Average spot power price drops 29% to 2.35/unit on India Energy Exchange

Average spot power price dropped 29 per cent year-on-year to 2.35 per unit in the day-ahead market in June on India Energy Exchange (IEX).

The day-ahead market (DAM) traded 4,174 MU (million units) witnessing high sell-side liquidity in the month, with total sell bids at 10,164 MU being close to 1.5 timed the buy bids at 4,661 MU, according to an IEX statement.

"The average market clearing price during the month was at Rs. 2.35 per unit registered a whopping 29 per cent YoY (year on year) decline over a price of Rs. 3.32 in June 2019," it said.

The increased availability of power and attractive prices in the market ensured that the industries as well as the distribution utilities continue to have access to lower electricity prices leading to greater savings as well as assisting them in building the much needed financial liquidity which is critical at this hour, it added.

The open access volume in June witnessed 30 per cent month-on-month increase.

Further, One Nation One Price prevailed for all 30 days during the month.

The real-time market (RTM), which began operations from June, has received an overwhelming response from the participants and in its first month, it said.

The RTM attracted trade volume of 515.5 MU comprising over 10 per cent of the total volume traded on IEX.

A total of 237 customers participated in the new market segment during the first month with single day highest volume of 36.09 MU on June 30, 2020.

The average monthly market clearing price stood at Rs 2.22 per unit for RTM alone.

The attractive prices (in RTM) enabled the utilities in meeting efficient demand management at 1-hour notice, renewable integration, utilisation of generation capacity, facilitating gencos to purchase power as well as the grid security.

The IEX electricity market witnessed a total trade of 4,790 MU in June 2020 recording a 5 per cent year-on-year increase, despite the national peak demand registering a 10 per cent year-on-year decline during the month.

The renewable energy certificate (REC) trading session at IEX on June 24, 2020, saw a total trade of 2.29 lakh RECs comprising 1,62,873 non-solar and 66,815 solar RECs.