REC market witnesses 550% increase in volume & highest ever solar REC trade

The Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) trading session held at India Energy Exchange (IEX) on this month saw trade of 2.92 lakh RECs (2,11,533 N-solar and 80,867.
 

Solar RECs). The market registered an increase of 550 per cent over the previous month’s trading session when 45,202 RECs (38,481 N-solar and 6,721 Solar RECs) were traded.
 

IEX in a statement said that the surge in the volume was primarily due to the recent judgment of the Supreme Court which directed the captive generating companies to comply with Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) as mandated by the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs). 
 

"In the backdrop of this landmark judgment, several captive generating companies have participated in this trading session at IEX which led to substantial increase in trade volume," said IEX.
 

The same session also marked highest ever trade in the Solar REC segment at IEX ever since the start of trade. In the non-solar segment, a total of 2,11,533 buy bids and 58,14,861 sell bids were received. All the buy bids were cleared at floor price of Rs 1,500 per REC. In the solar segment, total buy bids of 80,867 RECs and sell bids of 14,66,946 RECs were received and all buy bids were cleared at floor price of Rs3,500 per REC. 
 

RPO, launched in 2010, makes it obligatory for distribution companies, open-access consumers and captive power producers to meet part of their energy needs through green energy. The states or utilities that are unable to fulfil their RPO can buy REC, which represents 1mw-hour of power produced from a renewable energy source and are tradable at power exchanges.