Policy Magna Carta for EV Charging — for India
People are at their creative best at the weirdest of spots and doing the craziest of activities. I am reminded of Will smith’s character in “Enemy of the State” who was at his creative best while blending — with the blender whirring at top speed. I am at my creative best in long queues in check-in counters , and excruciatingly painful security clearances at airports. The more excruciating , the better. I am now sitting at the boarding gate in Bangalore airport after surviving the rigours of an exhaustive pat-down by CISF in a “pre-republic day high alert mode”.
Right through the long dwell time from the check-in counter and all the way to the boarding gate, this one singular , thought kept bothering me. If we were to transition to powering our transportation system with electricity how do ensure that , to the extent possible, it runs on Clean and green electricity. In short , how do we not stop at merely managing our transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs) capably , but in the process ensure that incremental demand on the Grid from the EV transition , gets powered only by green power.
This is not a new problem. There are many studies out there which evidence that — from a climate change perspective, even if we were to run the entire EV eco-system with “brown” electricity , it will still be a better solution than the current fossil fuel based transportation system that we are saddled with. The case being made out for the electrification of transportation does not necessarily predicate that the electricity that is used to power the EVs should be clean. It is a “good to have” and not a “must to have” option. The impact on the environment is still positive , even if we are able to make this transition , without powering EVs with “green” electricity.
Notwithstanding this it is my argument that India and its Policy makers need to be bold and think beyond this limiting construct. We need to envision a policy goal, that will not merely wean away transportation from its addiction to fossil fuel, but also ensure that , in the process, we power this transition using entirely “green” electricity. We have shown a similar vision in setting the targets for RE capacity and need to do the same on issues relating to powering the EV transition. Policy interventions need to offer the right pricing and non-pricing signals to the energy markets , to “nudge” all incremental power consumption, attributable to EVs, to be met by clean/green power.
Now this is not an entirely new idea. In-fact it is a “beaten to death dream” of the green brigade. I have been looking at EV policies of many states. None of them have been able to go beyond the narrow confines of policy interventions centering around toll fee exemptions, RTO concessions, direct Subsidies under FAME scheme etc., . I have seen little in the policies that articulates a path to ensure that this transition happens with “green” electricity powering this huge transition.
To start with , governments need to realise and accord priority to ensuring that all EVs need be powered with green power and green power alone. This is an imperative and needs to be baked into every policy toolkit , tariff policy and the statute and drilled down by the Ministry of Power (MoP), MNRE and the Central Regulator down to the States.
For the retail home consumer buying a EV and having a separately metered EV charging service connection in his residence, it would be a good idea to deem all his EV charging power consumption as green. The EV charging consumption should entitle home owners to RECs which they can later sell on the exchange. This process can even be made simpler by offering direct credit of the REC sale values in their regular service connection bills with the utility taking on the responsibility of selling the RECs on behalf of the consumers. REC credits in electricity bills would be a great nudge for consumers to go electric in a price conscious market like India, where even owners of luxutry cars take pleasure in fretting about about mileages of their luxury cars . While EV residential consumers would continue to pay the EV charging tariff stipulated by the Regulator, they would also be entitled for REC credits which can be monetized on the exchanges. This can boost the REC markets and actually incentivise, creation of RE capacity of solar and wind on the back of this demand stream.
It is equally important to look at the supply side of the equation. Discoms to need ensure that they meet EV power consumption only from green sources. One way this could be accomplished is to mandate a 100% RPO to ensure all delivery of power for EV consumption gets compensated 100% by purchase of green power by Discoms.
For the commercial and industrial segment (C&I) of EV charging , it is necessary to open the Open access pathways and make the flow of power friction free from RE generators to the C&I segment. On lines similar to the ISTS exemptions enjoyed by RE power we need to look at exempting all C&I charging infra (across the nation) consumers from ALL open access charges for RE generators both on the central and state Grids. All C&I EV charging points could considered ‘deemed’ OA consumers for this purpose to remove the discretionary element. This would trigger a wave of additional demand and create RE capacities that are independent of Discoms and create whole new business models for RE generators to thrive. This may be a tall order in a country like India, where open access markets have been only on the statute as a lip service. Doing this will call for political will and resolve.
We could take a small step in this direction, by moving to time of day open access charges . This would ensure that open access charges are the least when cheap solar and wind is at it s peak . RE power has long crossed the point of Grid parity and it will be a great boost to the EV markets , if they can source RE power at the same rates that the discoms are currently able to source it. Yes, I am talking clean power between the Rs 2.5–3.0 band powering the EV charging infra, across the country. The idea is to ensure that the average procurement cost of power (APPC) for a EV owner , EV fleet operators , Mobility service providers is around the same levels of discom procurements. A freer and “deemed” open access regime alone can ensure this. This would also address the reliability problems that the Indian power grids are bound to face with increasing penetration of renewables , with the vehicle energy storage supporting and offering flexibility and reliability to the Grid and offering the same value stack that Grid level energy storage can offer.
To summarise — the key elements of a EV charging Policy Magna Carta , that can be a gamechanger and can catalyse adoption of EVs are:
a) Making EV charging points of retails consumers eligible for REC credits
b) Mandate a RPO of 100% on discoms for all power they sell to EV charge points.
c) Freer and deemed open access to C&I EV charging points if they source power from RE Generators
d) Time of day Open access charges , with EVs offering V2G support and other Grid services
