Renewable energy certificates trading volumes slide in January

Indicating sluggish demand, trading volumes of renewable energy certificates witnessed significant decline in January even as their prices remained stable at the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX).
As many as 78,955 non-solar and 5,517 solar RECs were traded on the bourse last month. This is way lower than 2,50,722 non-solar and 6,893 solar certificates traded in December.
The decline in REC trading volumes was around 67 per cent in January as compared to December last year.
Latest data from IEX, a leading power exchange, however, showed that prices of these certificates remained stable during the two months.
The clearing price of a non-solar REC stood at Rs 1,500 each while that of solar certificate remained at Rs 9,300.

These certificates are used as instruments to help entities meet the Renewable Purchase Obligation set by states. One REC is equivalent to 1 MWh of energy generated from renewable sources.

"In the solar segment, buy bids of 5,517 RECs and sell bids of 88,895 RECs were received (in January). All buy bids were cleared at Rs 9,300 per REC," IEX said in a statement.
With regard to non-solar RECs, there were 78,955 buy bids and 25,57,666 sell bids. These were cleared at a price of Rs 1,500 per certificate last month.
In January, IEX saw the participation of 766 entities in the REC trading session with 594 participants in non-solar segment.