.

iii. report any changes in network to other users for changes required in protection

settings.

52
 iv. furnish the implemented protection settings of each element to respective RPC in

a format as prescribed by RPC. Any implemented changes in protection system or

protection setting shall also be intimated to RPC Secretariat.

v. obtain approval of RPC for any revision in settings and inform RPC on its

successful implementation.

(c) RPC Secretariat shall:

i. maintain a centralized database containing details of relay settings for grid

elements connected to 220kV and above (132 kV and above in NER).

ii. provide the database access to all users, NLDC, RLDC, SLDC, CTU and STU.

The database may have different access rights for different users.

iii. carry out system wide studies, twice a year, for protection settings and advise

modifications/ changes, if any, to all users, CTU and STU.

26. PROTECTION AUDIT PLAN

(1) All users shall conduct internal audit of their protection system annually and any

shortcomings identified shall be rectified and informed to RPC.

(2) All users shall also conduct third party protection audit of each sub-station (132 kV and

above in NER and 220 kV and above for rest of the grid) once in five years or earlier as

advised by RPC.

(3) After analysis of an event, RPC shall identify a list of substations/generating stations

where third-party protection audit is required and accordingly advise the respective users

to complete third party audit within three months.

53
(4) The third-party protection audit report shall inter-alia contain points given in format

enclosed as Annexure – 2. The audit reports, along with action plan for rectification of

deficiencies found, if any, shall be submitted to RPC or RLDC within a month of

submission of report by auditor.

(5) Annual audit plan shall be submitted by users to RPC Secretariat by 31st October for the

next financial year. Users shall adhere to the submitted plan and report the compliance

to RPC.

(6) Users shall submit the following protection performance indices to RPC Secretariat on

monthly basis. The performance indices shall also be reviewed by respective RPC

Secretariat during monthly Protection Sub-Committee meeting of RPC:

𝑁𝑐
(a) The Dependability Index defined as 𝐷 = 𝑁𝑐+𝑁𝑓

Where,

Nc is the number of correct operations during the given time interval and

Nf is the number of failures to operate at internal power system faults.

𝑁𝑐
(b) The Security Index defined as 𝑆 =
𝑁𝑐+𝑁𝑢

Where,

Nu is the number of unwanted operations.

𝑁𝑐
(c) The Reliability Index defined as 𝑅 =
𝑁𝑐+𝑁𝑖

Where

Ni is the number of incorrect operations and is the sum of N f and Nu

(7) Each user shall also submit the reasons behind the fall in performance indices of

individual element wise protection system to RPC secretariat and Action plan along with

54
 deadline for corrective measures. The action plan will be followed up regularly in the

monthly protection sub-committee meeting of RPC.

(8) The RPC Secretariat shall report to the Commission if the above indices are less than

one in a year and if any user has failed to undertake any remedial action identified by

RPC.

27. SYSTEM PROTECTION SCHEMES (SPS)

(1) SPS design shall duly factor redundancies in measurement of inputs, logic as well as

communication paths involved upto the last mile to ensure security and dependability.

(2) For the operational SPS, RPC Secretariat shall perform regular dynamic studies and mock

testing for reviewing SPS parameters & functions, at least once in a year. The respective

users and SLDC shall report the SPS operation in the format specified by RPC within 3

days of operation to RPC and RLDC.

28. RECORDING INSTRUMENTS

(1) All users shall ensure the healthiness of recording instruments (disturbance recorder and

event logger) in the station.

(2) The disturbance recorder should have a standard format for analogue and digital signals,

time synchronization and capture time as per guideline given by RPC.

B. COMMERCIAL OPERATION DECLARATION CODE

29. NOTICE OF TRIAL RUN

(1) The generating company offering its unit for trial run or repeat of trial run shall give a

notice of not less than three days to the concerned RLDC or SLDC, as the case may be,

and the beneficiaries/long-term customers of the generating station wherever identified.

The trial run shall commence from the time and date to be informed by the RLDC or

55
 SLDC. The SLDC/RLDC shall endeavor to commence the trial run from the requested

date or in case of any system constraints not later than seven (7) days from the proposed

date of trial run.

(2) In case the repeat trial run is to take place within twenty-four (24) hours of the failed trial

run, fresh notice shall not be required.

(3) The transmission licensee shall give a notice of not less than seven days to the

concerned RLDC or SLDC, as the case may be, including long term transmission

customers.

30. TRIAL RUN OF GENERATING UNIT/STATION

(1) Trial run for thermal generating unit

(a) Continuous operation at MCR for seventy-two (72) hours on designated fuel provided

that short interruption or load reduction shall be permissible with corresponding

increase in duration of test:

Provided that:

(i) interruption or partial loading maybe allowed with the condition that the

average load during the duration of trial run shall not be less than MCR

excluding period of interruption but including the corresponding

extended period.

(ii) cumulative interruption of more than four (4) hours shall call for a repeat

of trial run.

(b) Where on the basis of the trial run, a unit of the generating station fails to demonstrate

the unit capacity corresponding to MCR, the generating company has the option to de-

rate the capacity or to go for repeat trial run. Where the generating company decides

56
 to de-rate the unit capacity, the demonstrated capacity in such cases shall be more or

equal to 105% of de-rated capacity.

(2) Trial run for hydro station

(a) Continuous operation at MCR for twelve (12) hours provided that any interruption shall

call for a repeat of trial run:

Provided that:

(i) the partial loading maybe allowed with the condition that the average load

during the duration of trial run shall not be less than MCR excluding period of

interruption but including the corresponding extended period.

(ii) If it is not possible to demonstrate the MCR due to insufficient reservoir or

pond level or insufficient inflow, the same shall be demonstrated immediately

when sufficient water is available after the date of declaration of COD.

(iii) In case the generation is reduced on the directions of the RLDC due to system

constraints, the RLDC shall permit corresponding increase in duration of test.

(b) Where on the basis of the trial run, a unit of the generating station fails to demonstrate

the unit capacity corresponding to MCR, the generating company shall have the option

to either de-rate the capacity or to go for repeat trial run. If the generating company

decides to de-rate the unit capacity, the demonstrated capacity in such cases shall be

more or equal to 110% of de-rated capacity.

(3) Trial run for wind/solar/storage/hybrid/ generating unit

(a) Successful trial run of a solar inverter unit(s) aggregating to 50 MW and above shall

mean flow of power and communication signal for not less than the period between

sunrise to sunset in a single day with the requisite metering system telemetry and

protection system in service. The generating company shall record the output of the

57
 station during the trial run and corroborate its performance with the solar irradiation

during the day and plant design parameters. Further, a declaration would be given that

no unit tripped during period of the trial operation:

Provided that:

(i) The output below the corroborated performance level with the solar irradiation

of the day shall call for repeat of the trial run.

(ii) If it is not possible to demonstrate the rated capacity of the plant due to

insufficient solar irradiation, the same shall be demonstrated immediately

when sufficient solar irradiation is available after the date of declaration of

COD.

(b) Successful trial run of a wind turbine(s) aggregating to 50 MW and above shall mean

flow of power and communication signal for a period of not less than four (4) hours

during periods of wind availability with the requisite metering system telemetry and

protection system in service. The generating company shall record the output of the

station during the trial run and corroborate its performance with the wind speed during

the day and plant design parameters. Further, a declaration would be given that no

unit tripped during period of the trial operation:

Provided that:

(i) the output below the corroborated performance level with the wind speed of

the day shall call for repeat of the trial run.

(ii) If it is not possible to demonstrate the rated capacity of the plant due to

insufficient wind velocity, the same shall be demonstrated immediately when

sufficient wind velocity is available after declaration of date of COD.

58
 (c) Successful trial run of standalone energy storage device shall mean one (1) cycle of

charging and discharging of energy as per the design capability with the requisite

metering system telemetry and protection system in service.

(d) Successful trial run of hybrid systems shall mean individual compliance as per above

definitions with the requisite metering system telemetry and protection system in

service.

31. TRIAL RUN OF INTER-STATE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

Trial run in relation to a transmission system or an element thereof shall mean successful

energisation of the transmission system or an element thereof at rated nominal voltage

through interconnection with the grid with continuous twenty-four (24) hours flow of power,

and communication signal from the sending end to the receiving end and with requisite

metering system, telemetry and protection system.

Provided that under exceptional circumstances and with the prior approval of CEA,

a transmission element can be energized at next lower nominal voltage as per CEA

planning criteria for the purpose of trial run.

32. DECLARATION OF DATE OF COMMERCIAL OPERATION (COD)

(1) Thermal generating station

(a) Date of commercial operation in case of a unit of thermal generation stations shall

mean the date declared by the generating company after a successful trial run at MCR

or de-rated capacity, as the case may be, and after getting clearance from the

respective RLDC or SLDC, as the case may be, and in case of the generating station

as a whole, the date of commercial operation of the last unit of the generating station.

(b) The generating company shall certify that:

59
 i. The generating station meets the relevant requirements and provisions of the

technical standards of Central Electricity Authority (Technical Standards for

Construction of Electrical Plants and Electric Lines) Regulations, 2010, CEA

(Technical Standards for Connectivity to the Grid) Regulations, 2007 and Indian

Electricity Grid Code, as applicable.

ii. The main plant equipment and auxiliary systems including balance of plant, such

as fuel oil system, coal handling plant, DM plant, pre-treatment plant, fire-fighting

system, ash disposal system and any other site specific system have been

commissioned and are capable of full load operation of the units of the generating

station on sustained basis.

iii. Permanent electric supply system including emergency supplies and all necessary

instrumentation, control and protection systems and auto loops for full load

operation of unit have been put in service.

(c) Above mentioned certificates shall be signed by the CMD/CEO/MD of the generating

company and a copy of the certificate shall be submitted to the Member Secretary of

the concerned Regional Power Committee and the concerned RLDC/SLDC before

declaration of COD. The generating company shall submit approval of Board of

Directors to the certificates as required within a period of 3 months of the COD.

(2) Hydro generating unit/station

(a) Date of commercial operation (COD) in relation to a generating unit of hydro

generating station including pumped storage hydro generating station shall mean the

date declared by the generating company after demonstrating peaking capability

corresponding to the installed capacity of the generating station through a successful

trial run, and after getting clearance from the respective RLDC or SLDC, as the case

60
 may be, and in relation to the generating station as a whole, the date of commercial

operation of the last generating unit of the generating station.

(b) The generating company shall certify that:

i. The generating station or unit thereof meets the requirement and relevant

provisions of the technical standards of Central Electricity Authority (Technical

Standards for Construction of Electrical Plants and Electric Lines) Regulations,

2010, CEA (Technical Standards for Connectivity to the Grid) Regulations, 2007

and Indian Electricity Grid Code, as applicable.

ii. The main plant equipment and auxiliary systems including drainage de-watering

system, primary and secondary cooling system, LP and HP air compressor and

firefighting system have been commissioned and are capable for full load

operation of units on sustained basis.

iii. Permanent electric supply system including emergency supplies and all necessary

Instrumentations Control and Protection Systems and auto loops for full load

operation of the unit are put into service.

(c) The certificates as required above shall be signed by the CMD/CEO/MD of the

generating company and a copy of the certificate shall be submitted to the Member

Secretary of the concerned Regional Power Committee and concerned RLDC or

SLDC, as the case may be, before declaration of COD. The generating company shall

submit approval of Board of Directors to the certificates within a period of 3 months of

COD.

(3) Transmission system

(a) Date of commercial operation in relation to an Inter-State Transmission System or an

element thereof shall mean the date declared by the transmission licensee from 0000

61
 hours of which an element of the transmission system is in regular service after

successful trial operation for transmitting electricity and communication signal from the

sending end to the receiving end.

(b) In case a transmission system or an element thereof is prevented from regular service

on or after the scheduled COD for reasons not attributable to the transmission licensee

or its supplier or its contractors but is on account of the delay in commissioning of the

concerned generating station or in commissioning of the upstream or downstream

transmission system of other transmission licensee, the transmission licensee shall

approach the Commission through an appropriate application for approval of the date

of commercial operation of such transmission system or an element thereof.

Provided that in case of inter-State Transmission System executed through

Tariff Based Competitive Bidding, the transmission licensee shall declare deemed COD

of the ISTS in accordance with the provisions of the Transmission Service Agreement.

(c) An element shall be declared to have achieved COD only after all the elements which

are pre-required to achieve COD as per the Transmission Services Agreement are

commissioned. In case any element is required to be commissioned prior to the

commissioning of pre-required element, the same can be done if CEA confirms that

such commissioning is in the interest of the power system.

(d) The transmission licensee shall submit a certificate from the CMD/CEO/MD of the

company that the transmission line, sub-station and communication system conform

to the relevant Grid Standard and Grid Code and are capable of operation to their full

capacity.

(4) Wind/Solar/Storage/Hybrid generating station

62
 (a) Date of commercial operation in case of units of a renewable generating station

aggregating to 50 MW and above shall mean the date declared by the generating

company after undergoing successful trial run and after getting clearance from the

respective SLDC/RLDC.

(b) The generating company shall certify that the generating station including main plant

equipment such as wind turbines/solar inverters, auxiliary systems, as the case may

be, has complied with all relevant provisions of CEA (Technical Standards for

Connectivity to the Grid) Regulations, 2007 and CERC approved ‘Procedure for

implementation of the Framework on Forecasting, Scheduling and Imbalance handling

of Renewable Energy Generating Stations including power parks based on Wind and

Solar at inter-state level’. (Refer Annexure - 8). The certificates as mentioned above

shall be duly signed by the MD/CEO/CMD of the generating company.

(5) All generating companies shall declare the Date of Commercial Operation of unit or plant

thereof within fifteen (15) days from the date of clearance by RLDC/SLDC.

(6) Scheduling of generating unit/station shall start from 0000 hours of the date of declaration

of Commercial Operation.

63
 CHAPTER 7: OPERATING CODE

33. OPERATING PHILOSOPHY

(1) The primary objective of operation of the integrated grid is to enhance the overall

reliability and economy of the power system. All users including CTU, STU, licensee,

power exchange, generating station, QCA, SNA, NLDC, RLDC, SLDC, RPC and others

shall cooperate at all times to ensure reliable, resilient, economic and efficient grid

operation.

(2) Overall operation of the integrated grid shall be supervised by NLDC. Operation of the

regional grid shall be supervised by RLDC and operation of the state grid shall be

supervised by SLDC.

(3) A set of detailed operating procedures for the integrated grid shall be developed and

maintained by NLDC in consultation with RLDCs. The NLDC operating procedure shall

be updated each year and uploaded on website.

(4) A set of detailed operating procedure for each regional grid shall be developed and

maintained by RLDC in consultation with the regional entities. It shall enable compliance

with the requirement of this grid code. The RLDC operating procedure shall be updated

each year and uploaded on website.

(5) A set of detailed operating procedure for each state grid shall be developed and maintained

by SLDC in consultation with sub-load despatch centres in its control area. The SLDC

operating procedure shall be updated each year and uploaded on website.

(6) NLDC, RLDC, SLDC shall have competent, certified operating personnel manning the

control room round the clock.

64
 (7) Every generating station connected at 33 kV and above, transmission substation or

pooling substation connected at 132 kV and above shall have a control room manned by

qualified and competent operating personnel round the clock. Alternatively, the same

may be operated from a remotely located control centre ensuring physical security of the

infrastructure and its cyber security. Remote operation of any generating station or

substation shall not adversely delay the execution of any switching instruction and/or

information flow:

Provided that a transmission licensee not having its own substation terminating

with the line, shall also be required to have a coordination centre .QCA, representing

renewable generators shall have a coordination centre manned by qualified and

competent personnel round the clock, wherever required, for operational coordination

and information exchange with the concerned load despatch centre and generators.

(8) SNA shall have a coordination centre manned by qualified and competent personnel

round the clock for operational coordination and information exchange with the

concerned load despatch centre and generators.

34. SYSTEM SECURITY ASPECTS

(1) All generating stations, transmission licensees and other entities connected to the power

system shall endeavor to operate their respective infrastructure in an integrated manner

at all times in coordination with the appropriate load despatch centres.

(2) No part of the grid shall be deliberately isolated from the rest of the National/Regional

grid, except (i) under an emergency, and conditions in which such isolation would prevent

a total grid collapse and/or would enable early restoration of power supply, (ii) for safety

of human life (iii) when serious damage to a costly equipment is imminent and such

isolation would prevent it, (iv) when such isolation is specifically instructed by RLDC.

65
 Complete synchronization of grid shall be restored as soon as the conditions again permit

it. The restoration process shall be supervised by RLDC, in co-ordination with NLDC

/SLDC in accordance with system restoration procedures separately formulated by

NLDC/RLDC.

(3) No important element of the National/Regional grid shall be deliberately switched into

service or taken out of service at any time, except when specifically instructed by RLDC

or with specific and prior clearance of RLDC. The list of such important grid elements on

which the above stipulations apply shall be prepared by the RLDC in consultation with the

concerned Users, CTU and STUs, and be available at the websites of

NLDC/RLDC/SLDCs. In case of switching of any important element of the grid under an

emergency situation, the same shall be communicated to RLDC at the earliest possible

time after the event. RLDC shall inform the opening/removal of the important elements of

the regional grid, to NLDC, and to the concerned Regional Entities (whose grid would be

affected by it) as specified in the detailed operating procedure by NLDC.

(4) Any tripping, whether manual or automatic, of any of the above elements of Regional grid

shall be precisely intimated by the concerned SLDC/CTU/User to RLDC as soon as

possible, say within ten minutes of the event. The reason (to the extent determined) and

the likely time of restoration shall also be intimated. All reasonable attempts shall be made

for the elements’ restoration as soon as possible. RLDC shall inform the tripping of the

important elements of the regional grid, to NLDC, and to the concerned Regional Entities

(whose grid would be affected by it) as specified in the detailed operating procedure by

NLDC.

(5) Any prolonged outage of power system elements of any User/CTU/STU/Licensee which

is causing or likely to cause danger to the grid or sub-optimal operation of the grid shall be

66
 regularly monitored by RLDC. RLDC shall report such outage to RPC for necessary

action.

(6) Except under an emergency, or to prevent an imminent damage to a costly equipment, no

user shall suddenly reduce his generating unit output by more than one hundred (100)

MW (20 MW in case of NER) without prior intimation to and consent of the RLDC. Similarly,

no user shall cause a sudden variation in its load by more than one hundred (100) MW

without prior intimation to and consent of the RLDC.

(7) All generating units shall have their automatic voltage regulators (AVRs) in operation and

tuned. In particular, if a generating unit of over fifty (50) MW size is required to be operated

without its AVR in service, the RLDC shall be immediately intimated about the reason and

duration, and its permission obtained. AVR, Power System Stabilizers (PSS) of

synchronous generating units, voltage or reactive power controller of wind, solar

generating unit or ESS shall be properly tuned by the respective owner. The above tuning,

including for low and high voltage ride through capability of wind and solar generators shall

be carried out -

– at least once every five (5) years,

– based on operational feedback provided by the RLDC after analysis of a grid

event or disturbance and

– in case of a major change in excitation system or major network changes/fault

level changes near to generating plant as reported by NLDC, RLDC.

(8) In order to provide basic requirement of PSS tuning for system security, the PSS tuning

procedure shall be prepared by NLDC. The generating stations shall submit the detailed

list of proposed tuning of AVR/PSS or reactive power controllers to RPC prior to 31 st

December for the next financial year. RPC shall compile a list before 31st March and share

67
 with all users and RLDC. After completing the PSS tuning, the report shall be submitted

by the generating station. The report shall comprise of requisite power system mapping,

simulation study and field testing, and report shall be submitted to RPC. RPC may carry

out field checking of AVR, Power System Stabilizers (PSS) or voltage or reactive power

controller of wind, solar generating unit or ESS, whenever considered necessary. Behavior

of the generating station during actual system event would also be recorded and retuning

advised by RPC, if necessary.

(9) Provision of protections and relay settings shall be coordinated periodically throughout the

regional grid, as per plan to be separately finalized by the Protection Sub-Committee of

the RPC in accordance with chapter on Protection, Testing and Commissioning Code.

(10) RPC shall prepare and review islanding schemes in accordance with Central Electricity

Authority (Grid Standards) Regulations, 2010 wherever deemed necessary. RPC shall

ensure implementation of planned islanding schemes. Mock drill of the islanding scheme

shall be carried out once in a year in coordination with RLDC, SLDC and other users

involved with the islanding scheme. The islanding schemes shall be reviewed and

augmented depending on assessment of critical loads once in three (3) years.

(11) All distribution licensees/STUs/bulk consumers shall provide automatic under-frequency

and df/dt relays for load shedding in their respective systems to arrest frequency decline

that could result in a collapse/disintegration of the grid, as per the plan given in Table-1

given below.

Table 1: UFR Settings

Stage of UFR Load Shedding (% of

S. No. Frequency (Hz)
Operation demand)

68
 1 Stage-1 49.40 6%

2 Stage-2 49.20 6%

3 Stage-3 49.00 6%

4 Stage-4 48.80 7%

Total (Cumulative) 25%

Note 1: All states shall plan further UFR settings for frequency below 48.8 Hz and df/dt
load shedding schemes depending on their local load generation balance. The same
shall be coordinated and agreed by the concerned RPC.

Note 2: Pumped storage hydro plants or ESS operating in pumping or charging mode
shall be automatically disconnected before the first stage of UFR.

The following common points need to be factored for design and implementation of the
scheme:

(a) All distribution licensees, transmission licensees, CTU, STU and SLDC shall ensure

that the above under-frequency and df/dt load shedding schemes are always

functional.

(b) Demand disconnection shall not be set with any intentional time delay in addition to

the operating time of the relays and circuit breakers.

(c) RPC shall ensure the implementation of the UFR defence scheme and df/dt load

shedding schemes, and ensure uniform spatial spread of affected feeders selected

for UFR/df/dt disconnection.

(d) SLDC shall ensure telemetered data of feeders (MW power flow in real time and

circuit breaker status) on which UFR and df/dt relay are installed is available at its

control centre. The combined load in MW of these feeders shall be monitored all the

time. SLDC shall share the above data with RLDC in real time and submit monthly

69
 exception report to RPC. RLDC shall inform SLDC as well as RPC secretariat on

quarterly basis, duration during the quarter when combined load in MW of these

feeders for UFR and df/dt scheme was below the desired value. SLDC shall take

corrective measures and inform to RLDC/RPC within reasonable period.

(e) RPC Secretariat shall carry out random inspection of the implementation of under-

frequency relays and maintain proper records of the inspection. The details of

scheme shall be monthly reviewed and displayed on website by respective RPC and

exception report may be given to the commission.

(12) All users, STU, SLDC, CTU, RLDC and NLDC shall also facilitate identification,

installation and commissioning of System Protection Schemes (SPS) (including inter-

tripping and run-back) in the power system to operate the transmission system within

limits and to protect against situations such as voltage collapse and cascade tripping and

tripping of important corridors/flow-gates. Such schemes shall be finalized and reviewed

from time to time by the NPC at inter-regional level and cross-border level and by the

concerned RPC at the intra-regional level. The SPS shall be always kept in service. If

any SPS is to be taken out of service for inter-regional and cross-border schemes,

permission of NLDC shall be taken. If any SPS is to be taken out of service at intra-

regional level, permission of RLDC shall be taken.

(13) All Users, RLDC, SLDC STUs, CTU and NLDC shall take all possible measures to ensure

that the steady state grid voltage as per Central Electricity Authority (Grid Standards)

Regulations, 2010 remains within the following operating range:

Voltage – (kV rms)

Nominal Maximum Minimum

765 800 728
400 420 380

70
 Voltage – (kV rms)

Nominal Maximum Minimum

220 245 198
132 145 122
110 121 99
66 72 60
33 36 30

Appropriate LDC will take suitable measures to control the voltage as per its operating

procedure.

(14) All users, transmission licensee shall provide adequate defence mechanism through

under-voltage load shedding scheme (UVLS) as finalized by RPC, to prevent voltage

collapse and shall ensure its effective application to prevent voltage collapse/ cascade

tripping.

35. GENERATION RESERVE ESTIMATION AND FREQUENCY CONTROL

(1) The National Reference Frequency is 50.000 Hz. All Users, SLDCs, RLDCs and NLDC

shall measure the grid frequency with a resolution of +/-0.001 Hz. The frequency data

shall be archived at the rate of one sample every second.

(2) All Users, SLDCs, RLDCs, and NLDC shall take all possible measures to ensure that the

grid frequency remains within the 49.95-50.05 Hz band.

(3) All possible endeavor shall be made by NLDC, RLDCs and SLDCs to bring the frequency

back within the above band within fifteen (15) minutes of the start of excursion beyond the

band through despatch of secondary and tertiary reserves.

71
(4) There shall be different levels of reserves such as primary, secondary and tertiary for the

purpose of frequency control and regulating area control error. The reserves shall be

deployed by each control area connected with the grid.

– Provision for primary reserve (governor droop response) shall be mandatory

as per this code. The primary response of machines shall be verified by the

load despatch centres during grid events.

– Secondary reserves (automatic generation control) shall be deployed by a

control area as per this code.

– Tertiary reserves shall be deployed by control area as per this code.

– Any other type of reserves required to be deployed in the interest of grid

security as per the direction of the SLDC, RLDC or NLDC.

– ESS reserves may be deployed by SLDC, RLDC or NLDC if required

depending on the impact of variability of renewable generation and the need

for frequency control.

(5) Primary Control

(a) Primary control is local automatic control in a generating unit for the purpose of

adjusting its active power output in response to frequency excursion. Primary control

is immediate automatic control implemented through turbine speed governors or

frequency controllers. The generating units shall have their governors in operation at

all times with droop settings of 3-6 % as per the requirements mentioned separately

for each category in Table-2.

72
 TABLE 2: PRIMARY RESPONSE RANGE OF VARIOUS TYPES OF GENERATING UNITS
Min. Capacity /Requirement
Upper ceiling limit (% of
Fuel/ Source to fall in Primary Response
MCR)
purview

Coal/Lignite Based 200 MW and above 105

25 MW and above & non-

Hydro 110
canal based

105 (corrected for ambience

Gas based Gas Turbine above 50 MW
temperature)

110 (subject to availability of

Wind/ Solar capacity and commensurate
Capacity of Generating station
(commissioned between wind speed in case of wind
more than 10 MW and
6th Aug 2019 -31st March generating stations and solar
connected at 33 kV and above
2022) insolation in case of solar
generating stations)

Wind/ Solar/Hybrid Capacity of Generating station

(commissioned after 31st more than 10 MW and 105
March 2022)^ connected at 33 kV and above

^Wind/ Solar/Hybrid plant commissioned after 31st March 2022 shall have the option to provide
primary response individually through BESS or through a common BESS installed at its pooling
station.

(b) The normal governor action shall not be suppressed in any manner through load

limiter, Automatic Turbine Run-up System (ATRS), turbine supervisory control,

coordinated control system and no time delays shall be deliberately introduced. In

case of renewable energy generating unit, reactive power limiter or power factor

controller or voltage limiter shall not suppress the primary frequency response within

73
 its capability. The inherent dead band of a generating unit/frequency controller shall

not exceed +/- 0.03 Hz.

Provided that for solar and wind generator (commissioned between 6th Aug

2019 to 31st March 2022) the dead band of frequency controller shall not exceed

+0.05 Hz/-0.03 Hz.

(c) All generating stations mentioned in Table-2 above shall provide primary response

shall have the capability of (and shall not in any way be prevented from)

instantaneously picking up to minimum 105% of their operating level or 105% or

110% of their MCR, as the case maybe, when the frequency falls suddenly. After an

increase in generation as above, a generating unit may ramp back to the original

level at a rate of about one percent (1%) per minute, in case continued operation at

the increased level is not sustainable. Any generating unit not complying with the

above requirements shall be kept in operation (synchronized with the regional grid)

only after obtaining the permission of RLDC.

(d) The thermal/hydro generating unit shall not resort to Valve Wide Open (VWO)

operation of units whether running on full load or part load, and shall ensure that

there is margin available for providing governor action as primary response.

(e) The minimum primary reserve required for reference contingency shall be declared

by NLDC at the start of each financial year.

(f) The primary reserves shall be activated immediately (within few seconds) when the

frequency deviates from 50 Hz and the maximum steady state frequency deviation

should not cross 0.30 Hz for the reference contingency.

(g) The power system must be operated at all the times with a minimum inertia to be

specified by NLDC so that minimum nadir frequency post reference contingency

74
 stays above threshold set for UFLS. NLDC shall do the study in this regard and

reschedule the generation (including curtailment of wind, solar and wind-solar hybrid

generation) in coordination with RLDC/SLDC to maintain the minimum inertia.

(h) The primary reserve response shall start immediately and attain its peak in less than

thirty (30) seconds, and shall sustain up to five (5) minutes.

(i) The minimum All India target frequency response characteristics and frequency

response obligation of each control area shall be assessed by NLDC giving due

consideration to generation and load within each control area and factors in Table 2

above. The same shall be informed to all control areas by 15th of March every year for

the next financial year.

(j) The procedures at Annexure-1 provides the methodology for the following:

– assessment of reference contingency,

– All India minimum target frequency response characteristics,

– calculation of frequency response obligation of each control area,

– criteria for reportable event and

– calculation of actual frequency response characteristics of control area

– calculation of frequency response performance

(k) NLDC in consultation with RLDC shall calculate actual frequency response

characteristic of all the control areas. The performance of each control area in

providing frequency response characteristic shall be calculated for each reportable

event. Each control area shall separately assess their frequency response

characteristic and share with RLDC along with high resolution data of at least one

75
 (1) second for regional entity generating stations and ten (10) second for state

control area.

(l) Each control area shall be graded based on median Frequency Response

Performance annually (considering at least 10 events) as per following criteria:

TABLE 3: FREQUENCY RESPONSE CRITERIA

Performance Grading

i. FRP ≥ 1 Excellent

ii. 0.85 ≤ FRP < 1 Good

iii. 0.75 ≤ FRP < 0.85 Average

iv. 0.5 ≤ FRP < 0.75 Below Average

v. FRP < 0.5 Poor

(6) Secondary and Tertiary Control

(a) Secondary control is area-wise automatic generation control which regulates

reserve power to bring area control error close to zero (0), consequentially restoring

the frequency.

(b) Secondary control signals are generated at control centre (NLDC, RLDC, SLDC) as

the Area Control Error (ACE) deviates from zero (0) and transmitted to generating

stations/units within the control area jurisdictions for responding with desired change

in generation.

(c) ACE of each control area/region shall be calculated as per following formula:

ACE = (Ia - Is) - 10 * Bf * (Fa - Fs) + Offset

76
 Where,

Ia = Actual net interchange in MW (positive value for export)

Is = Scheduled net interchange in MW (positive value for export)

Bf = Frequency Bias Coefficient in MW/0.1 Hz (negative value)

Fa = Actual system frequency in Hz

Fs = Schedule system frequency in Hz

Offset = means provision for compensating measurement error

Tie-line bias mode means AGC is correcting ACE according to the above equation,

factoring deviation in area interchange (Ia - Is) as well as frequency deviation (Fa -

Fs).

i. Frequency Bias shall normally be equal to median FRC during previous

financial year of each control area and refined from time to time.

ii. Offset shall be used to account for metering errors and shall be decided by

SLDC/RLDC for its respective control area.

iii. Schedule system frequency (Fs) would normally be reference frequency of

50.000 Hz unless otherwise specified by NLDC for time correction.

iv. If AGC is operating in frequency sensitive mode only ignoring difference in

area interchange i.e. (Ia - Is), it would mean flat frequency control.

v. If AGC is operating in area interchange sensitive mode only ignoring

difference in frequency i.e. (Fa - Fs), it would mean flat tie-line control.

(d) SLDC/RLDC/NLDC shall compute the ACE of respective control area in real time

based on telemetered data. ACE data should be archived at the interval of 10 seconds
77
 or better if adequate measurement is available through synchro-phasor

measurement.

(e) The secondary reserves through automatic generation control shall start responding

within thirty (30) seconds of ACE of a particular control area going beyond the

minimum threshold limit of +/- 10 MW.

(f) The required secondary reserves through automatic generation control shall be fully

delivered within fifteen (15) minutes and shall be capable of sustaining for the next

thirty (30) minutes thereafter.

(g) The secondary reserve capacity shall be computed by NLDC, RLDC, SLDC as per

any of the following methodologies:

The positive and negative secondary reserve capacity for any control area for a

financial year shall be equal to 99 percentile of positive and negative ACE respectively

of that control area during the previous financial year,

OR

The secondary reserves capacity for any control area shall be equal to the 110 % of

largest unit size in that control area plus load forecast error plus wind forecast error

plus solar forecast error.

Provided that the All India secondary reserves capacity shall be equal to the

reference contingency.

(h) This reserve capacity as per above regulation shall be calculated by respective

control area by 15th February every year for next financial year and submitted to

NLDC. NLDC would work out the minimum quantum of secondary reserves to be

maintained at inter-state level (region-wise at regional entity generating station) and

78
 intra-state level for each control area. NLDC will publish the information on its website

by 1st March every year which will be implemented for next financial year from 1st

April onwards by control areas.

(i) The secondary reserves shall be maintained in regional entity generating stations for

activation by RLDC/NLDC and Intra-state generating stations for activation by

respective SLDC. Energy Storage Systems (ESS) and/or demand response may also

be deployed for providing adequate secondary response,

(j) Secondary control through automatic generation control shall be provided by

generating stations/ ESS as per the following Table:

S. Generating unit/ ESS category Control Start Date for

Centre for Application
No.
supervision
1 Regional entity generating stations with CERC
regulated or adopted Tariff (Thermal with rated On or before 1st Apr
NLDC
capacity more than 200 MW and Hydro with rated 2020
capacity more than 25 MW)

2 Other Regional entity generating stations not

covered under Sl.No.1(Thermal with rated
To be notified by
capacity more than 200 MW and Hydro with rated NLDC
Commission
capacity more than 25 MW) and ESS for providing
secondary response

3 State (having annual Peak demand more than 10

GW or renewable energy rich states) generating
stations (Thermal with rated capacity more than On or before 1st Apr
SLDC
200 MW and Hydro with rated capacity more than 2021
25 MW) and ESS for providing secondary
response

4 State (not covered under Sl. No. 3) generating To be notified by the

stations (Thermal with rated capacity more than Commission or earlier
200 MW and Hydro with rated capacity more than if agreed by State.
25 MW) and ESS for providing secondary However secondary
response SLDC reserves within the
state shall be activated
manually till the
implementation of
AGC.

79
(k) Similar mechanism shall be implemented at state level for intra-state generating

station. NLDC, RLDC or SLDC would indicate the short fall in secondary reserves

and announce emergency alerts for such periods.

(l) Normal mode of operation of AGC would be tie-line bias control. NLDC may also

operate select region/country automatic generation control on flat frequency control

mode during anticipated congestion free period or flat tie-line mode.

(m) Tertiary reserves maybe arranged from the generating stations, ESS and/or demand

response. Tertiary reserve shall be greater or equal to secondary reserves to take

care of contingencies, and shall be maintained at both regional entity level as well as

state control area. Tertiary reserves activation would restore the secondary reserves

to the desired level.

(n) The tertiary reserve shall be fully activated within fifteen (15) minutes of operator’s

instructions from appropriate load despatch centre and shall be capable of delivering

until next 60 minutes. Instruction for tertiary reserve activation shall be given by

appropriate load despatch centre based on the following:

i. When area control error (more than 100 MW) persists for more than fifteen

(15) minutes in one direction;

ii. In the event of loss of generation or loss of load of more than 100 MW in the

control area;

iii. In case the secondary reserve has been deployed continuously in one

direction for fifteen (15) minutes for more than 100 MW, then tertiary reserves

shall be triggered in order to replenish the secondary reserve;

80
 iv. Any other condition such as mitigating local congestion due to transmission

lines.

(o) Each state control area shall keep reserve capacity one day in advance and inform

RLDC as outlined in the scheduling code.

(p) The secondary and tertiary reserves shall be arranged by the RLDC and SLDC

according to the mechanism decided by the appropriate commission.

(q) The control area wise performance of secondary and tertiary control shall be

evaluated in accordance with the detailed procedure prepared by NLDC.

36. OPERATIONAL PLANNING

(1) Introduction

(a) Operational planning for ensuring reliable and secure operation in real time shall be

carried out in advance by the concerned agency as per the following time table:

Time Horizon Agency

Monthly/Yearly RPC/CTU/STU/NLDC/RLDC/SLDC

Weekly NLDC/RLDC/SLDC

Day Ahead NLDC/RLDC/SLDC

Intra-day NLDC/RLDC/SLDC

(b) NLDC and RLDC shall issue a procedure for all users, CTU and STU for:

i. Operational planning analysis,

ii. Real-time monitoring,

iii. Real-time assessments and

iv. Format for data submission and updating

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(2) Demand Estimation for Operational Planning

(a) This section describes the procedures/responsibilities of the SLDCs for demand

estimation for both active power and reactive power incident on the transmission

system based on the details collected from respective distribution licensees,

distributed generation resources, captive power plants and other bulk consumer

embedded within the states.

(b) The demand estimation by SLDC is to be done on day ahead basis for the daily

operation and scheduling activity. The granularity of load forecast should be either the

time block or lower. Based on SLDC demand estimate, RLDC will prepare the regional

demand estimate and submit to NLDC. NLDC, based on regional demand estimate,

shall prepare national demand estimate. In case, SLDC observes major change in

demand in real time for the day then it shall immediately submit the revised demand

estimate to RLDC for demand estimate correction.

(c) SLDC shall also estimate demand (active as well as reactive power) on

weekly/monthly/yearly basis for current year for load - generation balance planning as

well as for operational analysis and shall be part of operational planning data. The

demand estimates mentioned above shall have granularity of a time block. It shall

cover the load incident on the grid. It shall also cover net load incident on the

transmission system taking into account embedded generation in the form of roof-top

solar/other distributed generation.

(d) Timeline for submission of demand estimation data by SLDC to RLDC/RPC is as

follows:

82
 TABLE 4: TIMELINE FOR DEMAND ESTIMATION
Daily demand estimation 10:00 hours of previous day

Weekly demand estimation First working day of previous week

Monthly demand estimation Fifth day of previous month

Yearly demand estimation 31st Oct of the previous year.

(e) Each SLDC shall develop methodology for daily/weekly/monthly/yearly demand

estimation in MW and MWh for operational analysis purposes as well resource

adequacy. All distribution licensees shall also maintain historical database for demand.

(f) Each SLDC shall utilize state of the art tools, weather data, historical data and any

other data for getting effective demand estimate for operational use. Each SLDC,

RLDC and NLDC shall compare the actual demand with forecast demand and

compare the forecasting error for improvement. The forecast error for daily/day-

ahead/weekly/monthly and yearly basis by SLDC, RLDC and NLDC shall also be

made available on their website.

(g) Each SLDC shall submit node-wise morning peak, evening peak, day shoulder and

night off-peak estimated demand in MW and MVAr on monthly and quarterly basis at

all nodes including and above 132 kV for preparation of scenarios for computation of

ATC/TTC by RLDC and NLDC.

(h) Each distribution company of state shall furnish expected off take from each thermal

generating station with whom they have long-term or medium-term power purchase

agreement, on weekly and monthly basis to respective thermal generating station for

planning procurement of fuel.

83
37. OUTAGE PLANNING

(1) Introduction

(a) This section provides the procedure for preparation of outage schedules for the grid

elements in a coordinated and optimal manner keeping in view the system operating

conditions and grid security.

(b) Annual outage plan of grid elements shall be prepared in advance for the financial year by

the RPC secretariat in consultation with users, NLDC and RLDC and reviewed during the

year before every quarter and every month. All users, CTU, STU, licensee shall follow the

annual outage plans. If any deviation is required, the same shall be with prior permission

of concerned RPC, RLDC and NLDC. The outage planning of hydro plant, wind and solar

power plant and its associated evacuation network shall be planned to extract maximum

power from these renewable sources of energy. Outage of wind generator should be

planned during lean wind season, outage of solar, if required, during the rainy season and

outage of hydro power plant in the lean water season. Wherever multiple agencies are

involved in outage of any grid element, the outage shall be planned by RPC secretariat

with a view to minimizing overall downtime.

(c) Protection relay related works, auto – re-closure outages and SPS testing shall be planned

on monthly basis with prior permission of RPC, RLDC & NLDC as per outage planning

procedure.

(2) Objective

(a) To produce a coordinated generation and transmission outage programme for the

national/regional grid, considering all the available resources and taking into account

demand, transmission constraints, as well as, irrigational requirements.

84
 (b) To optimize the transmission outages of the elements of the National/Regional grid

without adversely affecting the grid operation but taking into account the generation

outage schedule, outages of user/STU/CTU systems and maintaining system security

standards.

(3) Outage Planning Process

(a) A list of important elements of the grid to be coordinated at regional and national level by

RLDC/NLDC shall be prepared by RLDC/NLDC and shall be available with RLDC, NLDC

and SLDC.

(b) The RPC Secretariat shall be primarily responsible for finalization of the annual outage plan

for the following financial year.

(c) Timeline for Outage Planning Process is as follows:

TABLE 5: TIMELINE FOR OUTAGE PLANNING PROCESS

Activity Agency Cut-off date

Submission of proposed outage plan of STUs, transmission

element(s) for next financial year to RPC with licensees, CTU, all 31st October
the earliest start date and latest finishing date generating stations

Submission of LGBR of the control area to RPC

SLDC 31st October
for both peak and off-peak scenarios

Publishing draft LGBR and draft outage plan of

RPC 30th November
regional grid for next financial year in website

Publishing final LGBR and final outage plan of

RPC 31st December
regional grid for next financial year in website

85
(d) Basis of preparation of LGBR by SLDC in consultation with concerned state entities:

The LGBR shall be prepared for the entire year with time block wise granularity, as follows:

i. Considering the actual load curve for last three (3) years and projecting the load

growth for the next year. Further, projected load curve shall be moderated taking

into account anticipated change in load pattern and magnitude for reasons such

as introduction of energy efficiency devices, rooftop solar, solar pumps, electric

vehicles and energy shift due to deployment of ESS.

ii. The intra-state generation pattern of last three (3) years, hydro generation forecast

for next year, expected addition of new generation for the state, must run power

contracted through renewable energy sources, availability of contracted

conventional power through ISTS shall be part of the LGBR. While preparing the

LGBR, the SLDC shall also factor overall economy in operation considering

renewable sources of energy as must run. In addition to above, while preparing

the LGBR, reserves, transmission losses and auxiliary consumption shall be

factored and shown.

(e) RPC Secretariat shall compile LGBR and also prepare annual outage plan for

generating units and transmission elements in the respective region. This shall be

done after carrying out necessary system studies and, if necessary, the outage plan

shall be rescheduled and LGBR shall be modified in order to ensure system security

and resource adequacy.

(f) NPC, in consultation with NLDC, shall compile the regional LGBR and prepare an

All India LGBR considering overall economy, absorption of renewable energy,

anticipated cross-border energy exchange, requirement of reserves and overall grid

security. NPC, while preparing the All India LGBR shall assess likely flow on inter-

86
 regional, HVDC and major transmission corridors and moderate the LGBR such that

transmission constraint are honored.

(g) At the end of each year, the projected load curve shall be compared with the actual load

of the control area. In case of incidents of variation exceeding ± 5%, analysis shall be

carried out by the SLDC indicating reasons. The analysis shall be submitted to the RPC

and RLDC.

(h) The outage plan shall be finalized in consultation with NLDC and RLDCs. The final

outage plan and the final LGBR shall be intimated to NLDC, Users, STUs, CTU,

other generating stations connected to the ISTS and the RLDC. The final outage

plan and the final LGBR shall be made available on the websites of the respective

utilities and on the websites of RPCs, RLDCs and NLDC.

(i) The above annual outage plan shall be reviewed by RPC Secretariat on quarterly

and monthly basis in coordination with all parties concerned, and adjustments made

wherever found to be necessary.

(j) To facilitate planned outages of grid elements a common outage planning procedure

shall be formulated by RPC in consultation with NLDC and RLDC.

(k) In case of emergency in the system, viz., loss of generation, breakdown of grid

element affecting the system, grid disturbances, system isolation,

SLDC/RLDC/NLDC may conduct studies again before clearance/denial of the

planned outage.

(l) NLDC/RLDC are authorized to defer the planned outage in case of any of the

following, taking into account the statutory requirements:

i. Grid disturbances

87
 ii. System isolation

iii. Partial Black out in a state

iv. Any other event in the system that may have an adverse impact on the

system security by the proposed outage.

(m) Each user shall obtain the final approval from NLDC or RLDC in accordance with

outage planning procedure, prior to availing planned outage of grid element.

38. OPERATIONAL PLANNING STUDY

(1) Based on the operational planning analysis data, operational planning study shall be

carried out by various agencies as defined for the various time horizons.

TABLE 6: TIME HORIZON FOR OPERATIONAL PLANNING STUDY

Time horizon of
operational planning Agency Means for carrying out study
study

At least fifteen (15) minutes interval

Real time/Intra-day NLDC/RLDC/ SLDC using online/offline SCADA/EMS
system

For various operating condition using

Day-ahead NLDC/RLDC/ SLDC
offline tool

For various operating condition using

Weekly NLDC/RLDC/ SLDC
offline tool

Study committee formed

For various operating condition using
Monthly/Yearly by RPC secretariat/ NLDC/
offline tool
RLDC/SLDC

(2) SLDC, RLDC and NLDC shall utilize network estimation tool integrated in their

EMS/SCADA system for the real time operational planning study. All users shall ensure

that real time operational data for successful execution of network analysis using

EMS/SCADA is made available in healthy condition throughout. Any prolonged outage

88
 of data shall be immediately reported to SLDC, RLDC or NLDC along with firm timeline

for its restoration. The performance of online network estimation tools at SLDC and

RLDC shall be discussed in the monthly operational meeting organized by RPC

secretariat. Telemetry related issues impacting the online network estimation tool shall

be monitored by RPC Secretariat for early resolution.

(3) SLDC, RLDC and NLDC shall also perform day-ahead/ weekly/ monthly/ yearly

operational study for:

i. Inter-regional, intra-regional, inter-state, intra-state total transfer

capability/available transfer capability assessment

ii. Planned outage assessment

iii. Special scenario assessment

iv. System protection scheme assessment

v. Natural disaster assessment

vi. Any other study relevant in operational scenario

(4) Each SLDC shall also carry out total transfer capability/available transfer capability on

three months ahead basis and any changes required during real time/day ahead

operation due to change in operating scenario considered and declare it on their

website for each time block. The process shall be in line with the CERC (Measures to

Relieve Congestion in Real Time Operation) Regulation 2010. The SLDC shall also

furnish the constraints considered and assumption made during the declaration of

TTC/ATC.

(5) Operational planning analysis shall be done to assess whether the planned operations

will not exceed any of the operational limits defined under this regulation, CEA Grid

89
 Standard 2010 and any other CERC/CEA regulations and CEA Manual on

Transmission Planning Criteria.

(6) SLDC, RLDC, NLDC, STU, CTU and RPC shall have evidence of a completed

operational planning study. These evidences shall include dated power flow study

results, operational plan and minutes of meeting on operational study.

(7) SLDC, RLDC, NLDC, STU, CTU and RPC shall have evidence that it has an operating

plan to address potential violation of system operational limit identified as a result of

the operational planning study as above. These plans shall be intimated to users in

advance to take corrective measures. In case any user is unable to adhere with the

operational plan submitted, they shall intimate the respective SLDC, RLDC or NLDC in

advance with appropriate explanation. These explanations shall also be discussed in

the monthly operation sub-committee of respective region and RPC secretariat will

submit a quarterly feedback report to CERC/CEA for long-term measures.

(8) SLDC shall perform study for new element to be commissioned in intra-state system in

the next six (6) months for its impact on the intra-state system.

(9) RLDC shall perform study for new element to be commissioned in the next six (6)

months in (a) ISTS system of the region and (b) intra-state system having impact on

inter-state system.

(10) NLDC shall perform study for new element to be commissioned in the next six (6)

months in (a) inter-regional system, (b) cross-border link, (c)intra-regional system

having impact on inter-regional system and (d) HVDC link.

(11) NLDC, RLDC and SLDC shall assess its impact on the system and transfer capability

addition. Any significant variation vis-a-vis interconnection and planning studies by

90
 CTU/STU shall be communicated to CTU/STU for immediate and long-term mitigation

measures.

(12) Defense mechanisms like system protection scheme, load-rejection scheme,

generation run-back or any other scheme for system security shall be proposed by

concerned user or SLDC or RLDC or NLDC and shall be deployed as finalized by RPC.

39. SYSTEM RESTORATION

(1) Based on the template issued by NLDC, SLDC of each state and RLDC of each region

shall prepare restoration procedure for the grid for their respective control area and

update the same every year taking into account changes in the configuration of their

power system.

(2) Detailed plans and procedures for restoration of the regional grid under partial/total

blackout shall be developed by RLDC in consultation with NLDC, all users, STU, SLDC,

CTU and RPC Secretariat and shall be reviewed/updated annually.

(3) Detailed plans and procedures for restoration post partial/total blackout of each user

system within a region, shall be developed by the concerned user in coordination with

SLDC, RLDC or NLDC. The procedure shall be reviewed and revised once every year.

Mock trial runs of the procedure for different sub-systems including black-start of

generating units along with VSC based HVDC black-start support shall be carried out by

the user at least once a year under intimation to the SLDC or RLDC. Diesel generator

sets or other standalone auxiliary supply source used for black start shall be tested on

weekly basis and test report shall be sent to SLDC, RLDC or NLDC on quarterly basis.

(4) Simulation studies shall be carried out for preparing restoration procedures considering

the following factors:

91
 (a) Black start capability of generator;

(b) Ability of black start generator to build cranking path and sustain island;

(c) Impact of block load switching in or out;

(d) Line/transformer charging;

(e) Reduced fault levels;

(f) Protection settings under restoration condition;

(5) The thermal and nuclear generating station shall ensure preparedness for house load

operation as per design. User/SLDC shall report the performance of house load

operation of a generating station in the event where such operation was required.

(a) List of generating stations with black start, house load facility, inter-state/inter-

regional ties, synchronizing points, essential loads to be restored on priority shall

be prepared and shall be available with NLDC, RLDC and SLDC.

(b) During restoration process following a black out, SLDC, RLDC and NLDC is

authorized to operate with reduced security standards for voltage and frequency

and may direct upon such operational measures viz. suspension of secondary or

tertiary frequency control, power market activities, defense schemes, reduced

governor droop setting as necessary, in order to achieve the fastest possible

recovery of the grid.

(c) All communication channels required for restoration process shall be used for

operational communication only, till grid normalcy is restored.

40. REAL TIME OPERATION

(1) Principles for real time operation

(a) Classification of system state:

92
i. Power system condition shall be categorized under various stages depending on

the type of contingencies and states of power system variables/parameters.

These shall be broadly classified as normal, alert, emergency, extreme

emergency and restoration state.

(a) Normal:

Power system is operating within the operational limits and equipment are

within their loading limits. The system is secure and capable of maintaining

stability under contingencies defined in the CEA Transmission Planning

Criteria.

(b) Alert:

Operational parameters are within operational limit but single contingency

would lead to violation of security criteria. In this state, system operator shall

take corrective measures to bring back the system to normal state. The

power system remains intact under such operational state.

(c) Emergency:

Under this state of operation, many of the power system variables are outside

their operating limit or many of the equipment are above their operational

limit. The system can be brought to alert/ normal state by taking:

– extreme measures such as load shedding, generation unit tripping, line

tripping/closing,

– emergency control action such as HVDC Control, Excitation Control,

HP-LP Bypass, tie line flow rescheduling on critical lines, and

93
 – automated action such as system protection scheme, load curtailment

scheme and generation run-back scheme.

Such operation can arise out of multiple contingencies or any major grid

disturbance in the system. The power system remains intact under such

operational state.

(d) Extreme Emergency:

System reaches extreme emergency state if the control actions taken during

Emergency state are not able to bring the system to Alert or Normal state. In

this state of system, system parameters are beyond operation limits and

equipment are critically loaded. System may or may not remain intact

(splitting may occur) and extreme events like Generation plant tripping, bulk

load shedding, under frequency load shedding (UFLS) and under voltage

load shedding (UVLS) operation may occur. Such situation may also arise

due to high impact low frequency events like natural disasters.

(e) Restorative State: It represents a condition in which control action is being

taken to reconnect the system elements and to restore system load. The

system transits from this state to either the alert state or the normal state,

depending on the system conditions.

(b) NLDC/RLDC/SLDC shall endeavor to maintain the grid in a normal state by taking

suitable measures. In case system is drifting away from normal state, appropriate

measures shall be taken to bring the system back to normal operating state. In case

system has moved to Extreme Emergency state, appropriate LDCs shall take

emergency action and initiate restorative measures of system immediately.

94
(c) Procedure to be followed during an event:

i. Immediately following an event on intra-state system which may significantly

impact the inter-state system, the concerned SLDC shall inform the RLDC; in

case of event on the ISTS system or regional entity, the concerned agency shall

inform RLDC.

ii. Following an event on regional grid, the RLDC shall inform each user and/or

SLDC for necessary action.

iii. Any warning in respect of system security issued by NLDC/ RLDC/ SLDC shall

be taken note of immediately by user who shall take the necessary steps to

withstand the said disturbance or to minimize the effect.

(d) Operational coordination:

i. Each inter-state transmission licensee shall have a coordination centre in the

region(s) in which its assets are located for round the clock operational

coordination.

ii. Each conventional generating station shall have a coordination centre in the

region in which it is located for round the clock operational coordination.

iii. Each QCA, representing the renewable generator shall have a coordination

centre with in the region in which it is located for round the clock operational

coordination.

Provided that where a QCA is not appointed by the renewable generator,

the respective generating station shall undertake operational coordination.

iv. Each SNA shall have a coordination centre in the country for round the clock

operational coordination.

95
 v. Any planned operation activity in ISTS system (transmission element opening or

closing (including breakers), protection system outage, SPS outage and testing

etc.) should be done by taking operational code from RLDC or NLDC as per the

jurisdiction. The operational code shall have validity of thirty (30) minutes from

the time of issue. In case such operation does not take place within validity

period, the entity shall obtain the operational code again.

41. DEMAND MANAGEMENT

(1) The demand management under this clause covers the management to the extent of

ensuring grid security which affects integrated grid operation.

(a) STU shall ensure transmission adequacy of intra-state system for secure grid

operation.

(b) SLDC shall ensure reserves adequacy for secure grid operation.

(c) Each Distribution licensee shall ensure resource and network adequacy to meet

demand of consumption centres and all category of consumers all the time.

(d) Each state shall endeavor to contract automated demand response schemes with

willing consumers.

(e) In case the system is in alert or emergency state as assessed by SLDC or advised

by RLDC, the respective distribution licensee shall abide by directions of SLDC to

secure the system, and extreme measures like load shedding may be carried out as

a last resort.

(f) SLDC or RLDC (through SLDC) may direct distribution licensee to restrict drawal

from grid or curtail load for ensuring the stability of grid:

96
 Provided that load shedding shall be resorted to after the demand response

schemes have been exhausted.

(g) The disconnected load, if any, shall be restored as soon as possible on clearance

from SLDC, in coordination with RLDC if required, after the system has been

normalized.

42. POST DESPATCH ANALYSIS

(1) Operational analysis:

(a) SLDC, RLDC, NLDC shall also analyse and report the following:

i. Pattern of demand met, frequency profile, voltage and tie-line flows, angular

spread, area control error, reserve margin, ancillary services despatch

transmission congestion and n-1 violations,

ii. Generation mix: source and station wise generation,

iii. Irregular pattern in any of the above system parameters and reasons thereof

and

iv. Extreme weather events, special events

(b) Data archiving: For the above purpose, telemetered data shall be archived with

granularity of not more than five (5) minutes and higher granularity for special events.

Such data shall be stored by SLDC, RLDC and NLDC for at least fifteen (15) years

and reports shall be stored for twenty-five (25) years for operational analysis only.

(2) Disturbance monitoring and reporting

Disturbance monitoring and reporting is required to ensure that adequate data is available

to facilitate event analysis.

97
 (a) Immediately following an event (GD/GI) in the system, the concerned user/SLDC

shall inform the RLDC through voice message.

(b) Following the above, written flash report shall be submitted to RLDC and SLDC by

concerned users within time line specified in the table below.

(c) Disturbance Recorder (DR), station Event Logger (EL), Data Acquisition System

(DAS) shall be submitted within time line specified in the table below.

(d) RLDC shall report the GD/GI event to CEA, RPC Secretariat and all regional entities

within twenty-four (24) hours of receipt of the flash report.

(e) After complete analysis of the event, user shall submit a detailed report in case of

grid disturbance or grid incident within one (1) week of occurrence of event to RLDC

and RPC Secretariat.

(f) RLDC/NLDC (for events involving more than one region) shall prepare a draft report

of each grid disturbance/grid including simulation results and analysis which shall

be discussed and finalized at Protection sub-committee of RPC as per timeline given

below:

TABLE 7: REPORT SUBMISSION TIMELINE

Disturbance Discussion in
Detailed
Flash record and protection
report and Draft report
report station committee
data submission
S. Grid Event^ submission event log meeting and
submission deadline
N (Classification) deadline submission final report
deadline (RLDC/
(users/ deadline submission
(users/
(users/ NLDC) deadline
SLDC)
SLDC) (RPC)
SLDC)
1 GI-1/GI-2 8 hours 24 hours +7 days +14 days +30 days

2 Near miss* 8 hours 24 hours +7 days +30 days +30 days

98
 Disturbance Discussion in
Detailed
Flash record and protection
report and Draft report
report station committee
data submission
S. Grid Event^ submission event log meeting and
submission deadline
N (Classification) deadline submission final report
deadline (RLDC/
(users/ deadline submission
(users/
(users/ NLDC) deadline
SLDC)
SLDC) (RPC)
SLDC)
3 GD-1 8 hours 24 hours +7 days +14 days +30 days

4 GD-2/GD-3 8 hours 24 hours +7 days +21 days +30 days

5 GD-4/GD-5 8 hours 24 hours +7 days +30 days +30 days

^The classification of Grid Disturbance (GD)/Grid Incident (GI) shall be as per CEA (Grid
Standards) Regulations, 2010.

*Near miss event means an incident of multiple failures that had the potential to cause a grid
disturbance, power failure or partial collapse but did not result in a grid disturbance.

(g) The implementation of the recommendations of final report shall be monitored in the

protection sub-group meeting of RPC. NPC shall disseminate the lessons learnt

from each event to all the RPCs for necessary action in each region.

(h) Any additional data such as single line diagram (SLD) of station, protection relay

settings, HVDC transient fault record, switchyard equipment and any other relevant

station data required for carrying out analysis of an event by RPC, NLDC, RLDC or

SLDC shall be furnished by the users or SLDC within forty- eight (48) hours of the

request. All users shall also furnish high-resolution analog data from various

instruments including power electronic devices like HVDC, FACTS, renewable

generation on the request of RPC, NLDC, RLDC or SLDC.

(i) Triggering of STATCOM, TCSC, HVDC run-back, HVDC power oscillation damping,

generating station power system stabilizer and any other controller system during

99
 any event in the grid shall be reported to RLDC and RPC if connected to ISTS and

to SLDC if connected to intra-state system. The transient fault records and event

logger data shall be submitted to RLDC or SLDC within 24 hours of occurrence of

the incident.

(j) A monthly report mentioning the events of unintended operation or non-operation of

protection system shall be prepared and submitted by each utility to RPC and RLDC

within the first week of the subsequent month.

43. PERIODIC REPORTS

(1) Daily and monthly report covering performance of the integrated grid shall be prepared

by NLDC.

(2) Daily and monthly report covering the performance of the regional grid shall be prepared

by each RLDC based on the inputs received from SLDCs/users.

(3) The reports shall inter-alia contain the following:

i. Frequency profile

ii. Source wise generation for each control area

iii. Drawal from the grid and area control error

iv. Demand met (peak, off-peak and average)

v. Demand/Energy unserved in MW and MWh

vi. Instances and quantum of curtailment of renewable energy

vii. Voltage profile of important substations and sub-stations normally having low

/high voltage.

viii. Major generation and transmission outages

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 ix. Constraints and instances of congestion in transmission system

x. Instances of persistent/significant non-compliance of Grid Code

xi. Status of reservoirs

(4) The NLDC shall prepare a quarterly report providing operational feedback for grid

planning and re-optimization.

44. REACTIVE POWER MANAGEMENT

(1) All users shall endeavour to maintain the voltage at interconnection point in the range

specified in the Grid Code.

(2) NLDC, RLDC or SLDC may direct the users about reactive power set-points, voltage set-

points and power factor control to maintain the voltage at interconnection point.

(3) NLDC, RLDC and SLDC shall assess the dynamic reactive power reserve available at

various substations or generating stations under any credible contingency on a regular

basis based on technical details and data provided by the users.

(4) NLDC, RLDC and SLDC shall take appropriate measures to maintain the voltage within

limits inter-alia using following facilities and facility owner shall abide by the instructions of

SLDC, RLDC and NLDC:

i) shunt reactors

ii) shunt capacitors

iii) TCSC

iv) VSC based HVDC

v) synchronous/non-synchronous generator voltage control

vi) synchronous condenser;

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 vii) static VAR compensators (SVC), STATCOM and other FACTS devices

viii) transformer tap change: generator transformer and inter-connecting

transformer

ix) HVDC power order or HVDC controller selection to optimise filter bank

(5) Reactive power facility shall be in operation at all times and shall not be taken out without

the permission of concerned RLDC or SLDC.

(6) Periodic/seasonal tap changing of inter-connecting transformers and generator

transformers shall be carried out to optimize the voltages and if required other options

such as tap staggering may be carried out in the network.

(7) All generating stations connected to grid shall generate/absorb reactive power as per

instructions of RLDC or SLDC, within capability limits of the respective generating units.

Such instructions shall ensure that active power generation is not sacrificed under normal

conditions.

(8) Hydro and gas generating units having capability shall operate in synchronous

condenser mode operation as per instructions of RLDC or SLDC. Standalone

synchronous condenser units shall operate as per instructions of RLDC or SLDC.

(9) Any commercial settlement for reactive power shall be governed as per regulatory

framework specified as per Annexure – 4 until the same is separately notified as part

of CERC Ancillary Services Regulations.

(10) If voltages are outside acceptable limits and the means of voltage control set out in the

above clause are exhausted, SLDC, RLDC or NLDC shall take all reasonable actions

necessary to restore the voltages to within the relevant limits including dropping of lines

considering security of system.

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45. FIELD TESTING FOR MODEL VALIDATION

(1) Objective

This section specifies the periodicity and tests to be carried out on power system elements

for ascertaining correctness of mathematical models used for simulation studies as well

as ensuring desired performance during an event in the system.

(2) General provisions regarding testing

(a) The owner of the power system element shall be responsible to carry out test as

described in respective sections and submission of report to NLDC/ RLDC/ CEA/ CTU

for all elements and STU/SLDC for intra-state elements.

(b) All equipment owner shall submit a testing plan for the next year to RPC secretariat

for information to all by 31 st October for ensuring proper coordination during testing

as per the schedule. In case of any change in schedule, the owner shall inform RPC

Secretariat in advance.

(c) The tests shall be performed once every five (5) years or whenever major retrofitting

is done or if necessitated earlier due to any adverse performance observed during

any grid event.

(d) The owner of the power system elements shall implement recommendations if any

suggested in the test reports in consultation with NLDC/ RLDC/ CEA/ CTU or any

changes suggested by the latter.

(3) Testing requirements:

The following tests shall be carried out on respective power system elements:

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 TABLE 8: TESTS REQUIRED FOR POWER SYSTEM ELEMENTS

Power
System Tests Applicability
Elements

Synchronous (1) Real and Reactive Power Capability assessment. Individual Unit
Generator (2) Reactive Power Control Capability (As per CEA of rating
(Technical Standards for Connectivity to the Grid) 100MW and
Regulations, 2007) assessment. above for
(3) Model Validation and verification test for the Coal/lignite,
complete Generator and Excitation System model 50MW and
including PSS. above gas
(4) Model Validation and verification of turbine and 25
Turbine/Governor and Load Control or Active MW and
Power/ Frequency Control Functions. above for
(5) Testing of Governor performance and Automatic Hydro.
Generation Control.
Non (1) Real and Reactive Power Capability for Generator Applicable as
synchronous (2) Power Plant Controller Function Test per CEA
Generator (3) Frequency Response Test (Technical
(Solar/Wind) (4) Fault Ride through Test (sample testing of a unit in Standards for
the generating stations). Connectivity
to the Grid)
Regulations,
2007

HVDC/FACTS (1) Damping capability of HVDC/FACTS Controller To all ISTS

Devices (2) Frequency Controller Capability of HVDC Controller HVDC as well
(3) Reactive Power Controller (RPC) Capability for as Intra-State
HVDC/FACTS HVDC/FACTS
(4) Validation of voltage dependent current order limiter
(VDCOL) characteristic for ensuring proper
validation of HVDC performance

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 Power
System Tests Applicability
Elements

(5) Filter bank adequacy assessment based on present

grid condition.
(6) Validation of response by FACTS devices as per
settings.

46. CAPACITY BUILDING AND CERTIFICATION

(1) Certification of System Operators

(a) Capacity building, skill upgradation and certification of the personnel deployed in load

despatch centres shall be done periodically under an institutional framework.

(b) The certification shall be done by certifying agency(ies) as designated and accredited

by CEA/Central Government from time to time.

(c) A governing board shall be formed by certifying agency(ies), comprising of members

from CEA, CERC/SERC, NLDC, CTU and academia for administering the entire

certification process.

(d) The governing board may create sub-groups for finalizing the details of the course

content, examination procedure and other related issues.

(e) A detailed procedure shall be issued by the governing board, in consultation with

Forum of Load Despatchers (FOLD), for periodic capacity building, certification and

recertification for system operators at NLDC, RLDC, SLDC and sub-LDC.

(f) The grid operators at NLDC, RLDC, SLDC and sub-LDC shall undergo periodic re-

certification once in every three (3) years to ensure continuous skill upgradation.

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(2) Certification of Transmission System Planners

(a) Capacity building, skill upgradation and certification of the personnel involved in

transmission planning in CEA, CTU, STU and distribution licensees shall be done

periodically under an institutional framework.

(b) The certification shall be done by certifying agency(ies) as designated and

accredited by CEA/Central Government from time to time.

(c) An independent governing board shall be formed by certifying agency(ies),

comprising of members from CEA, CERC/SERC, CTU, NLDC and academia for

administering the entire certification process.

(d) The governing board may create sub-groups for finalizing the details of the course

content, examination procedure and other related issues.

(e) A detailed procedure shall be issued by the governing board for periodic capacity

building, certification and recertification for transmission planners at CEA, CTU, STU

and distribution licensees.

(f) The transmission planners at CEA, CTU, STU and distribution licensees shall

undergo periodic re-certification once in every five (5) years to ensure continuous

skill upgradation.

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 CHAPTER 8: UNIT COMMITMENT, SCHEDULING AND
DESPATCH CODE FOR PHYSICAL DELIVERY OF
ELECTRICAL ENERGY

47. INTRODUCTION

This chapter covers a) control area jurisdiction b) procedure for scheduling and despatch in a

decentralized manner c) mechanism for unit commitment d) framework for Security

Constrained Economic Despatch (SCED) of regional entity generators and e) compensatory

mechanism for part load operation of generating stations.

48. OBJECTIVE

This chapter deals with the procedure to be adopted for scheduling of the net injection/drawal

of regional entities and the modalities for information exchange including scheduling for intra-

state and cross-border entities transacting power through Inter-State Transmission System.

49. CONTROL AREA JURISDICTION

(1) The national grid is demarcated into different control areas where the appropriate load

despatch centre controls its generation and load to maintain interchange with the grid as

per schedule, and contributes to frequency regulation. The load despatch centre shall be

responsible for real-time monitoring and control of the grid operation within its control area

including management of the generation reserves and demand response. It shall also be

responsible for processing of interface energy meter data and coordinating the accounting

and settlement of pool accounts.

(2) Jurisdiction of RLDC and SLDC

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 (a) Jurisdiction of RLDC:

i. Generating station connected only to the ISTS including deemed ISTS except

where full share is allocated to home state

ii. Generating station connected to both ISTS and state network unless more than

50% of installed capacity is tied up with the home state through long-term PPAs.

(b) Jurisdiction of SLDC:

i. Generating station connected only to the state transmission network.

ii. Generating station connected only to the ISTS where full share is allocated to

home state

iii. Generating station connected to both ISTS and state network with more than

50% of installed capacity tied up with the home state through long term PPAs:

Provided that in case of ISGS, the role of RLDC shall be to schedule

inter-state exchange of power on account of the ISGS while determining the net

drawal schedule of the home state.

(3) Notwithstanding above, there may be exceptions to above provisions, for reasons of

operational expediency subject to approval of CERC.

(4) In case a generating station is connected to both ISTS and state transmission network,

the load despatch centres involved shall coordinate with each other while scheduling with

a view to ensuring grid security. In case of any difference of view on scheduling, the

directions of the RLDC/NLDC shall be binding.

(5) The scheduling of ISGS under the jurisdiction of SLDC shall be done according to the

provisions of IEGC.

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50. FUNCTIONS OF CONTROL AREA

(1) Entities such as SLDC, DVC, cross-border control centre shall be responsible for the

following in its control area:

(a) Forecasting demand and internal renewable generation for each time block on a

day ahead and intraday basis.

(b) Scheduling/despatch of internal generation.

(c) Requisitioning drawal from the regional entity generating stations/cross-border

generating stations with whom its embedded entities have PPA.

(d) Scheduling long-term, medium-term and short-term open access and power

exchange transactions for embedded entities in accordance with the contracts.

(e) Balancing demand and supply to minimize Area Control Error (ACE).

(f) Facilitating absorption of energy from renewable energy sources

(g) Maintaining and despatching of reserves of various kinds as envisaged in these

regulations. Deployment of secondary reserves (Automatic Generation Control)

and tertiary reserves.

(h) Declaration of Import/Export TTC/ATC of respective control area with respect to

ISTS in coordination with RLDC/NLDC on three (3) months in advance and day-

ahead basis, which shall be revised from time to time based on grid conditions.

(i) Declaration of intra-state TTC/ATC of each distribution licensee in coordination

with state grid entities and STU. TTC/ATC along with all the assumptions and

limiting constraints would be published on the SLDC website.

(2) RLDC, NLDC shall be responsible for the following in its control area:

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(a) Forecasting demand and ISTS connected renewable generation for each time block

on a day-ahead and intraday basis.

(b) Running a Security Constraint Unit Commitment (SCUC) on regional and All India

basis.

(c) Scheduling of regional entity generating stations/cross-border generating stations

with whom its regional entities have PPA.

(d) Scheduling long-term, medium-term and short-term open access and power

exchange transactions for regional entities in accordance with the contracts.

(e) Running Security Constrained Economic Despatch (SCED) on All India basis.

(f) Balancing demand and supply to minimize Area Control Error (ACE).

(g) Facilitating absorption of energy from renewable energy sources.

(h) Maintaining and despatching reserves of various kinds as envisaged in these

regulations. Deployment of secondary reserves (Automatic Generation Control) and

tertiary reserves.

(i) Declaration of simultaneous Import/Export TTC/ATC across regions and for cross-

border interconnections in three (3) months in advance, which shall be revised from

time to time based on grid conditions. TTC/ATC along with all the assumptions and

limiting constraints would be published on the NLDC website.

(j) Declaration of Import/Export TTC/ATC of each state in coordination with respective

SLDC. TTC/ATC along with all the assumptions and limiting constraints would be

published on the NLDC website.

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51. GENERAL PROVISIONS

(1) Net Drawal Schedule:

The drawal schedule of any regional drawee entity would be the algebraic sum of all its

transactions through the inter-state transmission system. This would be reflected at the

periphery of the regional drawee entity after applicable transmission losses to arrive at net

drawal schedule.

(2) Net Injection Schedule:

The injection schedule of any regional entity generating station would be the algebraic

sum of all its transactions through the inter-state transmission system. This would be

reflected at the periphery of the regional generating entity after applicable transmission

losses.

(3) Adherence to Schedule:

Each regional entity shall regulate its generation and/or demand so as to adhere to the

net injection or drawal schedule from the inter-state transmission system.

(4) Area Control Error:

(a) The concerned SLDC/bulk consumer connected to ISTS shall ensure that their

automatic demand management scheme is kept in service. The generation,

storage and demand response reserves shall be efficiently deployed to minimize

the ACE. In order to sustain ACE close to zero (0), the algebraic sign of ACE shall

traverse the zero (0) error line at least once in six (6) time-blocks.

(b) With regard to regional entity generating station, the algebraic sign of ACE shall

traverse the zero (0) error line at least once in six (6) time-blocks in order to sustain

ACE close to zero (0):

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 Provided that the requirement of algebraic sign of ACE shall not be applicable

to wind, solar, hybrid of wind and solar, run of the river hydro generation without

pondage:

Provided further that the requirement of algebraic sign of ACE shall not be

applicable to injection of infirm power and drawal for start-up power by a

generating station, inter-regional deviations and post forced outage of a

generating station transacting through collective day ahead or real time

transactions on a power exchange.

(5) Short-term Demand Estimation and Resource Management:

(a) SLDC, in coordination with distribution licensees, shall carry out short-term demand

estimation taking into account embedded renewable generation for its Control Area

on monthly, weekly and daily basis for each time block of the day.

(b) SLDC shall estimate and ensure resource adequacy, identification of generation

reserves and demand response capacity and generation flexibility requirement.

(6) Power to Revise Schedules:

(a) Irrespective of finalized injection/drawal schedules, in case of contingencies such as

overloading of lines, transformers, abnormal voltages, threat to system security,

RLDC may direct the SLDCs/regional entities to increase/decrease their

drawal/injection. Such directions shall be immediately acted upon.

(b) In case of overloading of lines, transformers, abnormal voltages or threat to system

security, the following steps may be taken by RLDC or SLDC as the case may be:

(i) Issue directions to adhere to the schedules and ensure deviations are stopped.

(ii) Despatching ancillary services.

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 (iii) Take appropriate measures like tripping of pump storage plants operating in

pumping mode.

(iv) Despatching emergency demand response measures.

(c) In case it becomes necessary to curtail scheduled transactions - short-term,

medium-term or long-term - then the transaction which is likely to relieve the threat

to grid security shall be identified and curtailed first. This is, notwithstanding the

identified priority of curtailment, that is short-term followed by medium-term followed

by long-term transactions. RLDC or SLDC, as the case may be, shall publish a report

of such incidents on the website.

(d) Notwithstanding above, RLDC may revise the drawal and/or injection schedule of a

regional entity in the interest of reliable system operation.

(e) RLDCs would curtail a transaction at the periphery of the regional entities. SLDC(s)

shall further incorporate the inter-se curtailment of intra-state entities to implement

the curtailment.

(f) Whenever RLDC/SLDC revises final schedules due to reasons of grid security or

contingency, the short reason shall be informed immediately to the concerned

followed by a detailed explanation to be posted on the website within 24 hours.

(7) Third Party Sale Out of Long-term PPA:

(a) The regional entity generating station shall be allowed to sell the power of any long-

term PPA holder in the market with express consent of the PPA holder. The PPA

holder shall communicate its consent for a day or standing consent for longer duration

to the regional energy generating station about the quantum and duration for which

power shall not be requisitioned. Where the consent has been given by the PPA holder

to the regional entity generating station, the PPA holder shall not be allowed to recall

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 such power. The regional entity generating station shall submit the details to the

respective RLDC regarding such power sold in the market along with details of PPA

holder who had surrendered its power.

(b) Without prejudice to above, scheduling for third party sale may also be carried out in

accordance with CERC (Regulation of Power Supply) Regulations 2010.

(8) Requirement for Commencement of Scheduling:

(a) The following documents shall be submitted to RLDC before commencement of the

scheduling of transactions under long-term and medium-term access:

i. Grant of long-term or medium-term open access by the CTU;

ii. Power Purchase/Supply Agreement between generator or seller and the

beneficiary or buyer by either of the parties;

iii. Letter of operationalization of long-term or medium-term open access by

the CTU;

(b) The scheduling of short-term open access and collective power exchange transactions

shall be based on approval accorded under CERC (Open Access in Inter-State

Transmission) Regulations, 2008

(9) Declaration of Capability for Scheduling:

(a) The regional entity generating stations shall make an advance declaration of ex-power

plant maximum and minimum MW and MWh capabilities on a daily basis, ramping

up/down capability foreseen for the next seven (7) days on a rolling basis:

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 Provided that:

i. In case of a hydro generating stations, the generating station shall declare

MWh capabilities foreseen for the next day along with maximum generation

capacity in MW for continuous three hours.

ii. In case of a gas turbine generating station or a combined cycle generating

station, the generating station shall declare fuel-wise MWh energy

capability on differently priced fuels separately along with the combined

maximum capacity in MW for units/modules.

iii. The regional entity renewable generating stations generators (including

hybrid systems) shall make an advance declaration of forecast and

available capacity foreseen for the next day, i.e., from 00:00 hrs. to 24:00

hrs.

(b) While making or revising its declaration of capability, except in case of run-off-river

(with up to three-hour pondage) hydro stations and canal fed hydro, the regional entity

generating station shall ensure that the declared capability during peak hours is not

less than that during other hours. However, exception to this rule shall be allowed in

case of tripping/re-synchronization of units as a result of forced outage of units.

(c) It shall be incumbent upon the regional entity generators to declare the plant

capabilities and available capacity, faithfully. The regional entity generators may be

required to demonstrate the declared capability of its generating station as and when

asked by the RLDC of the region. For this purpose, RLDC, in coordination with SLDC

and the beneficiaries, shall schedule upto the declared capability of the generator.

RLDC shall ask each regional entity generating station to demonstrate the declared

capacity at least once in a year and report mis-declaration if any to the Commission.

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 (d) The schedule decided by the RLDC shall be binding on the beneficiaries for such

testing of declared capacity. In case the regional entity generator fails to demonstrate

the declared capability, this shall be treated as mis-declaration which shall be dealt in

terms of these regulations as under:

The quantum of penalty for the first mis-declaration for any duration/block in a day

shall be the charges corresponding to two days fixed charges. For the second mis-

declaration the penalty shall be equivalent to fixed charges for four days and for

subsequent mis-declarations, the penalty shall be multiplied in the geometrical

progression over a period of a month.

(10) Declaration of Peak Hours:

Seasonal and diurnal peak/off peak periods may be declared by NLDC as directed by

CERC in Terms and Conditions of Tariff Regulation 2019-24-. RLDCs, based on demand

pattern analysis / forecast and after duly considering the comments of the concerned

stakeholders, shall declare peak hours and high demand season for respective region.

For the generators whose tariff is determined by CERC but falling under the control area

of SLDC as per these regulations, the hours of peak and off-peak periods during a day

shall be declared by the concerned SLDC at least a week in advance in line to above

procedure for RLDCs.

(11) Optimum Utilization of Hydro Energy:

(a) Run-of-river power station with pondage and storage type power stations are

designed to operate during peak hours to meet system peak demand. Maximum

capacity of the station declared for the day shall be equal to the installed capacity

including overload capability (during water spillage condition only), if any, minus

auxiliary consumption, corrected for the reservoir level. RLDC shall ensure that

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 generation schedules of such type of stations are prepared and the stations

despatched for optimum utilization of available hydro energy except in the event of

specific system constraints.

(b) During high inflow period and spillage condition, subject to availability of margins in

transmission system, RLDCs shall allow scheduling of power from hydro generating

stations (irrespective of ownership) corresponding to overload capacity upto 10% of

existing LTA even without obtaining additional LTA/ MTOA/ STOA for the overload

capacity:

Provided that RLDCs shall allow the Declared Capacity declared by the

generator for the purpose of PAF calculation of the generating station.

Provided that in case of beneficiaries with PPAs for fixed quantum of

power, the beneficiary shall have the first right of refusal in such overload capacity.

In the scenario of the beneficiary deciding not to avail such power under overload

capacity, the generating station shall be free to sell the same to any other entity or

in power exchanges and shall be liable to pay the applicable STOA charges,

instead of additional LTA charges, for the scheduled overload capacity.

(c) The schedule finalized by the concerned load despatch centre for hydro generating

station, shall normally be such that the scheduled energy for a day shall be close to

the total energy (ex-bus) declared by the generating station.

(12) Flexibility in Scheduling from various contracts upto approved LTA/ MTOA

A Distribution utilitiy/ buyer shall have the flexibilty to requisition/schedule such quantum

of power as per its preference from its portfolio of power contracts (long/medium/short-

term agreements) upto the approved quantum of long-term access and/or medium-term

open access to such User.

117
 Provided that:

(a) for scheduling power under short-term bilateral contract, the user shall be required

to obtain STOA as per CERC (Open Access in Interstate Transmission)

Regulations 2008.

(b) If the user does not fully requisition its short-term access before the opening of

day-ahead bidding in power exchanges, the unused corridor(s) against such

access shall be forfeited, and released in the day ahead and real time markets.

NLDC shall include the modalities of implementation in the Detailed Procedure and Timelines

for Scheduling and Despatch of Regional Entities.

(13) Ramping Rate to be Declared for Scheduling:

(a) The generating plants shall declare the ramping rate along with the declaration of day-

ahead availability in the following manner. The same shall be accounted for in the

preparation of generation schedules.

i. Coal/lignite fired plants shall declare a ramp up/down rate of not less than 1%

of MCR on bar per minute.

ii. Gas power plants shall declare a ramp up/down rate of not less than 3% of

MCR on bar per minute.

iii. Hydro power plants shall declare a ramp up/down rate of not less than 10% of

MCR on bar per minute.

iv. Wind, solar and wind-solar hybrid power plants shall declare a ramp up/down

rate as per CEA Connectivity Standards.

(b) The drawee regional entities shall ensure that the ramp rate in the drawal/ injection

schedule is not more than 10% of previous time block schedule.

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 (c) All the trade transactions, bilateral as well as collective shall ensure that ramp rate

in the drawal/injection schedule is not more than 10% of previous time block

schedule.

(14) Scheduling of wind and solar generation by QCA:

(i) The wind, solar or hybrid generator including energy storage systems shall, on

their behalf, appoint the QCA by mutual consent to undertake scheduling for a

particular ISTS pooling station or combined scheduling for more than one

pooling station. Provided that:

a) where there is no consensus among wind, solar or hybrid generator, the

QCA may be appointed by majority vote (51% of installed capacity) by

the concerned generators. The voting rights allocated to each generator

shall be based on the capacity connected to the concerned ISTS pooling

station(s);

b) Till the QCA has not been appointed, the lead generator or the individual

generator, as the case may be, shall undertake the responsibilities of

QCA.

c) NLDC shall notify a procedure for aggregation of pooling stations for the

purpose of combined scheduling and deviation settlement for multiple

pooling stations wind/solar/hybrid generating stations within six (6)

month.

d) RLDC shall recognise QCA as user, on submission of authorisations

from the concerned generating station and after registration with the

concerned RLDC (as user) and RPC.

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 (ii) For the purpose of scheduling clause (i) above, the QCA shall undertake the

activities to the extent of authorisation by wind, solar or hybrid generators which

shall include:

(a) facilitate the concerned RLDC in the scheduling of power including

periodic revisions and settlement of energy accounts in accordance with

grid code;

(b) responsible for metering, data collection and submission, coordination with

SLDC, RLDC and NLDC;

(c) undertake commercial settlement of deviation pool account with RLDC in

accordance with grid code and applicable regulations.

(iii) the concerned wind, solar or hybrid generators including energy storage system

shall indemnify RLDC for all act or conduct of QCA including compliance with

the Grid Code and settlement of its financial liability in the pooled account.

(iv) The scheduling, energy accounting and settlement among the concerned wind,

solar or hybrid generators, the terms and the extant of authorization of the QCA

will be governed as per their mutually agreed terms:

Provided that any dispute arising between the generators and QCA shall

be resolved in accordance with the contract. During the period of dispute,

the generators and QCA shall not suspend any activities with regard to

compliance of the Grid Code.

(15) Minimum turndown level for thermal generating stations:

(i) The minimum turndown level for operation in respect of a unit (s) of a regional

entity generating station shall be 55% of MCR loading or installed capacity of the

unit of a generating station. The regional entity generating station may be directed

by concerned RLDC to operate its unit(s) at or above the minimum turndown level

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 on account of grid security or due to the lesser schedules given by the

beneficiaries.

Provided that:

i) the generating station on its own option may declare suitability for

operation at minimum turndown level below the aforesaid 55%

limit.

(ii) The thermal generating stations shall be compensated for generation below the

normative level as per the mechanism given in Annexure – 5.

(16) Energy Metering and Accounting:

(a) The CTU shall install Interface Energy Meters (IEMs) on all inter-connections between

the regional entities, cross border entities and other identified points for recording of

actual net active and reactive energy interchange in each time-block.

i. The installation, operation and maintenance of Interface Energy Meters (IEMs)

shall be in accordance with CEA (Installation and Operation of Meters)

Regulations, 2006.

ii. All concerned entities (in whose premises the IEMs are installed) shall take

weekly meter readings and transmit them to the RLDC by Tuesday noon.

iii. All concerned entities shall be responsible for monitoring the healthiness of the

CT/PT inputs and shall ensure that the time drift of IEM within the limits as

specified in CEA Metering Regulations 2006.

iv. Utilities shall promptly intimate the changes in CT and PT ratio to RLDC.

(b) SLDC must ensure that the meter data from all installations within their control area

are transmitted to RLDC within the specified time schedule.

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 (c) RLDC shall be responsible for computation of actual net injection/drawal of concerned

regional entities and cross border entities, time block wise, based on the IEM readings.

i. This data along with the processed data of meters and the implemented

schedule shall be forwarded by the RLDC to the RPC Secretariat on a weekly

basis by each Friday for the seven day period ending on the previous Sunday

mid-night, to enable the latter to prepare and issue the various accounts such as

Deviation Settlement Mechanism (DSM), reactive charges, congestion, ancillary

services, SCED, heat rate compensation charges and regional transmission

deviation account in accordance with the regulations.

ii. All computations carried out by NPC/RPCs/RLDCs shall be open to all regional

entities and cross border entities for checking/verifications for a period of fifteen

(15) days.

iii. In case any error/omission is detected, the RLDC/RPC/NPC/NLDC shall

forthwith make a complete check and rectify the same.

(17) Inspection of Records:

The operational logs/records of the regional entity generating stations and inter-state

transmission licensees shall be available for inspection and review by the RLDC and

RPC.

(18) Oversight of Injection and Drawal:

NLDC/RLDC shall periodically review the persistent over drawal and under injection. In

case any such practice is detected, the matter shall be reported to the Member Secretary,

RPC and Market Monitoring Cell, CERC for further investigation/action.

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 (19) Scheduling of Inter-Regional and Cross-Border Transactions:

NLDC shall be responsible for scheduling and despatch of electricity over inter-regional

links and cross-border links in accordance with the grid code specified by Central

Commission in coordination with Regional Load Despatch Centres. The schedules

prepared by NLDC for inter-regional and cross-border exchange of power shall be on

net of the regions and net of the country basis respectively.

(20) NLDC shall undertake Security Constrained Economic Despatch as per CERC

regulations/orders.

(21) NLDC, RLDC or SLDC, as the case may be, shall be responsible for operation of

secondary and tertiary reserves in its control area in accordance with these regulations.

(22) NLDC shall be responsible for coordinating the set-points of all HVDCs within the country

and cross-border HVDC interconnections.

52. SECURITY CONSTRAINED UNIT COMMITMENT (SCUC)

(1) The SCUC exercise shall be carried out to facilitate reliability of supply to the regional

entities/beneficiaries taking into account optimal cost, adequate reserves, ramping

requirements factoring security constraints:

Provided that, the payment of carrying cost for the generation reserves committed

through SCUC shall be as specified by the commission.

(2) In order to ensure availability of adequate secondary and tertiary reserves with sufficient

ramping capability, NLDC shall identify the generating unit for purpose of unit commitment

at the national level three (3) days in advance of actual day of scheduling for regional

entity generating stations on a rolling basis. NLDC, through RLDC shall advise the regional

entity generators to commit or de-commit the unit. (Refer ANNEXURE – 7: Detailed

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 Operating Procedure for Backing Down of Coal/Lignite/Gas unit(s) of the Central

Generating Stations, Inter-State Generating Stations and other Generating Stations and

for taking such units under Reserve Shut Down on scheduling below Minimum Turndown

Schedule.)

Provided that as and when enabling framework is in place, reserves may be

procured through the market.

(3) Based on the SCUC instructions from RLDC, the generating station shall revise the on-

bar DC (with due consideration to ramp up/down capability), off-bar DC and ramp up/down

rate.

(4) SLDC shall perform similar SCUC exercise at the intra-state level.

53. PROCEDURE FOR SCHEDULING AND DESPATCH FOR INTER-STATE

TRANSACTIONS

(1) Listing of regional entity generating stations:

(a) All regional entity generating stations shall be duly listed and updated quarterly on the

respective RLDC website along with station capacity, allocated share of beneficiaries

and/or contracted quantum of buyers under long-term, medium-term PPAs and balance

capacity.

(b) The following details, as applicable, shall be furnished by each generating stations

including coal, lignite, gas, Hydro, Wind, Solar, Hybrid, ESS/ Pumped Storage Plant.

TABLE 9: DETAILS NEEDED FOR REGIONAL ENTITY GENERATING STATIONS

Description Units
Installed Capacity of station MW
Installed Capacity of station MWh

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 Description Units
Number x unit size No x MW
Time required for cold start Minute
Time required for warm start minute
Time required for hot start Minute
Time required for combined cycle operation under cold
Minute
conditions
Time required for combined cycle operation under warm conditions Minute
Ramping up capability % per minute
Ramping down capability % per minute
% of ex-bus
Minimum turndown level
capacity
Inverter Loading Ratio (DC/AC capacity)
Name of QCA
Full reservoir level (FRL) Metre
Design Head Metre
Minimum draw down level (MDDL) Metre
Water released at Design Head M3/ MW

Notes:

i. The minimum up-time for coal fired units shall be eight (8) hours while for
combined cycle shall be three (3) hours.
ii. The minimum down-time for coal fired units shall be eight (8) hours while for
combined cycle shall be three (3) hours. After tripping of any unit, the same maybe
revived in lesser time also.
iii. The regional entity generating stations must be capable of receiving the load set
point signals from the RLDC/NLDC as per CEA Technical Standards for
Connectivity.

(2) Listing of Regional Drawing Entities:

All drawee regional entities shall be duly listed and updated quarterly on the respective

RLDC website along with allocated and/or contracted quantum from regional entity

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 generating stations and other sources outside the state under long-term and medium-term

PPAs.

(3) Entitlement of a Beneficiary/ long-term PPA Holder:

Each beneficiary/state shall be entitled to a proportionate MW/MWh despatch

corresponding to declared capability of regional entity generating station and its

share/contracted capacity.

(4) The following scheduling related activities shall be carried out on daily basis as per the

timelines specified in the “Detailed Procedure and Timelines for Scheduling and

Despatch of Regional Entities” to be issued by NLDC within three (3) months:

(a) Declaration of capability by regional entity generating stations:

i. Regional entities thermal generating stations (including stations without any

access) shall submit the following information of every day for 0000 hours to

2400 hours of the following day:

(a) On-bar Declared Capability (MW) and on-bar units

(b) Off-bar Declared Capability (MW) and off-bar units

(c) Ramp up/down rate (MW/min) for on-bar capability

(d) Minimum turndown level (MW) and in percentage (%) of ex-bus

capacity on-bar

ii. Regional entity hydro generating station (including merchant power plant) shall

submit the following information, for 0000 hours to 2400 hours of the following

day:

(a) Ex-bus peaking capability in MW and MWh

(b) Ramp up/down rate (MW/min) for on-bar capability

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 (c) Ex-bus declared capability

(d) Unit-wise forbidden zones in MW and percentage (%) of ex-bus

installed capacity

(e) Minimum MW and duration corresponding to requirement of water

release for irrigation, drinking water and other considerations.

Based on the above information of availability and respective share of

beneficiaries, RLDC shall schedule the station in an optimal manner subject to

technical limitations, if any. The hydro station shall adhere to the flexible

scheduling and ramping requirement decided by the RLDCs.

iii. Regional entity gas based generating station shall submit the following

information, for 0000 hours to 2400 hours of the following day:

a) Capability (DC) for the station in MW.

b) Capability to deliver energy in MWh separately for each fuel such as

domestic gas, RLNG and/or liquid fuel for the following day.

c) Ramp up/down rate (MW/min) for on-bar capability

d) Minimum turndown level (MW) and in percentage (%) of ex-bus

capacity on-bar

Based on the above information of availability and respective requisition of

beneficiaries, RLDC shall schedule the gas-based generation in an optimal

manner subject to technical limitations, if any. The gas-based generation stations

shall adhere to the flexible scheduling and ramping requirement decided by the

RLDCs.

iv. Wind, solar, hybrid, storage plants, ESS including pumped storage plant,

individually or represented by lead generator or QCA on their behalf, shall submit

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 aggregate available capacity of the pooled generation and aggregate schedule

for each time block along with PPA-wise breakup for the same.

(b) Entitlement of each beneficiary:

Based on above declared capabilities of regional entity generating stations, the RLDC

shall advise the corresponding MW and MWh entitlements of each state/beneficiary.

(c) Embedded Long-term, medium-term and short-term quantum for scheduling:

Notwithstanding scheduling of long-term, medium-term open access transactions from

the embedded entities within the state system and short-term transactions shall be

carried out as under:

i) The buyers and the sellers shall submit mutually agreed schedule through the

authorized person

ii) The settlement nodal agency (SNA) shall submit the cross-border schedule

along with its breakup from various sources

(d) Transmission clearance and scheduling of day-ahead collective transactions:

i) The power exchange shall submit the day-ahead provisional trade schedules

along with net power interchange of each bid area and region as per the

timeline specified by NLDC, and any other information, if required.

ii) NLDC shall validate the same from system security angle and inform the power

exchange with revisions required if any due to transmission congestion or any

other system constraint.

iii) The power exchange shall accordingly submit the final trade schedules to

NLDC for regional entities and to SLDC for intra-state entities.

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(e) Scheduling of Real-time collective transaction:

NLDC shall indicate to Power Exchange(s), margin available in each of the

transmission corridors before the gate closure, i.e. before the window for trade closes

for a specified duration. Power Exchange(s) shall clear the buy and sell bids for the

said duration under consideration on various interfaces or control areas or regional

transmission systems as intimated by NLDC. The limit for scheduling of collective

transaction during real time for respective Power Exchanges shall be worked out in

accordance with the directives of the Commission. NLDC shall furnish the available

transmission corridors to the Power Exchange(s) before the trading for real time

market closes for a specified duration. Based on the information furnished by NLDC,

Power Exchange shall clear the RTM bids and announce the Market Clearing price

and volume. Based on the volume cleared by the Power Exchanges, NLDC shall

communicate the schedules to the respective RLDCs. After getting confirmation from

RLDCs, NLDC shall convey the acceptance of scheduling of collective transaction to

Power Exchange(s). RLDCs shall schedule the Collective Transactions at the

respective periphery of the Regional Entities.

(f) Submission of information by SLDC:

SLDC shall furnish time block-wise information for all intra-state entities for the

following day to concerned RLDC for the purpose of validating resource adequacy and

scheduling of its inter-state transactions:

i) Demand forecast aggregated for the control area

ii) Renewable energy forecast for generation in its control area;

iii) Requisition from regional entity generating stations in which it has

share/contracted capacity

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 iv) Power contracted at inter-state level through other long-term, and medium-

term and short-term contracts

v) Power contracted at inter-state level through power exchange

vi) Conventional generation in its control area Secondary and tertiary reserves at

its disposal for regulating its ACE

(f) Issue of day-ahead schedule:

RLDC shall convey the following for the next day to all regional and other entities

involved in inter-state transactions:

i) The regional entity generating unit(s) that has to be committed or de-committed

based on result of Security Constrained Unit Commitment (SCUC) performed

by NLDC.

ii) The ex-power plant schedule to each of the regional entity generating station,

in MW for different time block, for the next day. The breakup of such schedules

for respective beneficiary, long term access, medium term and short-term open

access transactions shall also be indicated.

iii) The “net drawal schedule” to each regional entity, in MW for different time

block, for the next day. The summation of the station-wise ex-power plant

drawal schedules from all regional entity generating station and drawal from

/injection to regional grid consequent to other long-term access, medium term

and short-term open access transactions, after deducting the transmission

losses (estimated), shall constitute the regional entity-wise drawal schedule. In

case the net ex-power plant injection schedule for a generating station is less

than the minimum turndown level, RLDC shall request NLDC to accommodate

the requisitions for such generating stations through SCUC and SCED. NLDC

shall endeavour to accommodate through SCUC and SCED at national level.

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(5) Power to revise schedules:

RLDC may suo-motu revise the schedule of any regional entity generating station to

operate at or above minimum turndown in the interest of reliable system operation.

While doing so, it is possible that the requisition of some beneficiaries may go up to

ensure technical minimum. In this case, SLDCs may surrender power from some other

inter-state generating station(s) or intra-state generating station(s) out of merit order.

The concerned RLDC shall issue revised schedule accordingly and this shall be

intimated to the concerned generating station, through the scheduling process.

(6) Issue of schedules by SLDC:

SLDC shall take into account the schedule released by concerned RLDC for its

embedded entities and issue the corresponding intra-state schedules. The individual

transactions for State Utilities/intra-State Entities shall be scheduled by the respective

SLDCs. Power Exchange(s) shall send the detailed break up of each point of injection

and each point of drawal within the state to respective SLDCs after receipt of

acceptance from NLDC. Power Exchange(s) shall ensure necessary coordination with

SLDCs for scheduling of the transactions.

(7) Must Run Plants:

(a) Wind, solar, wind-solar hybrid and hydro plants (in case of excess water

leading to spillage) shall be treated as MUST RUN power plants and shall not

be subjected to curtailment on account of merit order despatch or any other

commercial consideration.

(b) In the event of transmission or system security constraint, the renewable

generation may be curtailed after harnessing available flexible resources

including energy storage systems.

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 (c) In the event of extreme circumstances when any MUST RUN plant has to be

curtailed, the details shall be published on the RLDC/SLDC website the

following day, as the case may be, giving the date, name of RE generation

plant, installed capacity, curtailment quantum in MWh, duration of curtailment

and detailed reasons thereof.

(8) Margins for primary response:

For the purpose of ensuring primary response, RLDCs/SLDCs shall not schedule the

generating station or unit(s) thereof beyond ex-bus generation corresponding to 100%

of the Installed capacity of the generating station or unit(s) thereof. The generating

station shall not resort to Valve Wide Open (VWO) operation of units whether running

on full load or part load, and shall ensure that there is margin available for providing

Governor action as primary response. In case of gas/liquid fuel-based units, suitable

adjustment in Installed Capacity should be made by RLDCs/SLDCs for scheduling in

due consideration of prevailing ambient conditions of temperature and pressure vis-à-

vis site ambient conditions on which installed capacity of the generating station or

unit(s) thereof have been specified:

Provided that the hydro stations shall be permitted to schedule ex-bus

generation corresponding to 110% of the installed capacity during high inflow period

to avoid spillage:

Provided further that the VWO margin shall not be used by RLDC to schedule

Ancillary Services.

(9) Revision of schedules:

1) SLDC or regional entity generating station or beneficiaries or cross-border entity

may revise its schedules for long-term and medium-term transactions.

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 2) Any revision in schedule made in odd time blocks shall become effective from 7 th

time block and any revision in schedule made in even time blocks shall become

effective from 8th time block, counting the time block in which the request for

revision has been received by the RLDCs to be the first one.

Note: Odd Time blocks referred in this clause, are the Time blocks 00:00 to 00:15,

00:30 to 00:45, 01:00 to 01:15 and so on. Even Time blocks referred in this clause,

are the Time blocks 00:15 to 00:30, 00:45: 01:00, and 01:15 to 01:30 and so on.

Illustration:

If a request for revision in schedule or declared capability has been made in Time

block 17:00 to 17:15 (odd Time block) of a day D, it shall be effective from Time

block 18:30 to 18:45 of the day D (7th Time block from the Time block in which the

request for revision was made). Similarly, if a request for revision in schedule or

declared capability has been made in Time block 17:15 to 17:30 (even Time block)

of a day D, it shall be effective from Time block 19:00 to 19:15 of the day (D) (8th

Time block from the Time block in which request of revision was made).

(10) While finalizing the drawal and despatch schedules as above, the RLDC shall also

check that the resulting power flows do not give rise to any transmission constraints.

In case any constraints are foreseen, the RLDC shall moderate the schedules to the

required extent, under intimation to the concerned regional entities. Any changes in

the scheduled quantum of power which are too fast or involve unacceptably large

steps, may be converted into suitable ramps by the RLDC.

(11) In the event of bottleneck in evacuation of power due to any constraint, outage,

failure or limitation in the transmission system, associated switchyard and

substations owned by the Central Transmission Utility or any other transmission

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 licensee involved in inter-state transmission (as certified by the RLDC) necessitating

reduction in generation, the RLDC shall revise the schedules.

(12) In case of any grid disturbance of category GD-5:

(a) scheduled generation of all the affected regional entity generating stations

supplying power under long term / medium term/ short term transactions shall

be deemed to have been revised to be equal to their actual generation and

scheduled drawals of the beneficiaries/buyers shall be deemed to have been

revised to corresponding actual generation schedule of regional entity

generating stations for all the time blocks affected by the grid disturbance.

Certification of grid disturbance and its duration shall be done by the RLDC.

(b) The scheduled generation of all the affected regional entity generating stations

supplying power under collective transactions shall be deemed to have been

revised to be equal to their actual generation. Such regional entity generating

stations shall refund the charges received towards such scheduled energy to

the DSM pool.

(c) The declaration of disturbance shall be done by the concerned RLDC at the

earliest. A notice to this effect shall be posted at its website by the RLDC of the

region in which the disturbance occurred. Issue of the notice at RLDC web site

shall be considered as declaration of the disturbance by RLDC. All regional

entities shall take note of the disturbance and take appropriate action at their

end.

(13) Energy and deviation settlement for the period of any grid disturbance causing

disruption in injection and/or drawal of power shall be done by the RPC in

consultation with RLDC and their decision shall by final.

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(14) Generation schedules and drawal schedules issued/revised by the Regional Load

Despatch Centre shall become effective from 7th block or 8th block depending on

block in which schedule has been revised as first block. The generation schedules

and drawl schedules are only accessible to the regional entities though proper user

credentials. All concerned utilities shall make efforts for seamless schedule data

transfer between generators, SLDC, regional entities and RLDC.

After the operating day is over at 2400 hours, the schedule finally implemented

during the day (taking into account all before-the-fact changes in despatch schedule

of generating stations and drawal schedule of the States) shall be issued by RLDC.

These schedules shall be the basis for commercial accounting.

(15) In case of forced outage of a unit of a generating station (having generating capacity

of 100 MW or more) and selling power under Short Term bilateral transaction

(excluding collective transactions in day ahead market and real time market through

power exchange), the generator or electricity trader or any other agency selling

power from the unit of the generating station shall immediately intimate the outage

of the unit along with the requisition for revision of schedule and estimated time of

restoration of the unit, to SLDC/RLDC, as the case may be. The schedule of

beneficiaries, sellers and buyers of power from this generating unit shall be revised

accordingly. The revised schedules shall become effective from the time block and

in the manner as specified in Clause (14) of this Regulation.

Provided that:

(a) the generator or trading licensee or any other agency selling power from a

generating station or unit(s) thereof may revise its estimated restoration time

once in a day and the revised schedule shall become effective from the 7 th

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 block or 8th time block as per Clause (14) of this Regulation, counting the time

block in which the revision is informed by the generator to be the first one.

(b) SLDC/RLDC as the case may be, shall inform the revised schedule to the

seller and the buyer. The original schedule shall become effective from the

estimated time of restoration of the unit.

(c) transmission charges as per original schedule shall continue to be paid for two

days.

(d) the schedule of the buyers and sellers shall be revised after forced outage of

a unit, only if the source of power for a particular transaction has clearly been

indicated during short-term open access application and the said unit of that

generating station goes under forced outage.

(16) A generating station availing short term open access, which has to take one or more

of units under reserve shutdown due to scheduling less than Minimum turndown

level under long term or medium term PPA shall be allowed to revise its schedule

from 7th /8th time block, as applicable, for such short-term open access.

(17) Scheduling information for renewable energy generators:

The figures in respect of schedules as forwarded by the renewable energy

generators and that finalized by SLDCs/RLDCs used for final accounting shall be

made available to the respective SLDC/RLDC

(18) All regional entities, open access customers, injecting entities/ drawee consumers

shall closely check their transaction Schedule and point out errors if any to the

concerned LDC (during real time) well in advance. Any (request for revision of

schedule) errors pointed out later (after issuance of scheduling data for preparation

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 of commercial account shall not be entertained), would be corrected at the sole

discretion of the RLDC.

(19) The procedure for scheduling and the final schedules issued by RLDC shall be open

to all regional entities and other regional open access entities for any

checking/verification, for a period of 5 days. In case any mistake/omission is

detected, the RLDC shall forthwith make a complete check and rectify the same.

(20) The share allocation of regional entity generating station shall be rounded off up to

two (2) decimal points for the purpose of scheduling and accounting. While

availability declaration by regional entity generating station shall have a resolution

of two decimal (0.01) MW and three decimal (0.001) MWh, all entitlements,

requisitions and schedules shall be rounded off to the nearest two decimals at each

control area boundary for each of the transaction, and shall have a resolution of 0.01

MW.

(21) RLDC shall start scheduling of new transactions or revise existing transactions

through regional entity generating station share allocation/LTA/MTOA from 00:00

hrs of D+2 day considering D as the day of receipt of change of share allocation

from RPC/operationalization of LTA/MTOA from the CTU and based on the

availability and requisitions by the generator/ procurer.

(22) With the implementation of net-injection/net-drawal based scheduling for each

region, a ‘National Deviation Settlement (DSM) Pool’ which would be maintained

and operated by NLDC as a Regulatory Pool Account. The respective Regional DSM

pools would then interact with the National DSM Pool only. The National Pool

Account shall also be maintained and operated by NLDC for the purpose of

settlement of energy schedule under SCED.

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(23) The accounting and pool settlement system at the regional and national level shall

be maintained as per Annexure-9.

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 CHAPTER 9: CYBER SECURITY

54. IDENTIFICATION OF CRITICAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE

All users, CEA, NLDC, RLDC, SLDC, CTU and STU shall undertake the due process for

identification of Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) immediately on notification of these

regulations.

55. APPOINTMENT AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF INFORMATION SECURITY

COMMITTEE AND CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER

(1) All users, CEA, NLDC, RLDC, SLDC, CTU and STU shall, within six (6) months of

enforcement of the regulations, appoint an Information Security Committee (ISC) and

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in accordance with the Information Technology

(Information Security Practices and Procedures for Protected System) Rules, 2018

(2) The ISC, under the chairmanship of Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director/Secretary

of the organization shall comprise of IT Head or equivalent, Financial Advisor or

equivalent, CISO, Representative of National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection

Centre (NCIIPC) and any other expert(s) to be nominated by the organization. The ISC

shall carry out the responsibilities in accordance with Information Technology (Information

Security Practices and Procedures for Protected System) Rules, 2018

(3) The CISO shall carry out the responsibilities as per latest “Guidelines for Protection of

Critical Information Infrastructure” and “Roles and Responsibilities of Chief Information

Security Officers (CISOs) of Critical Sectors in India” released by NCIIPC

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56. MEASURES TO BE UNDERTAKEN FOR ENSURING CYBER SECURITY:

All users, CEA, NLDC, RLDC, SLDC, CTU and STU shall take necessary measures in

accordance with Guidelines for the Protection of National Critical Information Infrastructure by

NCIIPC. These shall, amongst others, necessarily include the following:

(1) Planning related measures:

(a) All entities shall have an information security policy to prevent unauthorized

access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, recording or destruction,

including incident management. All entities shall ensure that CII is governed

by necessary access control policies

(b) All entities shall have necessary protection mechanisms such as firewalls for

all systems interfacing with the network

(c) All entities shall develop a vulnerability, risk and threat (VRT) assessment

process which shall be reviewed regularly. The VRT shall comprise of the

following:

i. Vulnerabilities are defined as gaps/weaknesses in the system that allow

an attacker to reduce the systems information assurance.

ii. Threats are defined as actors / actions targeting the vulnerabilities in a

system.

iii. Risks are the possibilities that a particular threat will successfully exploit

vulnerability and the resultant impact of that exploitation on the

information assurance of the system.

(d) All entities shall ensure necessary security measures are undertaken by the

supply chain. Security precautions including Non-Disclosure Agreements,

confidentiality clauses must be ensured wherever required.

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 (e) All entities shall take all steps to achieve the necessary security certifications

that are required for CII.

(2) Operational control:

(a) All entities shall take necessary back-up and protection measures for classified

and sensitive data.

(b) All entities shall develop necessary training, awareness and skill development

program to ensure compliance.

57. CONTINGENCY MEASURES

(1) All users shall plan adequate redundancies for CII which are capable of taking over in

case of malfunction or failure

(2) All entities shall develop Cyber Crisis Management Plan case of any major cyber-

attack. This may include continuity plans, recovery plans, communication plans, cyber

incident response plan, disaster recovery plan and priority resource and manpower

allocation plan.

58. MECHANISM OF REPORTING

(1) All entities shall immediately report to the appropriate government agencies under IT

Act 2000 in case of any cyber-attack.

(2) NLDC, RPC Secretariat and the Commission shall also be informed in case of any

instance of cyber-attack.

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CHAPTER 10: MONITORING AND COMPLIANCE CODE

59. ASSESSMENT OF COMPLIANCE:

The performance of all users, CTU, STU, NLDC, RLDC, SLDC and RPC with respect to

grid code compliance shall be assessed periodically.

60. MONITORING OF COMPLIANCE

(1) In order to ensure compliance, two methodologies shall be followed:

(a) Self-Audit

(b) Compliance Audit

(2) Self –Audit:

(a) All users, CTU, STU, NLDC, RLDC, RPC and SLDC shall conduct annual self-

audits to review compliance of the regulations and submit by 31 st July of every

year.

(b) The self-audit report, amongst other aspects shall necessary contain the

following information:

i. Sufficient information to understand how and why the non-compliance

occurred

ii. Extent of damage caused by non-compliance

iii. Steps and timeline planned to rectify the same

iv. Steps taken to mitigate any future recurrence

(c) The self-audit reports by users shall be submitted to the concerned

RLDC/SLDC. The self-audit reports of NLDC, RLDC, CTU, and RPC

Secretariat shall be submitted to CERC. The self-audit report of SLDC and

STU shall be submitted to SERC.

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 (d) The deficiencies shall be rectified in a time bound manner within a reasonable

time.

(e) The monitoring agency for user shall be concerned RLDC or SLDC as the case

may be. The monitoring agency shall track the progress of compliances of

users and exceptional reporting for non-compliance shall be submitted to the

Commission.

(f) The monitoring agency for RLDC, NLDC, CTU and RPC shall be CERC and

that for STU, SLDC shall be concerned SERC.

(3) Independent Third-Party Compliance Audit:

CERC may order independent third-party compliance audit for any user, CTU, NLDC,

RLDC and RPC as deemed necessary.

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 CHAPTER 11: MISCELLANEOUS

61. POWER TO RELAX

The Commission, for reasons to be recorded in writing, may relax any of the provisions of

these regulations on its own motion or on an application made before it by an affected person

to remove the hardship arising out of the operation of Regulation, applicable to a class of

persons.

62. POWER TO REMOVE DIFFICULTY

If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of these regulations, the Commission

may, on its own motion or on an application made before it by the nodal agency, by order,

make such provision not inconsistent with the provisions of the Act or provisions of other

regulations specified by the Commission, as may appear to be necessary for removing the

difficulty in giving effect to the objectives of these regulations.

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 ANNEXURE - 1
GENERATION RESERVE ESTIMATION AND FREQUENCY CONTROL
This procedure is in line with the clause 34(5)(j) of IEGC which requires methodology for
the following:

– Assessment of reference contingency,

– All India minimum target frequency response characteristics,
– Calculation of frequency response obligation of each control area,
– Criteria for reportable event,
– Calculation of actual frequency response characteristics of control area and
– Calculation of frequency response performance

The requirements are detailed in the points given below:

1. Assessment of Reference Contingency

The reference contingency is the quantum of sudden generation or demand outage in an

event. The reference contingency shall consider quantum of generation outage based on
outage of largest power plant, group of power plants, a generation complex, or a
generation pooling station, or the actual generation outage occurred in an event during
last two years, or a credible outage scenario. Similarly reference contingency shall also
consider outage of single largest load center or actual outage of load occurred in an event
during last two years. To start with reference contingency shall be considered as outage
of 4500 MW which shall be revised by NLDC from time to time. The primary reserve at All
India level shall be more than the reference contingency quantum. Therefore, minimum
quantum of primary reserve shall be currently 4500 MW.

2. All India minimum target frequency response characteristics

The all India minimum target frequency response characteristic (MW/Hz) shall be
reference contingency quantum (MW) divided by maximum steady frequency deviation
(Hz) allowable for the reference contingency event.

The primary reserves would be activated immediately (within few seconds) when the
frequency deviates from 50 Hz. The safe, secure and reliable operation of grid requires
that the nadir frequency should be at least 0.1 Hz above the first stage of under frequency
load shedding scheme. This implies that the nadir frequency shall be above or 49.5 Hz
(considering first stage of under frequency loading shedding setting as 49.4 Hz) for the
reference contingency event and the maximum steady state frequency deviation should
not cross 0.30 Hz for the reference contingency event.

Therefore, the minimum All India target Frequency Response Characteristic currently
would be quantum of load/generation loss in reference contingency (as defined in Section
(1) above divided by frequency deviation value of 0.3 Hz i.e. 15000 MW/Hz (4500 MW/0.3
Hz).

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3. Calculation of Frequency Response Obligation (FRO) of each control area:

The minimum Frequency Response Obligation (FRO) of each control area in MW/Hz shall
be calculated as:

(a) FRO = (Control Area average Demand + Control Area average Generation) *
minimum all India Target Frequency Response Characteristic/ (Sum of peak
/average demand of all control areas + Sum of average generation of all control
areas)

4. Criteria for reportable event

The frequency response characteristic (FRC) calculation shall be carried out by each
control area for any load/generation loss incident involving net change of more than 1000
MW of load/generation or a frequency change involving 0.1 Hz or more. The event shall
be notified by the NLDC.

5. Calculation of actual frequency response characteristics of control area

(a) Frequency Response Characteristics (FRC) computations:

Frequency Response Characteristics (FRC) will be computed for all events involving a
sudden 1000 MW or more load/generation loss or a step change in frequency by 0.10 Hz
i.e. for all reportable events as notified by NLDC. The FRC shall be worked out by NLDC,
RLDCs and SLDCs to for each interconnection/region/control area (including for each
generating station). Each generating station shall also compute it’s FRC. The following
steps would be followed for computation of FRC

i) After every event involving a sudden 1000 MW or more load/generation loss or a

step change in frequency by 0.1 Hz, NLDC would get the PMUs frequency data.
NLDC would also get the exact quantum of load/generation lost from the RLDC of
the affected region.
ii) NLDC would plot the frequency graph and determine the initial frequency,
minimum/maximum frequency, settling frequency and time points (points A, C and
B of the Figure-1). Accordingly, frequency difference points & corresponding time
to be used for FRC calculations would be informed to all RLDCs.
iii) NLDC would also work out region wise and neighboring countries (Bhutan and
Nepal) FRC (Format as per Table-1) based on 10 second Historical Data
Recording (HDR) data available at NLDC and inform all RLDCs within three (3)
working days. RLDCs would inform the SLDCs/regional entities in their region.
iv) RLDCs shall also work out each control area wise FRC (Format as per Table-1)
based on HDR data available at RLDCs within six (6) working days.
v) All the SLDCs shall work out FRC for all the intrastate entities (for events
indicated by the Regional Load Despatch Centres) based on the HDR available at
their respective SLDCs and submit the same to respective RLDC within six (6)
working days. (Format as per Table-1).
vi) All regional entity generating stations shall also assess the FRC for their respective
stations and submit the same to respective RLDC within six (6) working days.
146
 (Format as per Table-1). The high resolution data (1 second or better resolution)
of active power generation and frequency shall also be shared with RLDC.

(b) Input data for FRC:

i) The data for frequency response characteristic Calculations may be taken from the
real time telemetered data recorded by the SCADA systems installed at Control
Areas / Regional Load Despatch Centres / National Load Despatch Centre.
ii) Bad quality of data could be flagged / mentioned by the control centre (s) and
reasonable assumptions made for FRC computation. Details of these may be
mentioned.

(c) Instructions for computation of FRC:

A Sample frequency chart given at Figure-1 with points A, B, and C labeled, depicts
a typical frequency excursion caused by a loss of a large generator in Indian power
system. Point A denotes the interconnection frequency immediately before the
disturbance. Point B represents the Interconnection frequency at the point
immediately after the frequency stabilizes due to governor action but before the
contingent area takes any corrective actions, automatic or manual. Point C represents
the interconnection frequency at its maximum deviation due to the loss of generation.
Hz PMUDADRI:Frequency
Frequency During the Event
50.05
50.03
50.01
49.99
49.97
49.95
49.93 Point A
49.91
Point B
49.89 Point C
49.87
49.85
17:33:54.800

17:34:12.600

17:35:16.680
17:33:22.760
17:33:26.320
17:33:29.880
17:33:33.440
17:33:37.000
17:33:40.560
17:33:44.120
17:33:47.680
17:33:51.240

17:33:58.360
17:34:01.920
17:34:05.480
17:34:09.040

17:34:16.160
17:34:19.720
17:34:23.280
17:34:26.840
17:34:30.400
17:34:33.960
17:34:37.520
17:34:41.080
17:34:44.640
17:34:48.200
17:34:51.760
17:34:55.320
17:34:58.880
17:35:02.440
17:35:06.000
17:35:09.560
17:35:13.120

17:35:20.240

FIGURE 1: SAMPLE PMU FREQUENCY PLOT SHOWING RELEVANT POINTS FOR FRC CALCULATION

147
Steps to work out frequency response characteristics of control area are as follows: -

Step-1: Actual net interchange of the control area immediately before the disturbance (Point
- A) = PA. Sign convention for net power imported into a CONTROL AREA is
positive (+) and net power exported out of a control area is negative (-).

Step-2: Actual net interchange of the control area immediately after the disturbance
(Point - B) = PB. Use the same sign convention as Step-1.

Step-3: The change in net interchange of the CONTROL AREA = (PB -PA). [For a
disturbance that causes the frequency to decrease, this value should ideally be
negative. The net interchange of a control area can positive within which drop in
generation has occurred. Similarly, for load through off or frequency rise cases, the
net interchange shall normally be positive except for the CONTROL AREA,
wherein load throw off has taken place.]

Step-4: If the control area has suffered the loss, then Load or generation lost by the control
area = PL. Otherwise, the loss (PL) is zero. Sign convention for Load Loss is
negative (-) and Generation Loss positive (+).

Step-5: The Control Area Response Δ P = (PB-PA) - PL

Step-6: The Frequency immediately before the disturbance = fA.

Step-7: The Frequency immediately after the disturbance = fB.

Step-8: Change in Interconnection Frequency from Point A to Point B = Δf = (fB - fA)

Step-9: Frequency Response Characteristic (FRC) of the Control Area = Δ P/ Δf

Step-10: Frequency Response Obligation (FRO) of each control area calculated in advance
as per Clause 3 of this Annexure

Step 11: Frequency Response Performance (FRP) = Actual Frequency Response

Characteristic (AFRC)/ Frequency Response Obligation (FRO)

TABLE 10: FRC CALCULATION SHEET TO BE USED BY ALL SLDC/RLDC/NLDC/CONTROL AREA

Control
S.
Particulars Dimension Area-
No
1/Region

Actual Net Interchange before the Event (Time=

1 MW
hh:mm:ss)

2 Actual Net Interchange after the Event (Time= hh:mm:ss) MW

3 Change in Net Interchange (2 - 1) MW

148
 Control
S.
Particulars Dimension Area-
No
1/Region

4 Generation Loss (+) / Load Throw off (-) during the Event MW

5 Control Area Response (3-4) MW

6 Frequency before the Event HZ

7 Frequency after the Event HZ

8 Change in Frequency (7-6) HZ

9 Frequency Response Characteristic (5 / 8) MW/HZ

10 Frequency Response Obligation (FRO) of control area MW/Hz

Numeric
value (upto
11 Frequency Response Performance (FRP)(9/10)
two decimal
places)

6. Calculation of frequency response performance

(m) The performance of each control area in providing frequency response

characteristic shall be calculated for each reportable event. Each control area shall

separately assess their frequency response characteristic and share with RLDC

along with high resolution data of at least one (1) second for regional entity

generating stations and ten (10) second for state control area.

Frequency Response Performance (FRP) = Actual Frequency Response Characteristic

(AFRC)/ Frequency Response Obligation (FRO)

Each control area shall be graded based on median Frequency Response Performance
annually (at least 10 events) as per following criteria:

149
 TABLE 11: FREQUENCY RESPONSE CRITERIA

S. N Performance* Grading

i. FRP≥ 1 Excellent

ii. 0.85 ≤ FRP < 1 Good

iii. 0.75 ≤ FRP <0.85 Average

iv. 0.5≤ FRP < 0.75 Below Average

v. FRP <0.5 Poor

*Provided that for wind/solar generating stations and state control areas with
internal generation less than 100 MW or annual peak demand less than 1000
MW, the FRP grading would be indicative only.

150
 ANNEXURE - 2
THIRD PARTY PROTECTION SYSTEM CHECKING & VALIDATION
TEMPLATE FOR A SUBSTATION

The audit reports, along with action plan for rectification of deficiencies found, if any, shall
be submitted to RPC or RLDC within a month of submission of report by auditor.

The third-party protection system checking shall be carried at site by the designated agency.
The agency shall furnish two reports:

I. Preliminary Report: This report shall be prepared on the site and shall be signed by
all the parties present.
II. Detailed Report: This report shall be furnished by agency within one month after
carrying out detailed analysis.

The protection system checklist shall contain information as discussed in subsequent paras.

1) General Information (to be provided prior to the checking as well as to be included

in final report):
a) Substation name
b) Name of Owner Utility
c) Voltage Level (s) or highest voltage level?
d) Short circuit current rating of all equipment (for all voltage level)
e) Date of commissioning of the substation
f) Checking and validation date
g) Record of previous tripping’s (in last one year) and details of protection operation
h) Previous Relay Test Reports
i) Overall single line diagram (SLD)
j) AC aux SLD
k) DC aux SLD
l) SAS architecture diagram
m) SPS scheme implemented (if any)

2) The preliminary report shall be drafted at site ad shall be signed by all the parties
present and shall contain information not less than following:

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 S. No. Issues Remarks

1 Recommendation of last protection Status of works and

checking and validation pending issues if any

2 Review of existing settings at substation Recommended Action

3 Disturbance Recorder out available for Recommended Action

last 6 tripping’s (Y/N)

4 Chronic reason of tripping, if any Recommended Action

5 Major non-conformity/deficiency Recommended Action

observed

3) The relay configuration checklist for available power system elements at station:
a) Transmission Line
b) Bus Reactor/Line Reactor
c) Inter-connecting Transformer
d) Busbar Protection Relay
e) AC auxiliary system
f) DC auxiliary system
g) Communication system
h) Circuit Breaker Details
i) Current Transformer Details
j) Capacitive Voltage Transformers Details
k) Any other equipment/system relevant for protection system operation

4) The minimum set of points on which checking and validation will be carried out is
given below. The detailed list shall be prepared by checking and validation team in
consultation with concerned entity, RLDC and RPC.

a) Transmission Line Distance Protection/Differential Protection

– Name and Length of Line
– Whether series compensated or not
– Mode of communication used (PLCC/OPGW)
– Relay Make and Model for Main-I and Main-II
– List of all active protections & settings
– Carrier aided scheme if any
– Status of Power Swing/Out of Step/SOTF/Breaker Failure/Broken
Conductor/STUB/Fault Locator/DR/VT fuse fail/Overvoltage
Protection/Trip Circuit supervision/Auto-reclose/Load encroachment
etc.
– Relay connected to Trip Coil-1 or 2 or both
– CT ratio and PT ratio
– Feed from DC supply-1 or 2
152
 – Connected to dedicated CT core (mention name)
– Other requirements for protection checking and validation

b) Shunt Reactor & Inter-connecting Transformer Protection

– Whether two groups of protections used (Group A and Group B)
– Do the groups have separate DC sources
– Relay Make and Model
– List of all active protections along with settings
– Status of Differential Protection/Restricted Earth Fault Protection/Back-up
Directional Overcurrent/Backup Earth fault/ Breaker Failure
– Status of Oil Temperature Indicator/Winding Temperature
Indicator/Bucholz/Pressure Release Device etc.
– Relay connected to Trip Coil-1 or 2 or both
– CT ratio and PT ratio
– Feed from DC supply-1 or 2
– Connected to dedicated CT core (mention name)
– Other requirements for protection checking and validation

c) Busbar Protection Relay

– Busbar and redundant relay makes and models
– Type of Busbar arrangement
– Zones
– Dedicated CT core for each busbar protection (Yes/No)
– Breaker Failure relay included (Yes/No), if additional then furnish make and
model
– Trip issued to both Busbar protection in case of enabling
– Isolator indication and check relays
– Other requirements for protection checking and validation

d) AC auxiliary system
– Source of AC auxiliary system
– Supply changeover between sources (Auto/Manual)
– Diesel generator (DG) details
– Maintenance plan and supply changeover periodicity in DG
– Single Line Diagram
– Other requirements for protection checking and validation

e) DC auxiliary system
– Type of Batteries (Make, vintage, model)
– Status of battery Charger
– Measured voltage (positive to earth and negative to earth)
– Availability of ground fault detectors
– Protection relays and trip circuits with independent DC sources
– Other requirements for protection checking and validation

153
 f) Communication system
– Mode of communication for Main-1 and Main-2 protection
– Mode of communication for data and speech communication
– Status of PLCC channels
– Time synchronization equipment details
– OPGW on geographically diversified paths for Main-1 and main-2 relay
– Other requirements for protection checking and validation

g) Circuit Breaker Details

– Details and Status
– Healthiness of Tripping Coil and Trip circuit supervision relay
– Single Pole/Multi pole operation
– Pole Discrepancy Relay available(Y/N)
– Monitoring Devices for checking the dielectric medium
– Other requirements for protection checking and validation

h) Current Transformer (CT)/Capacitive Voltage Transformer (CVT) Details

– CT/CVT ID name and voltage level
– CT/CVT core connection details
– Accuracy Class
– Whether Protection/Metering
– CT/CVT ratio available and ratio adopted
– Details of last checking and validation of CT/CVT healthiness
– Other requirements for protection checking and validation
– Other protections: Direction earth fault, negative sequence, over current,
over voltage, over frequency, under voltage, under frequency, forward
power, reverse power, out of step/power swing, HVDC protection etc.

5) Summary of Checking: The summary shall specifically mention minimum following

points:
– The settings and scheme adopted are in line with agreed protection
philosophy or any accepted guidelines (e.g. Ramakrishna guidelines or CBIP
manual based).
– The deviations from the RPC protection philosophy, if any and reasons for
taking the deviations shall be recorded.
– All the major general deficiency shall be listed in detail along with remedial
recommendations.
– The relay settings to be adopted shall be validated with simulation based or
EMTP studies and details shall be enclosed in report.
– The cases of protection maloperation shall be analysed from protection
indices report furnished by concerned utility, the causes of failure along with
corrective actions and recommendations based on the findings shall be
noted in the report.

154
 ANNEXURE- 3
A. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

S. No. Entity Responsible Reporting Requirement and Frequency

1. RPC Secretariat • Exception report of UFR (monthly)

• Annual LGBR (annual)
• Annual Outage Plan(annual)
• Feedback Report to address potential violation of system
operational limit (quarterly)

2. RPC • Final report on grid disturbance (post grid disturbance)

3. NPC • All India LGBR (annual)

4. CTU • All India transmission review(yearly)

• Planned inter-regional and ISTS-STU power transfer
capability for the next 3-5 years(yearly)

5. NLDC • Forecast error (daily/day-ahead / weekly / monthly and

yearly)
• Operational study (Day-ahead/ weekly/ monthly/ yearly)
• Operational analysis (post despatch)
• Draft report of each grid disturbance/grid (post grid
disturbance)
• Daily and monthly report of integrated grid performance
(daily and monthly)

6. RLDC • Forecast error (daily/day-ahead / weekly / monthly and

yearly)
• Operational study (Day-ahead/ weekly/ monthly/ yearly)
• Operational analysis (post despatch)
• Draft report of each grid disturbance (post grid
disturbance)
• Integrated grid performance (daily and monthly)

7. SLDC • Exception report of UFR (monthly)

• Forecast error (daily/day-ahead/weekly/monthly and
yearly)
• Operational study (Day-ahead/ weekly/ monthly/ yearly)
• Operational analysis (post despatch)
• Flash report and detailed report on any grid disturbance
(post grid disturbance)
• Details of regional entity generating stations (quarterly)

155
 S. No. Entity Responsible Reporting Requirement and Frequency

8. User • Flash report and detailed report on any grid disturbance

(post grid disturbance)
• PSS tuning report by generators (based on tuning
requirements)

B. PROCEDURE DRAFTING REQUIREMENTS

S. No. Entity Responsible Drafting Responsibilities

1. RPC • Common outage planning procedure

2. CTU • All India transmission review

• Planned inter-regional and ISTS-STU power transfer
capability for the next 3-5 years

3. NLDC • Detailed procedure covering modalities for first time

energization and integration of new or modified power
system elements
• Operating procedure
• PSS tuning procedure
• Quantum of secondary/Tertiary reserves
• Assessment of Secondary/Tertiary control
• Procedure for operational planning analysis, real-time
monitoring, real-time assessments and format for data
submission and updating
• Restoration Procedure
• Timeline for scheduling activities

4. RLDC • Operating procedure

• Procedure for operational planning analysis, real-time
monitoring, real-time assessments and format for data
submission and updating
• Restoration Procedure

5. SLDC • Detailed procedure covering modalities for first time

156
S. No. Entity Responsible Drafting Responsibilities

energization and integration of new or modified power

system elements
• Operating procedure
• Restoration Procedure

6. Governing board of • Periodic capacity building, certification and recertification

certifying agency for system operators at NLDC, RLDC, SLDC and sub-
LDC

157
 ANNEXURE - 4
A. REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION

(1) Reactive power compensation should ideally be provided locally, by generating reactive
power as close to the reactive power consumption as possible. The regional entities except
generating stations are therefore expected to provide local VAr compensation/generation
such that they do not draw VArs from the EHV grid, particularly under low-voltage condition.
To discourage VAr drawals by regional entities except generating stations, VAr exchanges
with ISTS shall be priced as follows:

– The regional entity except generating stations pays for VAr drawal when
voltage at the metering point is below 97%

– The regional entity except generating stations gets paid for VAr return when
voltage is below 97%

– The regional entity except generating stations gets paid for VAr drawal when
voltage is above103%

– The regional entity except generating stations pays for VAr return when voltage
is above 103%

Provided that there shall be no charge/payment for VAr drawal/return by a

regional entity except generating stations on its own line emanating directly from an ISGS.

(2) The charge for VArh shall be at the rate of 12.61 paise/kVArh and this will be applicable
between the regional entity, except generating stations, and the regional pool account for VAr
interchanges. This rate shall be escalated at 0.6paise/kVArh per year thereafter, unless
otherwise revised by the Commission.

B. PAYMENT FOR REACTIVE ENERGY EXCHANGES ON STATE-

OWNED LINES

Case – 1: Interconnecting line owned by State-A Metering Point: Substation of State-B

158
Case - 2: Interconnecting line owned by State-B Metering point: Substation of State-A

Note: Net VArh and net payment may be positive or negative

Case – 3: Interconnecting line is jointly owned by States-A and –B. Metering points: Substations
of State-A and State-B

Net VArh exported from S/S-A, while voltage < 97% = X1 Net VArh exported from S/S-A, while
voltage > 103% = X2 Net VArh imported at S/S-B, while voltage < 97% = X3 Net VArh imported at
S/S-B, while voltage > 103% = X4

(i) State-B pays to State-A forX1 or X3, whichever is smaller in magnitude, and
(ii) State-A pays to State-B forX2 or X4, whichever is smaller in magnitude.

Note:
I. Net VArh and net payment may be positive or negative.
II. In case X1 is positive and X3 is negative, or vice-versa, there would be no payment
under (i) above.
III. In case X2 is positive and X4 is negative, or vice-versa, there would be no payment
under (ii) above.

159
 ANNEXURE – 5
MINIMUM TURNDOWN LEVEL FOR OPERATION OF REGIONAL ENTITY
GENERATING STATIONS

(1) Where the regional entity generating station/ISGS, is directed by the concerned RLDC/SLDC

to operate below normative plant availability factor, the regional entity generating station/ISGS

may be compensated for increase in the unit heat rate and the auxiliary energy consumption

depending on the unit loading in each time block duly taking into account the forced outages

and planned outages of the units, generation at generator terminal, energy sent out ex-

bus, and in due consideration of degraded and normative operating parameters of station heat

rate, auxiliary energy consumption and secondary fuel oil consumption etc. on monthly basis

duly supported by relevant data verified by RLDC or SLDC, as the case may be. The

compensation shall be applicable to all regional entity generating stations/ISGS whose tariff

is determined under section 62 or under section 63.

Provided that:

(i) In case of coal / lignite based generating stations, following station heat rate degradation

shall be considered for the purpose of compensation:

Increase in SHR Increase in SHR

Unit loading as a
% of installed (for supercritical (for sub-critical
S. No.
capacity of the units) units)
unit
(%) (%)

1 85 and above Nil Nil

2 80 0.66 0.76

3 75 1.19 1.45

4 70 1.96 2.40

5 65 2.84 3.56

160
 Increase in SHR Increase in SHR
Unit loading as a
% of installed (for supercritical (for sub-critical
S. No.
capacity of the units) units)
unit
(%) (%)

6 60 3.67 4.79

7 55 4.92 6.59

8 50 6.15 8.60

9 45 7.40 10.21

10 40 8.81 12.14

(ii) In case of coal / lignite based generating stations, the following auxiliary energy

consumption (AEC) degradation shall be considered for the purpose of compensation:

Unit loading (% of % degradation in

Sl. No
MCR) AEC admissible

1 85 and above Nil

2 80 0.10

3 75 0.25

4 70 0.40

5 65 0.55

6 60 0.75

7 55 0.95

8 50 1.20

9 45 1.55

10 40 2.10

(iii) Where the scheduled generation falls below the minimum turndown level, the concerned

regional entity generating station shall have the option to go for reserve shut down and

in such cases, start-up fuel cost over and above seven (7) start / stop in a year shall be

161
 considered as additional compensation based on following norms or actual, whichever

is lower:

Unit Size Oil Consumption per start-up(kl)

(MW) Hot Warm Cold

200/210/250
20 30 50
MW

500 MW 30 50 90

660 MW and
40 60 110
above

(iv) In case of gas based regional entity generating station, following station heat rate

degradation shall be considered for the purpose of compensation:

Unit loading as a % of installed Increase in SHR

S. No.
capacity of the unit (%)

1 85 and above Nil

2 80 0.91

3 75 2.50

4 70 4.17

5 65 6.33

6 60 8.54

7 55 10.68

8 50 13.63

(v) In case of gas based regional entity generating station, the following auxiliary energy

consumption (AEC) degradation shall be considered for the purpose of compensation:

162
 Unit loading as a % of installed % degradation in
S. No.
capacity of the unit AEC admissible

1 85 and above Nil

2 80 0.12

3 75 0.29

4 70 0.47

5 65 0.68

6 60 0.88

7 55 1.09

8 50 1.34

(vi) Compensation for the station heat rate and auxiliary energy consumption shall be worked

out in terms of energy charges. The degradation in SHR and AEC on account of part

load operation shall be carried on pro-rata basis up to second decimal place.

For instance, if SHR and AEC have to be calculated for a sub-critical plant unit operating

at 77% loading factor, the methodology shall be as follows:

(a) Station Heat Rate:

Degradation in station heat rate at 80% + pro-rate degradation at 77% calculated

between 80% and 75%

= [0.76 + (1.45-0.76)] * 3÷5 = 1.17%

(b) Auxiliary Energy Consumption:

Degradation in AEC at 80% + pro-rate degradation at 77% calculated between

80% and 75%

= [0.10 + (0.25-0.1)] *3÷5 = 0.19%

163
 (vii) The compensation so computed shall be borne by the entity who has caused the plant

to be operated at schedule lower than corresponding to normative plant availability factor

based on the compensation mechanism as per Annexure – 6. In case of part untied

capacity of a plant for which there is no long term or medium-term PPA, the

compensation for backing down corresponding to the unutilized capacity shall be to the

account of the generating company.

(viii) Compensation shall be calculated in each month as per the detailed procedure as in

Annexure-6. In case the energy charges calculated based on actual SHR and AEC is

less than the sum of energy charges calculated based on normative SHR and AEC or

quoted energy charges/SHR as the case may be, and compensation payable for that

month to the generating station, then such gains over the actual energy charges,

restricted to compensation payable to generating station, shall be shared between

generating station and beneficiaries in the ratio of 60:40.

(ix) The change in schedule of power under the provisions of Central Electricity Regulatory

Commission (Ancillary Services Operations) Regulations, 2015 and Automatic

Generation Control (AGC) as per order in Petition No. 319/RC/2018 dated 29th Aug,

2019 shall not be considered for compensation.

(x) The compensation on account of change in schedule under the provisions of Security

Constrained Economic Despatch (SCED) shall be as per the detailed procedures.

(2) Mechanism for compensation for station heat rate and auxiliary energy consumption for low

unit loading on monthly basis in terms of energy charges and compensation for secondary

fuel oil consumption for additional start-ups in excess of 7 start-ups, shall be as per Annexure

– 6.

164
(3) The detailed operating procedure for taking units under reserve shut down containing the role

of different agencies, data requirements, procedure for taking the units under reserve shut

down and the methodology for identifying the generating stations or units thereof to be backed

down up to the minimum turndown level in specific grid conditions such as low system

demand, regulation of power supply and incidence of high renewables etc., based on merit

order stacking is given at Annexure – 7.

165
 ANNEXURE – 6

MECHANISM FOR COMPENSATION FOR DEGRADATION OF HEAT

RATE, AUX CONSUMPTION AND SECONDARY FUEL OIL
CONSUMPTION, DUE TO PART LOAD OPERATION AND MULTIPLE
START/STOP OF UNITS

1. Introduction

The Grid Code inter-alia contains provisions relating to Technical Minimum Schedule for

operation of Regional Entity Generating Stations / ISGS. The Grid Code further provides for

compensation to Generating Stations for degradation of Heat Rate, Auxiliary Consumption

and Secondary Fuel Oil consumption due to part load operation and multiple start-ups of

units. This mechanism is for compensation for station heat rate and auxiliary energy

consumption for low unit loading and for secondary fuel oil consumption for additional start-

ups in excess of 7 start-ups (hereinafter referred to as “Compensation Mechanism”).

2. Applicability

This Compensation Mechanism is applicable to Coal/lignite/Gas based Regional Entity

Generating Stations/ISGS, (hereinafter “designated generating stations”).

3. Definitions and abbreviations:

1) In this Compensation Mechanism, unless the context otherwise requires:

(i) “Block Unit Loading (BUL) of the Station” (in %) means loading of the station during a

particular Time Block of Calculation Period determined as follows:

166
 𝐻𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 (𝐴𝐺 𝑜𝑟 𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑆𝐺)
𝐵𝑈𝐿(%) = { ⁄ 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑥 (1 −

𝐴𝐸𝐶)} 𝑥100Where

AG means Actual Generation (Ex Bus) of Station in MWhr for a Time Block

Basic SG (Scheduled Generation) means Only ISGS Part of Schedule given by RLDC

i.e., Excluding Open Access (Bilateral), Collective (Exchanges), Any URS Sales, RRAS,

AGC, SCED MW parts, expressed in MWhr for a Time Block

AEC means Normative Auxiliary Energy Consumption

(ii) “Calculation Period” means the month for which compensation calculation shall be

carried out.

(iii) “Comp (F)” means reconciled final compensation in rupees to be received by a generator

during the calculation period based on actual, normative parameters and degraded SHR

and AEC based on block unit loading.

(iv) “Comp (P)” means provisional compensation in rupees computed for the calculation

period based on the normative parameters and degraded SHR and AEC based on block

unit loading.

(v) “EC (A)” means total energy charges in rupees computed for a designated generating

station during the calculation period on actual furnished parameters of SHR and AEC

and sum of basic scheduled energy for all blocks in that calculation period.

(vi) “EC (N)” means total energy charges in rupees computed for a designated generating

station during the calculation period on normative parameters and sum of basic

scheduled energy for all blocks in that calculation period.

167
(vii) “Effective Capacity” in MWhr means maximum possible generation from a station during

a time period and shall be calculated as:

Total Installed Capacity of the designated generating station (in MWhr) minus Installed

Capacity (MW) of the Unit(s) of the said station under outage (planned or forced outage)

and under reserve shut down during the time period X outage time.

(viii) “ECR (Comp)” means increase over normative Energy Charge Rate in Rupees/kWh

considering degraded SHR and AEC based on block unit loading.

(ix) “ECR (DC)” means Energy Charge Rate in Rupees/kWh based on degraded SHR and

AEC considering unit loading corresponding to Declared Capacity (DC) of the block

(x) “ECR (SE)” means Energy Charge Rate in Rupees/kWh based on degraded SHR and

AEC considering block unit loading of generating station.

(xi) “Effective Generation” in MWhr means the actual generation ex-bus of the designated

station or the Generation for Basic SG Schedule as in (i) during the calculation period,

whichever is higher.

(xii) “RRAS Regulation” means Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Ancillary

Services Operations) Regulations, 2015.

(xiii) “Tariff Regulation” means Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Terms and

Conditions of Tariff) Regulations, 2019 as amended from time to time or any subsequent

enactment thereof.

2) Terms and abbreviations used in this Compensation Mechanism but not defined herein

shall have the meaning as assigned to them in Electricity Act, 2003 or the Grid Code or

other Regulations of the Commission as notified from time to time.

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4. Mechanism for working out Compensation

1) Compensation for degradation of Heat Rate (SHR) and Auxiliary Energy

Consumption (AEC)

(i) The Compensation shall be worked out at the end of each month considering

degradation in SHR and AEC based on Block Unit Loading (%).

(ii) Energy scheduled under RRAS Regulations shall be taken as +ve for up-

regulation and –ve for down regulation. Similarly, energy scheduled under AGC,

SCED shall be taken as +ve for increase and –ve for decrease.

(iii) The Normative Auxiliary Consumption of competitively bid projects shall be

considered based on the normative AEC of similar units as per Tariff Regulation

of the Commission or the difference between the Installed Capacity and the ex-

bus Contracted Capacity as a percentage of Installed Capacity of the generating

station, whichever is less. For projects where entire capacity is not tied up in long

term or medium-term contracts, the Normative AEC shall be considered based

on the normative AEC of similar units as per the Tariff Regulations of the

Commission.

(iv) Compensation for part load operation shall be calculated based on fifteen (15)

minute block of unit loading %, to work out incremental SHR and AEC in

accordance with the Annexure – 5.

(v) Based on the values of increased SHR and AEC arrived above, Energy Charge

Rate (ECR) for Block Unit Loading %, i.e. ECR (SE) for the station shall be

calculated for a time block using the formula specified in Tariff Regulations of the

Commission:

169
 Provided that for generating stations whose tariff has been determined

under Section 63 of the Act, the ECR(SE) shall be worked out as per the following

formula:

(a) Where ECR is quoted without specifying SHR and AEC:

ECR(SE) = quoted ECR or quoted Variable Charge x (1+% degradation in heat

rate based on block unit loading corresponding to Effective

Generation/100) / (1- % degradation in Aux Consumption based

on block unit loading corresponding to Effective Generation /100)

(b) Where ECR is computed based on normative net Heat Rate and PPA already

provides for energy charge payment corresponding to degradation in net

station heat rate:

ECR(SE) = ECR worked out based on net station heat rate (without %

degradation in heat rate based on block unit loading)

corresponding to Effective generation) / (1- % degradation in Aux

Consumption based on block unit loading corresponding to

Effective generation/100)

Note: Model PPA notified by GoI provides for energy charge payment

corresponding to degradation in net station heat rate and hence as such no

separate compensation is allowed under this procedure.

(c) Where ECR is computed based on normative net Heat Rate and PPA does not

provide for energy charge payment corresponding to degradation in net station

heat rate:

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 ECR(SE) = ECR worked out based on net station heat rate x (1+ %

degradation in heat rate based on block unit loading

corresponding to Effective generation /100) / (1- % degradation

in Aux Consumption based on block unit loading corresponding

to Effective generation /100)

(viii) ECR corresponding to Declared Capacity (DC) i.e. ECR (DC) for the Time Block shall

also be calculated using the formula specified in Tariff Regulations of the Commission

and used as reference for calculating compensation. This is because, the effect of

less declaration (with respect to normative ex-bus Installed capacity), if any, on the

SHR and AEC should be to the account of regional entity generating station/ISGS:

Provided that for generating stations whose tariff has been adopted by

Commission under Section 63 of the Act, the ECR(DC) shall be worked out as per

following formula:

(a) Where ECR is quoted without specifying Heat Rate or Aux Consumption:

ECR (DC)= ECR quoted or variable Charge quoted x (1+ % degradation in heat

rate based on block unit loading corresponding to DC/100) / (1- %

degradation in Aux Consumption based on block unit loading

corresponding to DC /100)

(b) Where ECR is computed based on net Heat Rate and PPA already provides for

energy charge payment corresponding to degradation in net station heat rate:

ECR (DC) = ECR worked out based on net station heat rate (without % degradation

in heat rate based on unit loading) corresponding to DC / (1-

%degradation in Aux Consumption based on block unit loading

corresponding to DC /100)

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 Note: Model PPA already provides for energy charge payment corresponding to

degradation in net station heat rate as such no separate compensation under this

procedure.

(c) Where ECR is computed based on normative net Heat Rate and PPA does not

provide for energy charge payment corresponding to degradation in net station

heat rate:

ECR(DC)= ECR worked out based on net station heat rate x (1+ % degradation

in heat rate based on block unit loading corresponding to DC /100)

/ (1- % degradation in Aux Consumption based on block unit loading

corresponding to DC/100)

The compensation to be paid to designated stations for each Time Block, ECR (Comp)

shall be difference in the ECR (SE) and ECR (DC) for that Block.

ECRn(Comp) = ECRn(SE) – ECRn(DC)

Provided that the ECR (Comp) shall be worked out separately for each PPA of

the station but annual reconciliation shall be on over all considerations of all PPAs

after due prudence by RPC Secretariat.

(x) The compensation Compn(P) payable to CGS/ISGS regional entity generating

station/ISGS for a month shall be calculated as below:

𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑 𝒏 (𝑷) = ∑ 𝑩𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝑺𝑮 𝒊𝒏 𝒌𝑾𝒉𝒓 𝒙 𝑬𝑪𝑹 𝒏 (𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑)

𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉 𝒏

(xi) ECRn (A) for the calculation period at the end of month n shall be calculated using

actual values of SHR and Aux Consumption furnished by regional entity generating

station/ISGS at the end of the calculation period and normative secondary fuel oil

172
 consumption as per CERC Tariff Regulation for which the requisite information shall

be submitted by the generating station to the concerned RPCs Secretariat.

Similarly, ECRn(N) shall be calculated using normative values of SHR and Aux

Consumption and normative secondary fuel oil consumption as per CERC Tariff

Regulation furnished by regional entity generating station/ISGS.

Provided that in case of generating stations whose tariff has been adopted by

Commission under Section 63 of the Act, ECRn(N) shall be calculated using normative

net SHR or the ECR quoted for the relevant month as the case may be.

(xii) Now, following values shall be calculated:

(a) Total Energy Charges for the station computed on actual parameters

𝐸𝐶 𝑛 (𝐴) = 𝐸𝐶𝑅 𝑛 (𝐴) 𝑥 ∑ 𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑆𝐺 𝑖𝑛 𝑘𝑊ℎ𝑟

𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ 𝑛

(b) Total Energy Charges payable to station based on Normative parameters

𝐸𝐶 𝑛 (𝑁) = 𝐸𝐶𝑅 𝑛(𝑁) 𝑥 ∑ 𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑆𝐺 𝑖𝑛 𝑘𝑊ℎ𝑟

𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ 𝑛

(xiii) Compensation payable for the calculation period to regional entity generating

station/ISGS would be shared with beneficiaries as per following:

(a) If ECn(A) ≤ Sum of {ECn(N) and Compn(P)}, then such gain i.e.,

difference between the sum of {ECn(N) and Compn(P)} and ECn(A) amount restricted

to Compn (P), shall be shared between generating station and beneficiaries in the ratio

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 of 60:40. In that case Comp n(F) for the month shall be Comp n (P) less the amount of

gain to be shared with the beneficiary.

(b) If ECn (A) is more than the sum of {ECn (N) and Compn (P)}, there shall be no

sharing of compensation between the generating station and the beneficiary and

Comp n (P) shall be Comp n (F) for the month.

(xiv) Compensation payable for the calculation period to Final Compensation payable

th
by k beneficiary for the calculation period:

(a) No compensation shall be payable by beneficiaries if it has requisitioned at least

85% of its entitlement during the calculation period.

(b) The compensation amongst other beneficiaries shall be shared in the ratio of

un-requisitioned energy below 85% of their entitlement i.e. compensation

th
payable by k beneficiary for the calculation period entitlement during the

calculation period.

FCBkn = Compn(F) x {UEkn/ ∑k UEkn}

Where UEkn is un-requisitioned energy of kth beneficiary below 85% of its entitlement

during the calculation period.

2) Calculation for Secondary Fuel Oil consumption:

(i) No compensation for degradation of Secondary Fuel oil consumption is payable for

the year if total number of start-ups is equal to or less than 7 x no. of units in the

generating station or the Actual Secondary Fuel Oil consumption is less than

Normative Fuel Oil Consumption.

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(ii) Compensation (in terms of KL of Secondary Oil) shall be payable to

CGS/ISGS/Regional Entity Generating Station for the year due to degradation of

Secondary Fuel Oil Consumption shall be calculated by multiplying no. of start-ups

exceeding 7 per unit and solely attributable to reserve shut-downs with the appropriate

value of additional secondary oil consumption specified in Regulation.

(iii) Compensation in terms of Rupees shall be calculated by multiplying compensation in

terms of KL as calculated in step (b) and average landed price of Secondary fuel oil

for the year.

(iv) Any saving on account of oil, limited to amount received from the compensation, shall

be shared with the beneficiaries in 60:40 ratio.

(v) Each start-up due to reserve shutdown shall be attributed to the beneficiaries, who

had requisitioned below 55% of their entitlement.

(vi) Compensation (in terms of Rupees) shall be shared amongst the beneficiaries in the

following manner:

(vi) The CGS/ISGS/ Regional Entity Generating Station is to take all due care to keep a

check on secondary oil use during part operations and during start-ups to the extent

175
 possible. The respective RPC Secretariat shall review the secondary oil consumptions

of plants on quarterly basis along with concerned RLDC and CGS/ISGS to find out

high consuming plants and reasons for high consumption and for suggesting

measures to mitigate excess use of secondary oil to the extent possible.

3) In case generating station runs below technical minimum schedule it shall be entitled

for compensation corresponding to technical minimum schedule.

5. Calculation of Compensation, Billing and Submission of Data by the Generator

(i) Generating station shall calculate the compensation as specified in these procedures

and bill the same to beneficiaries along with its monthly bill which shall be subject to

adjustment based on compensation statement issued by RPC Secretariat

subsequently.

(ii) Generating station shall submit the requisite data along with compensation

calculation to RPC secretariat as prescribed in Annexure-I to this procedure for

a month by 15th day of the following month. For stations where the PPAs are not

unit-wise, the information for the station shall be furnished. The data to be

submitted is for the month and reconciled up to the month.

6. Issuance of compensation statement

(i) RPC secretariat will issue the compensation statement along with final REA for the

month.

(ii) In case any anomaly or discrepancy is noticed by any Utility, the same may be brought

to the notice of Member Secretary of the concerned RPC within 15 days of issuance

of Compensation Statement.

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177
 ANNEXURE – 7

DETAILED OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR COMMITTING AND DE-

COMMITTING OF COAL/LIGNITE/GAS UNIT(S) OF THE REGIONAL
ENTITY GENERATING STATIONS

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this Procedure is to lay down
i. the methodology for identifying the generating stations or units thereof to be
de-committed in specific grid conditions such as low system demand, during
Regulation of Power Supply, incidence of high renewables etc.;
ii. the procedure for committing or de-committing generating units;

1. Methodology for committing and de-committing generating station or unit(s)

1) The generating station shall submit the time block wise capability of generating station
(DC) and other information, by 0600 hours of the day for next three (3) days on rolling
basis in line with this Grid Code.
2) RLDCs shall compile the above information along with the entitlement for each
regional entity beneficiary and advise the same to all SLDC/beneficiaries by 0800
hours for next three (3) days as per Grid Code and amendments thereafter.
Entitlements shall be calculated based on the DC.
3) The beneficiaries shall furnish their requisition for the next three (3) day to respective
RLDC by 1100 hours of the day based on the entitlements given by the concerned
RLDC in accordance with the Grid Code, as amended from time to time.
4) Ex-Power Plant (Ex-PP) dispatch schedule of a generating station for each time block
shall be computed by the respective RLDC by taking algebraic sum of requisitions of
all beneficiaries of that generating station.
5) The RLDCs shall submit this information to NLDC. NLDC can also take into account
the historical data of requisitions.
6) The NLDC shall carryout a security constrained unit commitment (SCUC) in order to
fulfill the projected requisitions as well as for maintaining reserves at regional entity
generating stations and also economizing the operations.
7) The SCUC mechanism by NLDC shall also factor following:
i. On bar and off bar requisitions by beneficiaries
ii.Extreme variation in Weather Conditions
iii. High Load Forecast
iv. To maintain reserves on regional or all India basis
v. Network Congestion
vi. Any other event which in the opinion of RLDC/NLDC shall affect the grid
security.

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8) The results of SCUC along with time to commit unit (s) on bar or de-commit unit (s) off
bar shall be informed to RLDCs for onward information to generating stations. The
generating stations shall bring or take out unit (s) accordingly.
9) The SCUC shall also be carried out by NLDC on daily and intraday basis as well and
results shall be conveyed to generating stations accordingly with advance information
for action by generating stations.
10) The generating stations/units committed through SCUC shall normally be provided the
schedule above or upto minimum turn down level through security constrained
economic dispatch (SCED) mechanism.
11) During the day of operation if net EX-PP injection schedule for a generating station is
less than minimum turn down level, generating station can keep unit on bar and
generate accordingly and would get compensation as given in this Grid Code.
12) If the requisition of some beneficiaries go up to ensure minimum turn down level as
above, SLDCs/beneficiaries may surrender power from some other regional entity
generating station(s) or intra-State generating station(s) out of merit order.
13) The eligibility conditions for the generating stations to participate in SCUC and SCED
mechanism shall be separately announced by NLDC based on the orders of the
Commission.
14) The generating stations not covered under the SCUC and SCED mechanism shall
commit/de-commit units as per their respective Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)
conditions. Before de-committing unit(s), the generating station shall revise the On Bar
DC (with due consideration to ramp up/down capability), Off Bar DC, DC and Ramp
UP/RAMP Down rate. The generator shall ensure that the Off Bar DC is not more than
the MCR less Normative Auxiliary Consumption of the machines to be de-committed.
The beneficiaries shall continue to bear the capacity charge corresponding to Total
DC.
15) When the machine is being de-committed:
a. In case the total requisitioned power can be supplied through other units in the
same generating station on bar, the generator shall be scheduled according to
the requisitions received.
b. In case total requisitioned power cannot be supplied through other units in the
same generating station on bar or through SCED mechanism, the requisition
of the beneficiaries from off bar DC shall be reduced in the ratio of such
requisitioned power.
16) In the special case of a generating station where the only running machine isde-
committed, the beneficiaries who have requisitioned power may not get scheduled for
few blocks. No maintenance activities on unit to be de-committed shall be undertaken
by the generating station so that the de-committed unit is always readily available for
revival/synchronization. If a generating station requires maintenance on any machine
to be de-committed, then the same shall be done in due consultation with RLDC. The
DC shall be reduced appropriately.
17) Regulation of Power Supply: When injection schedule of a regional entity generating
station falls below technical minimum due to imposition of regulation of power supply
by the generating company or transmission licensee under the Central Electricity
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 Regulatory Commission (Regulation of Power Supply) Regulations, 2010 and/or as
per directions under the Commission order dated 2.9.2015 in Petition No.
142/MP/2012, the generator may endeavour to sell the surplus power through STOA
or Power Exchange(s) before opting to de-commit.

2. Methodology for committing or de-committing generating station or unit(s) thereof

(Real Time Schedule Revision)
1) A beneficiary can surrender its part or full entitlement during the day of operation in
accordance with the relevant provisions of Grid Code.
2) In case, the schedule of a generating station goes below minimum turn down level,
due to this surrender of power:
(a) RLDC may provide technical minimum schedule considering the system conditions
in accordance with the Grid Code and SCED mechanism.
(b) In case the system condition does not require, RLDC shall direct the generating
station to take any unit or the generating station to be de-committed. In such a
scenario, RLDC shall display the station likely to go under RSD on its website. In
case, the schedule is still less than the technical minimum and generating station
decides to de-commit unit(s), it shall inform the same to concerned RLDC.
(c) In order to meet peak load and to maintain reserves, the generating station should
endeavour to plan as far as possible the de-committing in such a manner that
maximum number of units are kept on bar keeping in view economy and efficiency
of the units of the generating station.

3. Methodology for committing of generating station or unit(s)

1) Once a unit is de-committed, the generating station shall notify the period for which
the unit will remain off bar and the unit can be recalled any time after 8 hours. In case
of system requirements, the generating unit can be revived before 8 hrs as well. The
time to start a machine under different conditions such as HOT, WARM and COLD
shall be as per the declaration given by the generating station under the Detailed
Procedure for Ancillary Services Operations (Format AS-1 and AS-3 of the said
Procedure).
2) One or more beneficiaries of the generating station as well as the generating station
may decide for revival of unit(s) de-committed with commitment for technical minimum
schedule with minimum run time of 8 hrs for Coal based generating stations and 3 hrs
for Gas based generating stations post revival. In such situations, the generating
station shall revise the On Bar and Off Bar DC (with due consideration to ramp
up/down capability).
3) RLDC may also advise the generating stations to revive unit(s) which are de-
committed for better system operation
4) In case the machine is not revived as per the revival time declared by the generating
station under different types of start, the machine shall be treated under outage for the
duration starting from the likely revival time and the actual revival time. RLDC shall
ensure that intimation is sent to the generating station sufficiently in advance keeping
in view its start-up time.

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 ANNEXURE – 8

Procedure for forecasting, scheduling and imbalance handling for renewable

energy (re) generating stations at inter-state level

1. Introduction
The responsibility to coordinate with RLDC and provide forecast and the data required
under the Procedure shall be that of Qualified Coordinating Agency on behalf of all
generating stations it is representing.
Provided that where Qualified Coordinating Agency is not identified, individual renewable
energy generating station with installed capacity of more than 50 MW or lead generator or
Principal generator shall be responsible for the same.

2. Role of Entities
(1) QCA or Renewable Energy Generating Station
(a) The individual generating station or lead generator or principal generator shall submit one time
details to concerned RLDC as per Annexure-I. Further, if there is any change in the information
furnished, then the updated information shall be shared with the concerned RLDC not later than 7
working days of the change.

(b) QCA shall undertake the following activities:

a) All the technical coordination amongst the generators connected at a pooling station
shall be done by the QCA.
b) Provide available capacity, Day ahead forecast (based on their own forecast or on the
forecast done by RLDC) and Schedule as per Annexure-II through web-based
application maintained by RLDCs.
c) Provide real time availability (at turbine/inverter level) and generation data (at pooling
station level) as per Annexure-III.
d) Provide Monthly data transfer (as per Annexure – IV):
i. For wind plants, at the turbine level- average wind speed, average power generation
at 15-min time block level
ii. For solar plants, for all inverters* >=1 MW- average solar irradiation, average power
generation at 15-min time block level

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 * if a solar plant uses only smaller string inverters, then data may be provided at the plant level

e) Be Responsible for metering and data collection, transmission and co-ordination with
RLDC, SLDC RPC, CTU and other agencies as per IEGC and extant CERC Regulations.
f) Undertake commercial settlement of all deviation-settlement charges as per applicable
CERC Regulations.
g) Submit a copy of the agreement to concerned RLDC wherein it is mentioned that QCA
shall undertake all operational and commercial responsibilities on behalf of generating
stations as per the CERC Regulations. Further Connectivity grantee shall also submit
the application for connectivity which was submitted to CTU to the respective RLDC in
whose control area it is located.
h) Use Automatic meter reading technologies for transfer, analysis and processing of
interface meter data.
i) Perform commercial settlement beyond the connection point (De-pooling arrangement)
and technical coordination amongst the generators within the pooling station and upto
the connection point as the case may be.
j) Shall furnish the PPA rates on notarized affidavit for the purpose of Deviation charge
account preparation to respective RPC supported by copy of the PPA.
k) Keep each of the RLDCs indemnified at all times and shall undertake to indemnify,
defend and save the SLDCs/RLDCs harmless from any and all damages, losses
including commercial losses due to forecasting error, claims and actions including those
relating to injury to or death of any person or damage to property, demands, suits,
recoveries, costs and expenses, court costs, attorney fees, and all other obligations by
or to third parties, arising out of or resulting from the transactions undertaken by the
Generators.

(2) RLDC
(a) The concerned RLDC shall be responsible for scheduling, communication, coordination with
QCA or generating station or Lead Generator or Principal Generator. Forecasting of the
renewable energy generation shall be done by the RLDCs and the forecast will be available on
the website of the concerned RLDC. The generation forecast shall be done on the basis of the
weather data provided by IMD or on the basis of other methods used by the Forecasting Agency
whose service may be availed by NLDC/RLDC. However, the forecast by the concerned RLDC
shall be with the objective of ensuring secure grid operation.

182
 (b) The concerned RLDC will be responsible for processing the interface meter data and computing
the net injections at pooling station represented by each QCA as specified in Annexure- V.
(c) RLDC may, appoint additional manpower for carrying out the additional responsibility assigned
in these Procedures, if required.

3. Forecasting
(1) Regional forecasting shall be done by the concerned RLDC to facilitate secure grid
operation. The concerned RLDC may engage a forecasting agency to undertake
forecasting of renewable generation for each pooling station.
(2) QCA shall provide the forecast to the concerned RLDC which may be based on their own
forecast or RLDC‟s forecast as per Annexure-II. In case QCA is utilizing service of RLDC
for its forecasting, necessary fees shall be paid by generator to RLDC as approved by
CERC.
(3) The concerned RLDC shall consolidate and forecast based on various parameters as
mentioned in the enclosed Annexures and weather data obtained from IMD or from any
other forecast service provider (which could be different from that provided by QCA)
(4) QCA may prepare their schedule based on the forecast done by RLDC or their own
forecast. Any commercial impact on account of deviation from schedule based on the
forecast chosen by the QCA shall be borne by the respective QCA.

4. Scheduling and Despatch

(1) Following alternatives exist for Scheduling and Despatch for Generators within Solar / Wind
/Hybrid Power parks due to multiple generation developers within the Park injecting at various
points with in the park and ultimately injecting at interface with ISTS:

Case-1 QCA shall be responsible for the scheduling, communication, coordination with
generating stations connected at a pooling station which is under RLDC control area.

Case-2 Where QCA at a pooling station is not identified following situations may arise

Case-A: The concerned RLDC shall be responsible for the scheduling,

communication, coordination with RE Generators of 50 MW and above and
connected to Inter State Transmission System (ISTS).

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 Case-B: Lead generator or Principal generator shall be responsible for the
coordination and communication with RLDC, SLDC, RPC and other agencies for
scheduling of RE Generators individually having less than 50 MW, but collectively
having an aggregate installed capacity of 50 MW and above and connected within
the solar park.

(2) For Case-1, QCA shall be responsible for doing de-pooling of DSM charges as per the mutual
agreement between generators and QCA.
(3) For Case- 2, where scheduling and accounting is to be coordinated by RLDC, a
representative sketch showing the scheduling for Case-A and Case-B is attached as
Annexure-IV.
(4) The change of QCA would need a notice period of fifteen (15) days and the changeover shall
take place with effect from 0000 hours of a Monday, the first day of weekly settlement cycle.
(5) In case of any payment default by the QCA, the generators shall be liable to pay the DSM
charges in proportion to their MW capacity.

5. Metering
(1) Interface Energy Meters shall be installed by the Central Transmission Utility as per CEA
Metering Regulations, 2006 and amendments thereof to facilitate boundary metering,
accounting and settlement for RE Generators. Automated meter reading (AMR) system shall
be used for communicating interface meter data at RLDCs. Internal Clock of the interface meter
shall be time synchronized with GPS.
(2) QCA shall ensure availability of data telemetry at the turbine/inverter level to the concerned
RLDC and shall ensure the correctness of the real-time data and undertake the corrective
actions, if required. Frequency of real-time data updation to be shared with concerned RLDC
shall be 10 second or less as per prevailing practice followed by RLDCs. Further,
turbine/inverter outage plan shall also be forwarded to the concerned RLDC. The suggested
data telemetry requirement for RE Generators is enclosed at Annexure-III.

6. Treatment of RECs
(1) Deviations by all RE Generators shall first be netted off by concerned RPC for the entire pool
on a monthly basis and if Actual Generation is more than schedule generation, Notional RECs
shall be credited to the respective Regional DSM Pool on Monthly Basis and carried forward

184
 for settlement in future. If after netting off, including any carried forwarded notional RECs, the
remaining shortfall in renewable energy generation shall be balanced through purchase of
equivalent solar and non-solar Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) through Power
Exchanges by RLDC/ NLDC by utilising funds from the respective Pool Account at the end
of the financial year within three months of finalization of accounts by concerned RPC.

7. RLDC Fees and Charges

(1) The Solar Power Park Developer and Wind Power Park Developer and Generating
stations with installed capacity of more than 50 MW or lead generator or principal generator
shall be registered as User with the respective Regional/State Load Despatch Centre
responsible for scheduling, metering and energy accounting.

(2) Generating stations with installed capacity of more than 50 MW or lead generator or
principal generator shall pay RLDC fees and charges as per CERC “Fees and charges of
Regional Load Despatch Centre and other related matters”, Regulations 2019.

8. Removal of Difficulties

(1) In case of any difficulty in implementation of this procedure, NLDC may approach the
Commission for review or revision.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Procedure, NLDC/RLDCs may take

appropriate decisions in the interest of System Operation. Such decisions shall be taken
under intimation to CERC and the procedure shall be modified /amended, as necessary.

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 Appendix-I
Details to be submitted by the Wind/Solar generating stations which are regional entities/ lead
generator, principal generator

Type: Wind/Solar Generator

Individual / on Behalf of Group of generators

If on Behalf of Group of generators

group of then details of agreement to be
attached
Total Installed Capacity of Generating Station

Total Number of Units with details

Physical Address of the RE Generating Station

Whether any PPA has been signed: (Y/N) If yes ,then attach details
Connectivity Details Location/Voltage Level
Metering Details Meter No.
1. Main 2. Check

Connectivity Diagram (Please Enclose)

Static data As per attached sheet
Contact Details of the Nodal Person Name :

Designation :

Number: Landline Number, Mobile

Number, Fax

Number
Contact Details of the Alternate Nodal Person Name :
E - Mail Address :
Designation :

Number: Landline Number, Mobile

Number, Fax

Number

E - Mail Address :

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Data to be submitted by the RE Generator / lead generator, principal generator for Wind turbine generating
plants

S No Particulars

1 Type

2 Manufacturer

3 Make /Model

5 Capacity

6 COD

7 Hub height

8 Total height

9 RPM range

10 Rated wind speed

Performance Parameters

11 Rated electrical power at rated wind speed

12 Cut in speed

13 Cut out speed

14 Survival speed (Max wind speed)

15 Ambient temperature for out of operation

16 Ambient temperature for in operation

17 Survival temperature
18 Low Voltage Ride Through (LVRT) setting

19 High Voltage Ride Through (HVRT) setting

20 Lightning strength (KA & in coulombs)

21 Noise power level (db)

22 Rotor

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23 Hub type

24 Rotor diameter

25 Number of blades

26 Area swept by blades

27 Rated rotational speed

28 Rotational Direction

29 Coning angle

30 Tilting angle

31 Design tip speed ratio

Blade

32 Length

33 Diameter

34 Material

35 Twist angle
Generator

36 Generator Type

37 Generator no of poles

38 Generator speed

39 Winding type

40 Rated Gen.Voltage

41 Rated Gen. frequency

42 Generator current

43 Rated Temperature of generator

44 Generator cooling

45 Generator power factor

46 KW/MW @ Rated Wind speed

47 KW/MW @ peak continuous

48 Frequency Converter

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49 Filter generator side

50 Filter grid side

Transformer

51 Transformer capacity

52 Transformer cooling type

53 Voltage

54 Winding configuration

Weight

55 Rotor weight

56 Nacelle weight

57 Tower weight

58 Over speed Protection

59 Design Life

60 Design Standard
61 Latitude
62 Longitude
63 COD Details

64 Past Generation History from the COD to the date on which DAS facility
provided at RLDC, if applicable
65 Distance above mean sea level

For Solar generating Plants: Static data points:

1. Latitude

2. Longitude

3. Turbine Power Curve

4. Elevation and orientation angles of arrays or concentrators

5. The generation capacity of the Generating Facility

6. Distance above mean sea level etc.

7. COD details

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8. Rated voltage

9. Details of Type of Mounting: (Tracking Technology If used, single axis or dual axis, auto or
manual)

10.Manufacturer and Model (of Important Components, Such as Turbine, Concentrators,

Inverter, Cable, PV Module, Transformer, Cables)

11. DC installed Capacity

12.Module Cell Technology

13. I-V Characteristic of the Module

14. Inverter Rating at different temperature

15. Inverter Efficiency Curve

16. Transformer Capacity & Rating, evacuation voltage, distance form injection point

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 Appendix-II

Forecast and Schedule Data to be submitted by QCA, generator-wise

FORMAT: A (to be submitted a day in advance)

15 Min time block TIME Available Day Day

(96 Block in a day) Capacity (MW) Ahead Ahead
- Day Ahead
Forecast Schedule

(MW) (MW)

1 00:00-00:15

2 00:15-00:30

3 00:30-00:45

4 00:45-01:00

94

95

96

Note: The forecast should ideally factor forecasting errors. As such schedule should ordinarily be same
as forecast.

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FORMAT: B (to be submitted on the day of actual generation, revision of availability and
schedule, if any, shall be done as per CERC(IEGC) Regulations.

15 Min time block (96 TIME Day Current Revised

Block in a day) ahead Available
Schedule
Capacity
schedule
(MW) (MW)
(MW)

1 00:00-00:15

2 00:15-00:30

3 00:30-00:45

4 00:45-01:00

94

95

96

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 Appendix-III
Real-time Data Telemetry requirement (Suggested List)

Wind turbine generating plants

1. Turbine Generation (MW/MVAR)

2. Wind Speed(meter/second)

3. Generator Status (on/off-line)- this is required for calculation of availability of the WTG

4. Wind Direction ( degrees from true north)

5. Voltage(Volt)

6. Ambient air temperature ( o C)

7. Barometric pressure (Pascal)

8. Relative humidity(in percent)

9. Air Density (kg/m3)

For Solar generating Plant s

1. Solar Generation unit/ Inverter-wise ( MW and MVAR )

2. Voltage at interconnection point (Volt)

3. Generator/Inverter Status (on/off-line)

4. Global horizontal irradiance (GHI)- Watt per meter square

5. Ambient temperature ( o C )

6. Diffuse Irradiance- Watt per meter square

7. Direct Irradiance- Watt per meter square

8. Sun-rise and sunset timings

9. Cloud cover-(Okta)

10. Rainfall (mm)

11. Relative humidity (%)

12. Performance Ratio-

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 Appendix-IV
Block Diagram showing the case wise Scheduling and Forecasting considering a sample case

Case-I: 50 MW and above (Phase-I &II)

A single generator of 1000 MW capacity is developing the generating station in phase-1 in four
blocks namely A,B,C & D of 250 MW capacity each and is directly connected to point A1,B1,C1&
D1 respectively at ISTS. At the interface point scheduling and forecasting will be done by RLDC
/ SLDC (in case full share is allocated to host state as per IEGC).

Phase-II- 500 MW (Separate Generator/Entities)

(1) Let multiple generators of 50 MW each aggregating to 250 MW (5 Nos. Multiple Generator
of 50 Mw each (as separate entities), be connected to inter mediate pooling stations.
(2) In this case Solar generating station may be developed by single or Multiple generators. Here
we have considered as multiple generators namely E, F, G, H & I each having the capacity
of 50 MW each ,the RE generators are connected to interface point E1, F1, G1, H1& I1 and
thereby connected to ISTS at XX point.
(3) In such a case scheduling, accounting, forecasting for these generators needs to be
segregated at point E1, F1,G1, H1, I1. Scheduling shall be done at point P and shall be
segregated at E1,F1,G1,H1,I1 by RLDC.
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(4) Further there may be case where multiple generators less than 50MW (<50MW) capacity are
connected to the intermediate pooling station are stated as under:-
Case-II Below 50 MW

(5) For remaining 250 MW of Phase-II, let us consider, multiple generators of 7 Nos
(J,K,L,M,N,O&P ) each having capacity less than 50 MW but collectively having an
aggregate installed capacity of 50 MW or more. Further Generators Q & R each of 100
MW are connected at Q1 & R1. All these generators are connected to ISTS at point Z1.
(6) Scheduling and forecasting for the generators J,K,L,M,N,O& P shall be done at Point Z1,
but need to segregated at Point J1, K1,L1, M1, N1,O1& P1 and for generators Q & R
needs to be segregated at Q1 and R1. In this case, RLDC shall schedule at point Z1 and
segregate at Y1,Q1& R1 . The lead generator shall provide aggregated schedule to RLDC
at Y1. Further the lead generator shall do segregation of schedules and other operational
& commercial activities for generators J,K,L,M,N,O,P at points J1, K1,L1, M1, N1,O1& P1.

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 ANNEXURE- 9
ACCOUNTING AND POOL SETTLEMENT SYSTEM

METERING, ACCOUNTING AND SETTLEMENT SYSTEM:

At the Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) level, the basic principle followed is that all
settlements for the energy scheduled before the fact are done directly between the sellers and
the buyers (with the Regional Power Committee issuing only the Accounts specifying the quantum
of energy scheduled). All deviations from the schedule are settled through a regulatory pool
account maintained by RLDCs; basically a net settlement where only the deviation payments are
handled

The settlement system shall be transparent, robust, scale-able (multi buyer/seller, inter
connection with lower and upper pool systems) and dispute-free with integrity & probity possible
through double entry system and usage of state of the art techniques. The settlement computation
details, applicable charges and operation of different regulatory pool accounts shall be known ex-
ante and be in accordance with various regulations of the Commission.

However, the settlement system shall have following basic principles:

REGIONAL ENERGY ACCOUNTS:

a. NPC, after consultations with the RPCs/NLDC/RLDCs, evolve and issue a detailed
procedures for energy accounting and settlement by all the RPCs. Likewise, NLDC
shall evolve and issue a detailed procedures for accounting and settlement by all
the RLDCs. The SLDCs shall issue a detailed procedure which is aligned with the
NLDC procedure for accounting and settlement by the SLDC and in case such a
procedure has not been specified by the SLDC, the accounting and settlement
shall be carried in line with the NLDC procedure.

b. The Implemented Schedule (that incorporates all before-the-fact changes in

schedule) be used as a reference for energy accounting.

c. Energy Accounts inter-alia shall indicate Declared Capability of generating

stations, Entitlements, Requisitions, Scheduled loss, Scheduled transactions
through LTA/MTOA/STOA-bilateral/STOA-collective and actual Interchange.

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 d. Assumptions, if any, in the accounts should be clearly stated in Notes to the
Accounts.

DEVIATION ACCOUNTS:
a. Deviation account shall be separate net settlement account for each region.

b. Capacity and Energy charges shall be settled mutually between buyers and
sellers.

c. Each regional entity (whether generator, RE Generator, captive Power Plant, OA

customer connected at ISTS) in a region shall be a member of the regional pool
and separately accountable for deviations. For cross border transactions, the
Settlement Nodal Agency (SNA) as appointed by the Government of India would
be a member of the regional pool.

d. Similar pool shall be at State level and national level and these state, regional and
national pool (s) shall be delinked from each other in order that any change in one
pool does not spill to all other pool through circular reference, recursive revisions
and collection/disbursement.

e. The Deviation accounts shall also have actual transmission losses computed for
each time block of settlement. No post facto adjustment of transmission losses
shall be done.

f. The pool design shall be such that no deficit would normally arise in these pool
accounts.

g. Interface points (tie lines), Interchange computation formulae, CT/PT ratio,

Interface Energy Meter data, and discrepancy statements shall be made available
for reference and verification by the respective entities.

h. CTU or STU as case may be shall coordinate the corrections, maintenance,

calibration and testing of interface energy meters.

REACTIVE ENERGY ACCOUNTS:

As notified under the CERC Ancillary Services Regulations.

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ANCILLARY SERVICES AND SCED POOL
It shall have gross settlement in the sense that these Pool Accounts are involved in
payment/recovery of energy charges, fixed charges etc. However, these accounts shall
also be regulatory in nature.

REAL TIME CONGESTION CHARGE ACCOUNT

It shall be maintained by RLDCs for collecting the amounts that would accrue in case of
congestion in any corridor.

Any other Pool Account as directed by the Commission from time to time. The NPC, RPCs,
NLDC, RLDCs and SLDCs shall carry out periodic reconciliation of all accounts as per the
detailed procedures.

198