The electricity market at the country’s first and largest energy exchange, the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) traded 5,467 million units (MU) in August 2020, witnessing a 1 per cent increase over volume traded in the same month last year. The national peak demand in the same period saw a 6 per cent YoY decline while the energy consumption declines 2 per cent in August, according to the data issued by the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC).
The day-ahead market traded 4,484 MU during the month with an average market clearing price at Rs 2.43 per unit. The price saw a significant 27 per cent YoY decline over Rs 3.32 in August 2019. The low prices made electricity procurement from the exchange an attractive proposition for both the distribution utilities and industries yielding significant savings.
The day-ahead market sees adequate availability of power with high sell-side liquidity. The total sell bids at 10,123 MU were twice of the buy bids at 5,081 MU.
The distribution utilities in the southern, western and northern states continued to leverage the exchange market to meet their short-term electricity requirements. Moreover, as the COVID-19 restrictions ease, industries have been procuring power at attractive prices that have facilitated the revival of industrial growth.
One nation, one price prevailed for all 31 days during the month.
The trading in the term-ahead market at 115 MU increased 97 per cent on MoM basis, indicating continued acceptance of term-ahead market (TAM) contracts by the distribution utilities for meeting their short-term power requirements.
Real-Time Market The real-time electricity market registered a notable rise of 9 per cent on a MoM basis, with a total trade of 856 MU during August. This is the highest monthly volume achieved in real-time trade so far since its launch on June 1 this year. IEX accomplished cumulative trade of 2,157 MU in the first three months. With 242 customers participating during the month, the real-time market continues to see adequate availability of power with sell bids volume at about 2.5x of buy bids.
The average market clearing price stood at Rs 2.26 per unit, a 9 per cent decline on a MoM basis. The market saw 53.09 MU as the highest volume being traded on a single day on August 5. The real-time market was of immense significance for the utilities and industries in managing real-time power demand-supply variations in the most efficient, and competitive manner.
Green Market The trading in the green term-ahead market commenced on August 21 at IEX. Presently the trading in intraday and day-ahead contracts in both solar and non-solar categories is live while the trading and daily and weekly contracts will commence shortly. The market has witnessed an encouraging response since launch and has registered trade of 3 MU in the first 11 days.
A total of 38 customers participated in the new market segment in the first month with the highest number of participants on a single day being 20. The key participants included distribution utilities of Haryana, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Calcutta Electric Supply Corp. (CESC), Tata Power Distribution Corp. and open access consumers such as Amplus Green Power Pvt. Ltd, Jindal Stainless Ltd, Dalmia Cement, amongst others.
RE Certificates The renewable energy certificate (REC) trading session, which was scheduled on August 26, could not take place because of the stay order from the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) in response to the petitions filed by a few renewable energy associations against the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) order dated June 2020 regarding revision in the floor and forbearance prices of RECs.
