New Delhi: The electricity market at the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) traded 5,467 MU in August'20 witnessing a 1 percent increase over volume traded in August'19. The national peak demand in the same period saw a 6 percent year-on-year decline while the energy consumption declined 2 percent in August, according to the data issued by the NLDC.
The day-ahead market traded 4,484 MU during the month with average market clearing price at Rs 2.43 per unit. The price saw a significant 27 percent year-on-year decline over Rs 3.32 in August 2019. The attractive prices made electricity procurement from the exchange an attractive proposition for both the distribution utilities and industries yielding significant savings, said IEX in an official statement on Thursday.
The day-ahead market saw 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 from states such as southern, western and northern India continued to leverage the exchange market to meet their short-term electricity requirements. Moreover, as the COVID restrictions ease, industries have been procuring power at attractive prices which has been facilitating revival of industrial growth.
One Nation, One Price prevailed during all 31 days during the month.
The trade in the term-ahead market at 115 MU increased 97 percent on a month-on-month basis, indicating continued acceptance of TAM contracts by distribution utilities for meeting their short-term power requirements.
The real-time electricity market registered a notable rise of 9 percent on a month-on-month 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. The Exchange 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 witnessed a 9 percent decline on month-on-month basis. The market saw 53.09 MU as the highest volume being traded on a single day on August 5. RTM has been of immense significance for the utilities and industries in managing real-time power demand-supply variations in the most efficient, and competitive manner.
The trading in the green term-ahead market (GTAM) commenced on August 21 at the IEX. Presently the trade in intraday and day-ahead contracts in both solar and non-solar category 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, CESC, Tata Power Distribution Corporation and open access consumers such as Amplus Green Power Pvt Ltd, Jindal Stainless Ltd, Dalmia Cement, CESC, amongst others.
The REC trading session which was scheduled on August 26 could not take place because of the stay order from APTEL in response to the petitions filed by a few Renewable Energy Associations against the CERC order dated June 2020 regarding revision in the floor and forbearance prices of RECs.
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