COVID: As power consumption shows recovery, IEX electricity trade rises by 11% in July

• At Rs. 2.47 per unit, the average market clearing price sees 27% YoY decline over Rs 3.38 per unit in July 2019, enabling robust savings to the market participants

• The real time electricity market trades 785 MU volume; the market sets a new milestone of 42.69 MU — the highest volume traded on July 28

New Delhi: The volume of electricity traded on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) in July has registered an increase of 11 percent over June and has remained at par with the volume traded in July 2019, as electricity consumption inches closer to pre-COVID levels. The electricity market witnessed a total trade of 5,334 MU in July. The news comes as the national electricity consumption and peak demand saw 3 percent decline in July in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. The day-ahead market traded 4,487 MU during the month. The market continued to see high sell side liquidity — with the total sell bids at 9,734 MU, close to 1.9X of the buy bids which stood at 5,199 MU.

With robust sell side liquidity, the average market clearing price in the day-ahead market during the month at Rs 2.47 per unit registered a 27 percent year-on-year decline over a price of Rs 3.38 in June 2019. The attractive price continued to ensure significant savings to discoms and industries during this time.

The distribution utilities from western, southern as well as a few northern states such as Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, leveraged the Exchange Market to optimise their power portfolio and build on the financial liquidity which is so critical at this hour. Moreover, as electricity demand and consumption rise to the pre-COVID levels driven by the increasing industrial and economic activity, availability of ample power at affordable prices will assist the economic revival and growth.

NLDC data shows energy consumption improved M-o-M

According to the data published by NLDC, the national peak demand and energy consumed registered a decline of 3 percent on a year-on-year basis, and an increase of 3 percent and 7 percent, respectively, on month-on-month basis. This increase in electricity consumption has mainly been due to the easing of the lockdown restrictions across the country.

IEX RTM sees trade rise by 52% M-o-M

The real-time electricity market registered a 52 percent month-on-month rise, with a total trade of 785 MU during July. With 241 customers participating, RTM saw sell bids volume about 2X of buy bids, indicative of the ample liquidity in the real-time market as well. While the sell bids saw a 17 percent month-on-month rise, buy bids witnessed a whopping 36 percent month-on-month increase, demonstrating growth and the rising preference of market participants for RTM.

The real time electricity market saw 42.69 MU being the highest volume being traded in a single day on July 28. The average monthly market clearing price stood at Rs 2.49 per unit for RTM alone.

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