Green certificates sales up 68% at 6.76 lakh in February

Sale of renewable energy certificates (RECs) increased by 68% to 6.76 lakh this month from 4.01 lakh in January.

Power distribution companies as well as open access and captive consumers are under obligation to buy RECs from renewable energy producers under the Renewable Energy Purchase Obligation (RPO) mandated by central/state regulatory commission.

Two power exchanges – Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL), approved by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission – hold auction of RECs on the last Wednesday of every month.

A total of 2,74,108 RECs were traded in the REC market session on February 24, 2016 held at IEX.

"With compliance year 2015-16 coming to an end, the traded volume this month witnessed an increase of about 34% over the previous month when a total of 2,05,192 RECs were traded," an IEX statement said.

So far in the current fiscal, a total of 24.29 lakh RECs have been traded, almost double of 12.29 lakh RECs traded in the same period in 2014-15, IEX said.

Meanwhile, PXIL said, "PXIL successfully conducted REC trading for the month of February 2016. The total cleared volume on the exchange was 4,02,629 RECs that led to PXIL having a market share of 59.49%."

It further said, "Prior to today's auction, more than 1.76 crore RECs were available in the market for trade. However, the traded volume is low on account of non-fulfillment of RPO compliance by major utilities. We expect trading volume to increase in March session, as this would be last opportunity for all obligated entities to meet RPO target of the year.