# Do green hydrogen and green ammonia plants pay inter-state transmission system charges if commissioned after 2030?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ists-waiver-green-hydrogen-plants-december-2030

Green hydrogen and green ammonia plants commissioned on or before 31 December 2030 are exempt from inter-state transmission system (ISTS) charges, not losses, for 25 years if they use renewable power from solar, wind, large hydro commissioned after 8 March 2019, or storage. Ministry of Power order of 29 May 2023.

## The 29 May 2023 rule

- Applies to green hydrogen and green ammonia plants commissioned on or before 31.12.2030 that use renewable energy from solar, wind, large hydro commissioned after 8 March 2019, or energy storage systems such as pumped storage plants or battery energy storage systems, or any hybrid of these.
- Such plants shall be granted exemption from ISTS charges for 25 years, starting from the date of commissioning.
- Plants commissioned after 31.12.2030 shall be levied ISTS charges as per a trajectory: 25% of the applicable charges for 2031, 50% for 2032, 75% for 2033, and 100% from 1 January 2034.
- The waiver is only for ISTS charges, not for ISTS losses.

## Buying power from storage

Drawee entities, including green hydrogen and green ammonia plants and distribution companies, that contract energy or capacity from an energy storage project shall be granted the exemption if they draw a minimum of 51% of the annual energy contracted with, or consumed from, the storage as renewable energy.

## How it sits with the November 2021 order

The 23 November 2021 order covered green hydrogen plants commissioned up to 30.06.2025 and gave the waiver for a period of 8 years from commissioning. The 2023 order gives 25 years to plants commissioned on or before 31.12.2030. The 2023 order does not use the word supersede for the 8 year period. Our reading is that the 2023 order is the later and wider rule for these plants, so use it unless the Ministry says otherwise for your project.

## Two checks for a plant buying from storage

- Commissioned 1 April 2032: the 2032 band applies, so 50% of the applicable ISTS charges
- Contracted from storage in a year: 80 million units
- Minimum drawn as renewable energy: 80 x 0.51 = 40.8 million units
- Drawn as renewable energy: 38 million units, below 40.8, so the drawee exemption is not met on those figures

The plant and the volumes are an example. The percentages and the 51% test are the order's.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads your electricity bills and fuel invoices into dated records, so the units on your bills are on file. It does not read transmission orders or tell you which waiver band a project falls in; that comes from the developer's commissioning date.

- [Green hydrogen certificate and carbon credits](https://senseible.earth/answers/green-hydrogen-certificate-ccts-credits)
- [Battery storage transmission waiver to 2028](https://senseible.earth/answers/ists-waiver-co-located-battery-storage-2028)
- [Transmission waiver orders by date](https://senseible.earth/answers/ists-waiver-orders-timeline-2016-to-2025)
- [Is the transmission charge waiver still available?](https://senseible.earth/answers/ists-charge-waiver-green-open-access)
- [Emissions calculators](https://senseible.earth/calculators)

Sources: [Ministry of Power, orders on waiver of inter-state transmission charges, 2020 to 2025 (compiled PDF)](https://www.powermin.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/08/06964870d76b47e26ed5a5874f3c5e4c.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-06. Read from the Ministry of Power orders of 29 May 2023 and 23 November 2021 in the compiled PDF, on 6 November 2026. Later orders may change these dates. The reading that the 2023 order replaces the 8 year period is our own and is marked as such.