Karnataka Storage Decision Brief

Banking, General Network Access and BESS economics under KERC's draft Regulations of June 2026

D. S. Nikam — Independent research, energy storage and power markets Report No. 1 · Version 1.0 · Published 31 August 2026

On 4 June 2026 the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission notified the draft (Connectivity and General Network Access) Regulations, 2026, published in the Gazette on 11 June and proposed to commence on 1 October 2026. This brief examines what they do to open access and captive solar projects — and, on the numbers, when a battery is actually worth buying.

Three findings

01

Karnataka runs two banking regimes, not one

Non-REC projects that applied between April 2018 and the GEOA Regulations, 2022 still hold annual banking at 2 per cent. Everyone after them is on monthly banking at 8 per cent, with the balance lapsing at month end. The cohort has to be established before any BESS economics are modelled — and the draft does not mention the older cohort at all.

02

Banking is finished for the evening — but not for the night

Energy banked in the solar slot cannot be drawn during the evening peak, at any price. That restriction is already in force. But for a consumer with night-time load, banking is still worth more than storage — and the conclusion holds on the most storage-favourable cost traced for 2025.

03

The draft's treatment of the legacy cohort needs to be stated

Whether the 8 per cent charge, the month-end lapse and the 31 March 2030 sunset reach the legacy annual-2 per cent cohort — and under what saving or transition provision — is not set out. The brief puts six such questions to the Commission for the final notification.

The central numbers

Banking at 8 per cent, with night-time offtake₹5.54
Physical storage, discharged into the evening peak₹3.93
Banking, where there is no offtake in either slot₹0.00

Rupees per kWh of incremental solar. HT-2(a) industrial consumer, FY 2026-27, behind the meter. Assumptions, break-evens and eleven recorded limitations are set out in the Annexure.

These are draft Regulations. The final notification is awaited, and nothing described here is an operative entitlement today. Where verification is outstanding, the brief says so.

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Your project's number

Every figure here rests on an example project. Yours will differ, and the difference can be large — because the answer turns on three things, and all three are held only by you:

  1. The application date of your Wheeling and Banking Agreement, and the cohort it places you in
  2. How much energy is actually consumed in the solar and night slots
  3. Contract demand, and twelve months of 15-minute data

If you would like this calculation done for your own project, or if any figure here looks wrong to you, write — research@dsnikam.in

Corrections are recorded, with attribution, in the next version.