India's power regulator has introduced compensation charges allowing delayed solar and wind developers to retain interstate grid access rather than lose it.
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), India’s federal power regulator, issued an order on August 14, 2026, allowing solar and wind developers behind schedule to pay to retain their access to the interstate transmission network rather than have it revoked. The order, issued under petition No. 5/SM/2026, falls under the General Network Access (GNA) regime, which governs producers’ access to the interstate transmission network. Reuters reported the decision, which was picked up on August 17, 2026, by oilprice.com.
The GNA regime has for several years imposed strict deadlines on producers seeking to connect to the interstate transmission network: land documents, financial closure and then commercial operation must occur within precise windows, under penalty of revocation of access. This discipline aims to prevent connection slots, a scarce resource, from being tied up by projects that are not progressing. India’s installed solar capacity is growing rapidly, in a context where the global solar sector is multiplying large-scale operations, such as ABB’s integration of 40 GW into its solar fleet through the acquisition of Gamesa Electric or Singapore’s approval of the import of 900 MW of Malaysian solar power. Faced with a growing number of delays, often linked to financing difficulties, land acquisition issues or the unavailability of transmission infrastructure itself, the regulator chose to ease the regime rather than systematically revoke access.
The new mechanism introduces Milestone Extension Charges (MEC), compensation fees whose amount per megawatt and per day rises progressively as the delay lengthens. These charges differ depending on whether the delay concerns land documents, financial closure or the commercial operation date. Each of these three milestones is also capped in time, beyond which the connection remains revocable.
This final order was preceded by a consultation process launched several months earlier in the form of a discussion paper proposing amounts significantly higher than those ultimately adopted. Developers, through their representatives, had asked for a distinction to be made between delays attributable to developers themselves and those caused by the transmission network’s own lack of readiness. The gap between the amounts initially proposed and those adopted in the final order suggests this point was partially taken into account.
A second regulatory text, distinct from the compensation mechanism but concerning the same sector, addresses the exemption from interstate transmission charges for projects delayed due to a lack of available infrastructure. This draft regulation, open to stakeholder comments and not finalized at the time of research, would condition eligibility on signing a long-term power purchase agreement before the end of the calendar year. The Central Transmission Utility of India Limited (CTUIL), the operator responsible for granting and revoking interstate network connections, would be tasked with its implementation. If adopted, this text would mark a reversal of the gradual phase-out of these exemptions initiated a little over a year earlier.
Both regulatory tracks fit into the country’s rapid growth trajectory in installed solar capacity, which remains the main driver of the expansion of national non-carbon power capacity, itself geared toward an ambitious target by the end of the decade. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), which oversees local solar component manufacturing policy, also administers the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM), which conditions the eligibility of photovoltaic modules and cells for state-backed projects. This growth dynamic, however, runs up against a structural imbalance in the local manufacturing chain, between module and cell production capacity.
ABB integrates Gamesa Electric's power electronics business, adding roughly 40 GW to its installed fleet and more than 100 engineers, strengthening its offering in high-power photo
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