The energy ministry has ruled out any possibility of licensing priority revisions in a ministerial decision detailing power grid operator IPTO’s order of RES project connection-term application appraisals to specifically promote new solar energy projects equipped with batteries, energypress sources have informed.

Power grid operator IPTO is currently assessing connection-term applications submitted by RES producers with projects in top-tier Group A. The procedure may have already been completed.

Assessments of applications for Group B projects, grouping together prospective RES units intended for green-energy power purchase agreements between RES producers and industrial consumers, will follow.

The ministry revised the ministerial decision last January to increase the grid capacity that may be occupied by PPA-linked RES units as an upper limit for Group B projects was raised to 4,000 MW.

The issue has become complex as new PVs will need to start being equipped with batteries in order to minimize RES output cuts, carried out to prevent grid overloading.

However, the growing need for combined RES-and-storage facilities, to enable more efficient usage of grid capacity, changes financial factors taken into consideration by RES producers and industrial consumers for their green-energy PPAs. These factors are invalidated as the addition of batteries increases the development cost of projects.