Average spot power price falls 14 pc to Rs 2.86 per unit in January on IEX

Average spot power price in January dipped 14 per cent to Rs 2.86 per unit as compared to the year-ago month on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), according to official data.

"The day-ahead market (DAM) traded 4,791 MU (million units) with an average market clearing price at Rs 2.86 per unit (in January 2020) against Rs 3.33 per unit in January 2019, a 14 per cent decline in price," an IEX statement said.

The electricity market on the IEX recorded a total trade of 5,062 MU in January. The market witnessed a significant 50 per cent year-on-year jump in traded volumes and continued to be favourable for the buyers.

This also validates increased preference by distribution utilities and open access consumers alike for the Exchange that offers power procurement at the most-competitive prices, it added.

The increase in traded volumes on the Exchange was largely due to a surge in demand by the distribution utilities as well as the open access consumers from almost all parts of the country, primarily southern, western and northern states.

In the DAM market, total monthly sale bids were 11,670 MU, while buy bids were 5,716 MU. The sale bids were over twice the buy bids and thus ensured lower price which provided a compelling proposition to the distribution utilities to meet their demand as well as replace costlier generation.

The data also showed that "One Nation-One Price" prevailed for 24 days during the month. The market saw volume loss of 24 MU, representing a mere 0.5 per cent of the cleared volume, on account of congestion in the inter-state transmission network mainly towards import of power to the southern states.

Term-ahead market volumes rose 166 per cent year-on-year to 271 MU on account of increased procurement by the distribution utilities.

On an all-India basis, the peak demand at 171 GW in January 2020, rose 5 per cent y-o-y over demand of 162 GW in January 2019. The energy met at 106 BU (billion unit) in January saw an increase of 3 per cent over 103 in January 2019, it added.