Can market coupling enable fair price discovery at power exchanges?

Supporters of the market coupling point to higher efficiencies and optimal price discovery, its critics argue that it will eliminate competition and innovation at power exchanges

It is normal for new initiatives to generate for-and-against debates but few ideas in the history of the Indian power sector have generated the kind of split that market coupling, floated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), has.

 

With a petition filed by the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) against the move up for hearing at the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (Aptel) later this month, sector experts are hopeful of finally understanding whether coupling will go ahead or not.

 

CERC had in February last year asked Grid-India to implement, on a shadow pilot basis, coupling of the real time market