New Delhi: Weeks after commencing the Cross Border Electricity Trade (CBET) on its platform, the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) has said that India's neighbours Bhutan and Bangladesh will follow in the footsteps of Nepal and join the platform soon. IEX said that the Cross Border Electricity Trade market is expected to grow at a fast pace in the coming months. Nepal was the first country to trade in the day-ahead market on the Exchange on April 17.
In April, IEX commenced the Cross Border Electricity Trade on its platform, marking a significant milestone in its endeavour to build an integrated South Asian regional power market. As a first-of-its kind initiative, the new market segment allows the Exchange market to expand its reach beyond India to the South Asia region, thus supporting the growth of energy ecosystem in the region in an efficient and sustainable manner.
The green term-ahead market traded 186 MU volume during April, comprising 78 MU in the solar segment and 108 MU in the non-solar segment, achieving a significant 262 percent month-on-month (m-o-m) growth. A total of 34 participants participated during the month with distribution utilities from Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana among others as the key participants. The market has been enabling distribution utilities, industrial consumers, and green generators to trade in renewable energy in the most competitive and viable way.
The day-ahead market traded 5,699 MU volume in April, achieving a significant 54 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) growth. The average monthly price at Rs 3.70 per unit witnessed 53 percent increase over Rs 2.42 in the corresponding period in 2020. The increase in price was primarily due to an increase in demand and a sharp slump in electricity prices in April 2020 due to a stringent nationwide lockdown. The day-ahead market saw ample availability of power with sell-bids at 1.48X of the cleared volume during the month.
The term-ahead market comprising intra-day, contingency, daily and weekly contracts traded 349 MU during the month. The real-time market saw the highest-ever monthly volume of 1,473 MU in April, achieving 4.2 percent m-o-m growth. It also recorded the highest single day volume of 68.36 MU on April 3. With sell-side bids at 1.8X of cleared volume, the market continued to have ample availability of power.
"The growing volume in the real-time electricity market shows its acceptance by distribution utilities and industrial consumers as the go-to platform for addressing the real-time electricity demand-supply balance in the most competitive and efficient manner with the delivery of power at just 1-hour notice," said the IEX.
The electricity market at Indian Energy Exchange entered the new fiscal year 2022 with 7,707 MU volume in the month of April, achieving a 90.2 percent y-o-y growth. According to the power demand data published by the National Load Dispatch Centre, the national peak power demand at 183 GW while the peak demand and power consumption registered close to 40 percent y-o-y growth on a weak base.
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