The country’s first and largest energy exchange, the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) has received approval from the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to launch the Green Term-Ahead Market (G-TAM) on its platform.
The exchange has already conducted a mock trading session on August 18, which saw good participation from its members and partners and plans to commence the trading from Friday, August 21.
As a signatory to the Paris Climate Agreement 2016, India has committed to install 40 per cent, i.e., 450 GW of renewable capacity by the year 2030. Further, consumers both in India as well as globally are increasingly preferring energy generated using sustainable sources of energy over conventional.
The market will offer trading in four types of green term-ahead contracts – green intra-day contracts, day-ahead contingency contracts, daily contracts and weekly contracts. There will be separate contracts for solar and non-solar energy to facilitate solar and non-solar renewable purchase obligations fulfilment.
Speaking on the development, Rajiv Srivastava, Managing Director & CEO, IEX said, “The energy ecosystem around us is evolving and a rapid transformation has been underway. The policymakers and regulatory authorities are pro-actively deliberating the introduction of competitive market-based models towards meeting sustainable energy economy aspirations.
He further added, “CERC approval to introduce green market on Exchange platform is indeed a welcome, much-awaited and a landmark development from a holistic larger canvas of energy sector. As India moves towards building a sustainable energy economy, we are excited about this new chapter which offers a choice to consumers and will play a key role in achieving the national renewable aspirations.”
The introduction of GTAM along with the recently launched real-time trading in electricity will work in tandem to support the seamless integration of renewable power. GTAM will support the renewable energy generators as well as the distribution utilities in trading through the market platform. The new market segment will support states with surplus renewables to sell while the buyers will be able to procure energy as well as meet the renewable purchase obligations.