May spot power price falls 29 pc to Rs 3.34 per unit

Average spot power price fell by 29 per cent to Rs 3.34 per unit in May compared to the year-ago month, the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) said Thursday.

With trading of 3,772 million units (MU) of electricity, the volume in the day-ahead-market (DAM) fell 6 per cent on month-on-month basis, while the fall was 23 per cent on year-on-year basis. On a daily average basis, around 122 MUs were traded in May 2019, the exchange said.

"The average Market Clearing Price (MCP) at Rs 3.34 per unit (in May 2019) declined 29 per cent over 4.67 per unit in May 2018 mainly on account of reduced demand in the short-term market," the IEX said.

Among the key reasons for decline in volume is the fact that availability from long term sources was higher in May 2019. Hydro, wind, solar and coal generation availability was higher by 31 per cent, 32 per cent, 48 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively, IEX said citing National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) data.

Further, several imported coal plants were fully operational which was not the case last year.

"Thus, higher availability from long-term sources and better domestic coal availability resulted in lower demand for power in the market," IEX said.

According to the NLDC data, the all India peak demand met reached a new high of 183 GW in May 2019, an increase of 7 per cent over 171 GW peak demand met in May 2018.

On an all India basis, the energy met was 118 billion units (BU) in May 2019. It is a rise of 4 per cent compared to 113 BU last year.

The electricity market at IEX the day-ahead-market (DAM) and term-ahead-market (TAM) combined traded 4,090 MU saw 21 per cent decline over 5,169 MU traded in May 2018.

A total of 5,50,952 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) were traded on May 29. Out of them 4,16,264 were non-solar and 1,34,688 solar certificates.

"The trade saw an increase of 145 per cent on m-o-m basis and a decline of 23 per cent on Y-o-Y basis. Both non-solar and solar RECs continued to see low supply situation with buy bids exceeding the sell bids due to very low inventory," the statement said.