New transmission capacities must for competitive power mkt:IEX

With transmission congestion curtailing millions of units of electricity supply every month, Indian Energy Exchange has said there is a need to build new transmission capacities to ensure a well-functioning power market in the country.
IEX is the country's largest power bourse with a market share of about 96 per cent.
The exchange's Director (Business Development) Rajesh K Mediratta said transmission capacities are a key enabler for power market.
"We need to build explicitly new capacities for long and short-term markets both as it works in developed power systems. Planning needs a paradigm shift for creating well- functioning competitive markets," he told PTI.

As much as 5,300 million units of electricity remained unsold due to congestion in the transmission system in financial year 2014, according to IEX.
In August alone, about 223 million units of electricity were curtailed due to unavailability of inter-regional transmission corridor.

During that month, Southern states -- particularly Tamil Nadu and Kerala -- were the worst affected, the bourse had said.
"Now, in current stage of development, when we have added sufficient generating capacities, we need to focus on strengthening fuel supply chain to feed generating station and transmission network to offload the production," he said.
IEX sees an average daily trade of about 80,000 MWh electricity. The bourse has more than 3,000 participants.

Among others, the exchange offers products in Day-Ahead and Term-Ahead markets.
Under Day-Ahead Market (DAM), participants carry out trade in electricity on 15-minute block basis, a day prior to the delivery of power.
Contracts under Term-Ahead Market (TAM) are for a duration of up to 11 days.