Gujarat Open Access Additional Surcharge Set at ₹0.99/kWh: What It Means for Businesses (Oct 2026–Mar 2027)

The Decision in Brief

In Order No. 05 of 2026, dated 10 September 2026, a GERC bench of Chairman Pankaj Joshi with Members Hiren Shah and Jatin N. Thakkar fixed the additional surcharge at ₹0.99/kWh for the six months beginning 1 October 2026. The surcharge is reset every six months under a methodology GERC revised in its order of 30 August 2022: GUVNL submits operational data certified by the State Load Despatch Centre and a Chartered Accountant within 90 days of each half-year, and that data sets the rate for the corresponding half of the following year. This determination used data for 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026.

Takeaway: this is a routine six-monthly reset, not a new charge — what changes is the rate, and it changes on a fixed schedule you can plan around.

Who Pays It — and Who Doesn't

• ✓Pays: open access consumers of the four state DISCOMs — commercial and industrial consumers of DGVCL, MGVCL, PGVCL or UGVCL who source power through open access from anywhere other than their own DISCOM, for the stated six-month window.
• ✓Does not pay: every household consumer — a domestic connection is supplied by its DISCOM, not through open access, so the additional surcharge never enters a home bill. Nothing in this order alters domestic slabs, fixed charges or electricity duty.
• ✓Does not pay: ordinary C&I consumers on DISCOM supply — a business that simply buys from its own DISCOM is not an open access consumer and is outside this order entirely.

Takeaway: the charge follows the decision to buy power outside your DISCOM — it is not a general tariff change.

What “Stranded Capacity” Actually Means

A distribution company signs long-term agreements for generation capacity years ahead, sized to the demand it expects to serve. It pays a fixed charge on that capacity whether or not the power is drawn. When a large consumer shifts to open access, the DISCOM loses the sale but keeps the obligation: it still pays for the contracted capacity, and it must still stand ready to supply that consumer if they come back.

Capacity that is contracted and paid for but not scheduled is described as stranded. The additional surcharge is the mechanism, under Section 42(4) of the Electricity Act, 2003, for recovering the share of that stranded fixed cost which is attributable to open access, so it is not instead borne by the consumers who stayed.

Takeaway: the charge is about fixed costs that do not disappear when a consumer leaves — not a penalty for choosing open access.

How GERC Arrived at ₹0.99

The order sets the full chain out in an annexure. Working from GUVNL's certified data for 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026:

1. 1Start with available energy — 96,129 MU was available over the six months, of which 63,110 MU was scheduled to meet the requirement of the general body of consumers.
2. 2Net off network losses — applying 12.06% T&D losses, 55,497 MU actually reached those consumers. GERC used 12.06% — the normative loss approved for FY 2025-26 — because it is lower than the 12.77% trued-up figure for FY 2024-25.
3. 3Identify stranded generation — available energy minus scheduled energy leaves 33,018 MU of stranded generation.
4. 4Price the stranded capacity — GUVNL paid ₹8,193 crore in fixed costs for long-term tied-up capacity; the share attributable to stranded capacity is ₹2,814 crore.
5. 5Work out the open access share — 1,630 MU was scheduled for open access consumers at the DISCOM periphery, treated as directly attributable. Apportioning the balance proportionately adds 895 MU, for 2,525 MU attributable to open access in total.
6. 6Convert to money — at ₹0.85 per unit of available energy, the stranded fixed cost attributable to open access is ₹215 crore.
7. 7Deduct what is already recovered — ₹606 crore had already been collected from open access consumers through demand charges; the network-related portion of that, 8.77%, comes to ₹53 crore and is set off — leaving ₹162 crore recoverable.
8. 8Divide to get the rate — ₹162 crore divided by 1,630 MU gives ₹0.99 per kWh. Note the divisor: GERC divides by the 1,630 MU directly attributable to open access, not the wider 2,525 MU figure — dividing by that instead would have produced roughly ₹0.64.

Takeaway: every step is published in the order's annexure, so a business can reconcile the rate itself rather than take it on trust.

How It Compares With Earlier Periods

Because the rate is reset twice a year off a moving data window, it has swung noticeably. Every figure below is taken from GERC's own orders:

In each of the last three years the October–March half has carried a higher surcharge than the April–September half. The orders do not state a reason for that pattern, so treat it as an observed regularity worth planning around rather than a rule.

Takeaway: a business modelling open access economics should budget for a rate that moves every six months, not a fixed number.

Additional Surcharge vs Cross-Subsidy Surcharge vs Other Charges

These are routinely confused, but they are separate charges with separate legal bases:

For how transmission and wheeling charges reach an ordinary household bill, see our guide to transmission and distribution costs.

Eligibility differs too. The Electricity Act sets open access at 1 MW of contracted demand or sanctioned load; the Electricity (Promoting Renewable Energy Through Green Energy Open Access) Rules, 2022 lowered it to 100 kW for green energy open access, with no minimum for captive consumers. Those Rules also provide that additional surcharge does not apply to waste-to-energy, to green hydrogen and green ammonia production, or where the consumer is already paying fixed charges — though the Rules leave “fixed charges” undefined. Those are central rules; this GERC order records no exemption of its own, and we have not verified how GERC applies them in Gujarat.

Takeaway: ₹0.99/kWh is one line in a stack — compare total delivered cost, not this number alone.

What It Means If You Are Weighing Open Access

The practical effect is a known, dated addition to the delivered cost of open access power for six months. An illustrative example, using a round figure rather than any real consumer:

Because the rate resets on 1 April 2027 off a fresh data window, a procurement decision taken today should be stress-tested against a range rather than a single number — the last five determinations have spanned ₹0.76 to ₹1.00.

Takeaway: the honest comparison is open access delivered cost, inclusive of all surcharges, against your DISCOM tariff for the same period.

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