Can a green hydrogen plant in India count RECs, green tariff or exchange power as renewable?
Green tariff power and renewable power bought on exchanges such as the green day-ahead market count. Renewable energy certificates and carbon credits do not. A PPA counts if the renewable plants generate at least what you claim plus transmission losses, shown with load dispatch centre certificates.
What counts as renewable
- Power from a renewable project brought over a dedicated or common transmission line.
- Renewable power stored in an energy storage system, or banked with the grid under the applicable regulations.
- Power bought under a green tariff.
- Renewable power bought on a power exchange, for example the green day-ahead market (G-DAM).
- Power under one or more PPAs, if those plants generate at least the electricity you claim as renewable, including transmission and distribution losses.
What does not count
- Renewable energy certificates.
- Carbon credits.
- Any power you cannot prove is renewable. Its emissions go into your intensity at the grid factor, grossed up for losses.
The PPA test
The scheme's illustration is: electricity generation minus transmission and distribution losses equals electricity consumption. Back it with load dispatch centre certificates from the appropriate LDC. The burden of proving both the renewable source and the quantity rests entirely on the producer.
Why it matters for the 2 kg limit
Every unproven kWh is treated as grid power. A few months of weak paperwork can push the annual average over 2.0 kg CO2e per kg even if the power was in fact renewable.
Worked example: sizing PPA generation
- Electrolyser and balance of plant use in a month: 10,000 MWh (illustrative)
- Transmission and distribution losses on the route: 5% of generation (illustrative)
- Generation needed: 10,000 / (1 minus 0.05) = 10,526 MWh
- If the LDC certificates show only 10,000 MWh generated, about 500 MWh of consumption is not covered and is counted as grid power
Use the actual loss figures that apply to your supply route.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads DISCOM and green tariff electricity bills into a monthly record of units by source, which you can set against your PPA and LDC paperwork.
- Grid power in green hydrogen emissions
- Renewable capacity per tonne of hydrogen
- India's 2 kg green hydrogen limit
Last reviewed 2026-10-25.