All About The Open Access Solar

The year 2020 was a very downfall period for the entire global economy. When every industry saw the fall due to COVID-19, there was one sector that gave hope to the renewable energy industry as it got a growth of 56% and that sector is open access solar.

Open Access Solar, a new emerging market in the solar industry. If we see the total installed capacity in the open-access market is almost 4 GW with a project development pipeline of over 1 GW, by December 2020.

According to a Mercom India published market report, open solar access is covering the main solar states like Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Telangana in India. After analyzing the market report, find that the open-access market is growing at a rapid rate along with the all challenges.

• What Is Open-Access Solar
• Types Of Open-Access Solar

Before knowing what is open access first let’s find out who are the consumers of open access. As open access is very new in India, its customers are very limited. Today in India, the industry that has more than 1 MW of connected load is the one that uses the open-access market.

Open access is an open market for power consumers from where the single user can buy power with multiple power developers.

Through DISCOM, the power consumer gets power at the fixed tariff which is decided by DISCOM. But when consumers switch to the open market, they have a chance to get a better tariff.

The open market is beneficial for both, the power consumer as well as the power developer. The power developer and the power consumer sign a PPA on a mutually agreed tariff for a fixed period. In this way, consumers get the power on a better tariff and developers get a client directly.

• Multiple Grid Failer: Since there is a good chance that consumers will consume power from more than one power plant or power developer, there will always be a chance to multiple grid failer.
• Synchronize Power Supply: Because power is coming from multiple sources, it should be synchronized.

Despite the negative sides of the open-access market, it is growing rapidly in India. In the future, it will help smaller power consumers and smaller power developers as well. The stability of the open-access market depends upon the PPA sign between solar power developers and the power consumers.

Open-access has two types:

Inter-state Open Access: In this, the entire power selling and purchasing are done under the regulations specified by the Central Govt. via the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. The consumer can purchase the power for the short term which can be less than 1 month or the long term which can be up to 25 years.

Intra-state Open Access: Under this, the entire process of power purchase and selling is governed by the state government via the State Electricity Regulatory Commission. Here the guidelines are decided by the state government however rest of the other things remain the same.

How Can We Help?

Hope this information about Open Access Solar helps you.

If you are planning to install a solar solution, you can connect with Ornate Solar to get the best prices for solar panels and inverters. We are the official partner of Canadian Solar panels & Renewsys solar panels in India. We are also the official distributor of SolarEdge inverters with DC optimizers, Enphase microinverters, Fronius On-Grid Inverters, and Havells solar inverters in India.

For more information, please give us a call at 011 4353 6666.