An independent power producer or non-utility generator is an that is not a public utility but owns facilities to generate electric powerfor sale to utilities and end users. NUGs may be privately held facilities, corporations, cooperatives such as rural solar or wind energy producers, and non-energy industrial concerns capable of feeding excess energy into the system. An independent water and power producer is similar to an IPP, but with a unified process to also output usable treated water.
Rare in Germany for decades, the IPP business model has grown more common since the EEG. Success in the approach depends on finding a partner for distributing the produced energy to the customer.
Canada
In 2002, the government of British Columbia stipulated that new clean renewable energy generation in the province would be developed by "independent power producers" not BC Hydro, save for large hydro-electric facilities. The role of the private sector in developing BC’s "public" resources is one of the more controversial issues that British Columbians are currently grappling with.
NUGs were rare before the enactment of the USPublic Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. The few existing NUGs were seldom able to distribute power, as the cost of building the conveyance infrastructure was prohibitive. Public utilities generated power and owned the generating facilities, the transmission lines, and the local distribution-delivery systems. PURPA, however, established a class of non‐utility generators, called Qualifying Facilities, that were permitted to produce power for resale. PURPA was intended to reduce domestic dependence on foreign energy, to encourage energy conservation, and to reduce the ability of electric utilities to abuse the purchase of power from QFs. A QF is defined as a generating facility that produces electricity and another form of useful thermal energy through the sequential use of energy, and meets certain ownership, operating, and efficiency criteria established by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Section 210 of PURPA now requires utilities to purchase energy from QFs at the utility's avoided cost. This allows QFs to receive a reasonable to excellent price for the energy they produce and ensures that energy generated by small producers won't be wasted.
Pakistan
In 1994, the Government of Pakistan announced an investor-friendly policy to develop IPPs based on oil, coal and gas. Following the policy, 16 IPPs were established. The next year, a hydro power policy was announced, which resulted in the development of the country's first Hydro IPP. In 2002, the new government adopted a new policy, under which another 12 IPPs began operations. In 2015, Pakistan adopted a new power policy by which another 13 IPPs were established, mostly by Chinese companies. A transmission policy for development of transmission line in the private sector was also announced. More than 40 IPPs were operating in Pakistan as of 2018.
India
India also has many IPP's like ReNew Power, Adani, Hero, Mytrah, Ostro, Greenko, Alfanar Etc.
