Green Open Access

Suppose the general queue for a government service was slow and expensive, so a separate, faster counter was created specifically for one particular purpose the government wanted to encourage. Green Open Access is exactly that dedicated faster lane, built specifically to make it easier for consumers to buy renewable power directly.

It works on the same underlying principle as ordinary Open Access, letting a large consumer bypass its DISCOM to buy power directly from a generator, but with a lower minimum consumption threshold and typically reduced charges, specifically when the power being purchased is renewable. The explicit intent is to remove friction for corporate buyers who want to procure green power directly rather than through the DISCOM's standard mix.

This is the regulatory pathway behind the growing wave of Indian corporates signing direct renewable power deals to meet their own sustainability commitments, effectively letting a company's factory in Karnataka draw power from a wind farm in Tamil Nadu on paper, at a materially lower cost of access than ordinary Open Access would allow.