Deal factsCountry: India · Technology: Storage regulation · Stage: Policy · Parties: Ministry of Power, SECI, NTPC
India’s Ministry of Power has told renewable energy developers that electricity curtailed under Temporary General Network Access, or T-GNA, can be captured in additional co-located battery storage and sold to any buyer through power exchanges or bilateral contracts. The clarification, issued in a letter dated 27 August 2026 and reported on 29 August, responds to industry complaints that around 90% of power scheduled under T-GNA in the northern region was being curtailed, according to figures cited by the National Solar Energy Federation of India.
The letter, signed by director Sunil Kumar Sharma, applies to projects awarded under the government’s standard competitive bidding guidelines. Such projects may now use curtailed T-GNA energy to charge a battery system installed at the site, provided that battery is not already covered by the project’s existing power purchase agreement or power sale agreement. The stored energy can then be sold on the exchanges or under separate arrangements, and no no-objection certificate is required from the intermediary procurer or the end buyer.
The move follows a memorandum from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy on 22 July 2026, after which developers sought clarity on whether power that would otherwise be lost could be stored in voluntarily deployed storage and monetised. Intermediary procurers such as the Solar Energy Corporation of India and NTPC sit between generators and state distribution companies on many of these contracts, so removing the consent requirement takes out a step that could have stalled the arrangement. The ministry circulated the letter to state energy departments, electricity regulatory commissions, public sector undertakings and the industry bodies FICCI and ASSOCHAM.
T-GNA gives generators short term access to the interstate transmission system while their long term connectivity is being built out. Because that access ranks below firm connectivity, it is the first to be cut when corridors are congested, which is why developers with plants ready before their transmission was have been watching output curtailed for months at a time.
Why does this matter?
Curtailed energy under temporary access was previously a pure loss. Allowing developers to store and sell it turns a stranded output problem into a merchant battery revenue stream, which improves the case for adding storage at existing solar and wind sites and gives lenders a second cash flow to underwrite.
What happens next?
Developers with plants operating on T-GNA in congested regions, particularly in the north and in the renewable clusters of Rajasthan and Gujarat, can now assess whether the volume of curtailed energy justifies an additional battery at the site. Expect equipment suppliers and storage integrators to pitch retrofit systems to those operators, and regulators to watch how the stored energy is scheduled and settled on the exchanges. The clarification also feeds a wider shift in Indian policy towards pairing storage with new renewable capacity.
Sources: Business Standard: Govt allows RE projects to store, sell curtailed power via battery systems; SolarQuarter: Ministry of Power Allows Sale Of T-GNA Curtailed Renewable Power Through Co-Located BESS.
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