Green certificates trade to resume on IEX, PXIL from Wednesday

The Indian Energy Exchange as well as Power Exchange of India Ltd are set to resume trading of renewable

energy certificates from Wednesday after a gap of 16 months.

Renewable Energy Certificate or green certificate trades were suspended in July 2020 after APTEL decided to postpone the trading by four weeks while hearing three separate petitions related to an issue of fixing floor and forbearance prices of RECs by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).

Appellate Tribunal For Electricity (APTEL) and CERC have given the go-ahead to begin RECs trading in their orders issued on November 9 and November 18, respectively.

RECs trading is done on the last Wednesday of the month. So the trading of green certificates would resume again from November 24, 2021.

IEX in statement said the last REC trade session took place in June 2020. The trade has been resumed in line with APTEL's recent order dated November 9, 2021 and CERC order dated November 18, 2021.

Commenting on the development, Rohit Bajaj, Head- Business Development and Senior Vice President, IEX said REC has been a vital market-based instrument for obligated entities such as distribution utilities, open access consumers, and captive power plants for meeting their RPO (renewable purchase obligation) in the most competitive and efficient manner.

"IEX pioneered trade in the REC market in the year 2010. The exchange has cumulatively traded 390 lakh renewable energy certificates since commencement of the market in the year 2010, and has been playing a significant role in supporting the transition to a sustainable energy economy,Bajaj said.

PXIL also informed the market participants regarding resumption of trading in RECs from November 24, 2021.

MD & CEO of PXIL Prabhajit Kumar Sarkar in a statement said the REC mechanism is a market-based instrument to promote renewable energy and facilitate compliance of Renewable Purchase Obligation target for the year.

Under RPO, bulk purchasers like discoms, open access consumers and capacitive users are required to buy a certain proportion of renewable energy or RECs in lieu of that.

They can buy RECs from renewable energy producers to meet RPO norms. One REC is created when 1 megawatt hour of electricity is generated from an eligible renewable energy source.