The Uttar Pradesh government has initiated a process to facilitate procurement of power by industrial units through short-term open access, thereby fulfilling a long-standing demand.

Additional Chief Secretary (Energy) Arvind Kumar told news persons in Lucknow on Thursday that the UP Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (UPPTCL) has uploaded standard operating procedure and integrated online ABT portal on its website www.online.upptcl.org/abt for granting permission, inspection and installation consent for Availability Based Tariff (ABT) meters.

“The ABT meters provide a flexible solution for energy monitoring and billing bulk inter-utility power flows, particularly for power supply through open access,” he said..

Customers intending to avail short-term open access can now obtain the no-objection certificate (NOC) online through UP State Load Dispatch Centre (UPSLDC) web portal www.eass.upsldc.org/eass/OAPreRegistration.jsp for one-time registration on the prescribed application format.

“So far 63 short-term open access consumers have registered in the state, of which 58 are active registrations and consumers have already availed 224.42 megawatt out of a total of 347.56 megawatt power sanctioned under open access in UP,” Kumar said.

The senior official further said that open access was one of the strategic measures to create a competitive and healthy industrial environment, whereby medium and large consumers could have access to transmission and distribution networks to obtain power from suppliers other than local distribution company (discom).

As per UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) regulations for open access, short-term open access means the right to use intra-state transmission system and/or distribution system for a period of not exceeding three months at a time.