Spot power price plunges 40% to Rs 3.59 per unit in November on low demand

Average spot power price in November plunged 40 per cent to Rs 3.59 per unit as compared to the previous month, mainly on account of low demand in northern and western states due to onset of winter, Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) said Tuesday.

"The average Market Clearing Price (MCP) at Rs 3.59 per unit registered 1.12 per cent increase over Rs 3.55 per unit in the same month last year (November 2017)," IEX said in a statement.

"However, the MCP last month declined 40 per cent from Rs 5.94 per unit in October mainly on account of onset of winter leading to lower demand for power, especially in northern and western states," it added.

As per the statement, the availability of coal with thermal power generators improved during the month under review, and 'One Nation, One Price' was realised for 17 days.

The day-ahead market (DAM) experienced transmission congestion of 3.3 per cent mainly in the import towards southern region. On daily average basis, 622 participants traded in the market during the month.

The DAM saw a trade of 3,404 MU (million units) registering a decline of 3 per cent year-on-year. On daily average basis, about 113 MU were traded on IEX.

The all India peak demand touched 162 GW on November 2, registering an increase of 9 per cent over November 2017 as per NLDC (National Load Dispatch Centre) statistics.

The energy supplied at 1,00,547 MU last month saw an increase of 7 per cent over 94,371 MU supplied in the year-ago period.

The Term-Ahead Market (TAM) traded 170 MU in November 2018, registering 46 per cent decline over the year-ago period.

The exchange informed that a total of 3,88,213 RECs (renewable energy certificates) were cleared in the REC trading session held on November 28.

The trading session saw decline of 79 per cent year-on-year. Both non-solar and solar RECs saw reversal in REC demand-supply situation with buy bids exceeding the sell bids. Captive users were the major buyers in November 2018 REC trading session followed by distribution companies and open access consumers.

So far this fiscal, IEX has cumulatively traded 59.34 lakh RECs over 34.38 lakh traded in the year-ago period, registering an increase of 73 per cent.