# If one user in a group captive plant draws more than its share, does the plant fail the 51% test?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/group-captive-excess-draw-still-counts-toward-51-percent

Not because of the excess, as long as all users together still consume 51%. In an association-of-persons plant, a user's draw above its proportionate limit is surcharged, but the Ministry of Power's explanatory note says it still counts toward the 51% collective test. Only that user pays for the excess.

## What the rule and the note say

- Rule 3(2)(d)(i): the 26% ownership and 51% consumption conditions "shall be satisfied collectively by all the captive users, and the aggregate consumption by all such captive users from the power plant shall be considered for the purpose of verifying compliance".
- Rule 3(2)(d)(ii): "captive consumption by an individual captive user shall be admissible only up to one hundred per cent of its proportionate consumption, calculated with reference to its share in the total captive ownership in the power plant".
- Proviso to Rule 3(3): consumption above that limit "shall be treated as supply of electricity by a generating company and cross-subsidy surcharge and additional surcharge shall be levied on such excess consumption".
- Explanatory note: "There will not be any disqualification due to disproportionate consumption by an individual user". The note adds that this excess "will still qualify as collective captive consumption" for the 51% requirement.

## How the limit is worked out

Schedule III prints the limit as Y times x, divided by X. Here x is the user's ownership (%), X is the total captive ownership (%), and Y is the total consumption of all captive users as a percentage of the plant's ex-bus generation, which is generation measured at the plant's output bus bar. The limit comes out in the same unit as Y.

## Why the collective count matters

My reading, not the source's words: if the excess were thrown out of the plant test as well, a plant could drop below 51% because one member over-drew. The rules avoid that. The cost lands on the member who over-drew, as the surcharge.

## Schedule III, Example 2

- Ownership: A 15%, B 10%, C 5%, so X = 30
- Consumption: A 20%, B 28%, C 3% of generation, so Y = 51, which meets the 51% test
- Limits: A 51 x 15/30 = 25.5%, B 51 x 10/30 = 17%, C 51 x 5/30 = 8.5%
- B draws 28% against a 17% limit. Only 17% qualifies for B, but all 28% counts for plant verification. The 11 points above B's limit are surcharged.
- Qualifying for the users is 20 + 17 + 3 = 40 points; with B's 11 points counted for the plant, 40 + 11 = 51

Figures are the rules' own, printed in Schedule III.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads electricity bills into monthly records. It does not test captive status or work out the limits.

- [Captive plant fails the 51% test](https://senseible.earth/answers/captive-plant-fails-51-percent-test-what-happens)
- [Surcharge cap at 20% of cost of supply](https://senseible.earth/answers/open-access-cross-subsidy-surcharge-20-percent-cap)
- [Group captive rules for solar](https://senseible.earth/answers/group-captive-solar-26-percent-rule)
- [Group captive solar and Scope 2](https://senseible.earth/answers/group-captive-solar-scope-2)
- [Free carbon calculators](https://senseible.earth/calculators)

Sources: [Electricity (Amendment) Rules, 2026, General Statutory Rules (G.S.R.) 186(E), substituting rule 3 of the Electricity Rules, 2005 (captive generating plants), with Schedule III and the Ministry of Power explanatory note](https://www.powermin.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/05/c84c643ff478be845cff8d7dd4349d67.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Rule 3 of the Electricity Rules, 2005 as substituted by G.S.R. 186(E), 13 March 2026; parts in force from 1 April 2026. Checked 5 November 2026. Check the state nodal agency's or the National Load Despatch Centre's procedure before you file.