The electricity market at the Indian Energy Exchange witnessed a total trade of 5,334 MU in July 2020. This volume was 11 per cent higher than in June 2020 but remained at par with those of July 2019.
National electricity consumption and peak demand, it may be mentioned, saw a 3 per cent decline in July 2020.
Sell bids on DAM were 1.9 times the buy bids, indicating high liquidity
The day-ahead market (DAM) traded 4,487 MU during the month. The DAM segment continued to see high sell-side liquidity. The total sell bids at 9,734 MU were close to 1.9 times the buy-bids which stood at 5,199 MU.
With robust sell-side liquidity, the average market clearing price in the day-ahead market during the month at Rs.2.47 per unit registered a 27 per cent year-on-year decline over a price of Rs.3.38 in July 2019. The attractive price continued to ensure significant savings to discoms and industries during this time, a release from IEX noted.
Discoms from largely western and southern India leveraged IEX to optimize their power portfolio.
The distribution utilities from western, southern as well as a few northern states such as Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, leveraged the IEX to optimize their power portfolio and build on the financial liquidity which is so critical at this hour. Moreover, as electricity demand and consumption rise to the pre-COVID levels driven by the increasing industrial and economic activity, availability of ample power at affordable prices will assist the economic revival and growth, the release observed.
“One-Nation One-Price” prevailed during all 31 days during the month making IEX the most reliable partner in power procurement as well as the cost optimization, IEX observed in the release.
According to data published by NLDC, the national peak demand and energy consumed registered a decline of 3 per cent on a year-on-year basis, and an increase of 3 per cent and 7 per cent respectively on month-on-month basis. This increase in electricity consumption has mainly been due to the easing of the lockdown restrictions across the country.
Real Time Market
The RTM segment saw its highest single-day trading volume on July 28, 2020.
The real-time electricity market registered a 52 per cent month-on-month rise with a total trade of 785 MU during July 2020. With 241 customers participating, RTM saw sell bids volume about two-times the buy bids, indicative of the ample liquidity in the RTM segment as well. While the sell bids saw a 17 per cent month-on-month rise, buy-bids witnessed a whopping 36 per cent month-on-month demonstrating growth and the rising preference of market participants for RTM.
The real time electricity market saw 42.69 MU being the highest volume being traded in a single day on July 28, 2020. The average monthly market clearing price stood at Rs 2.49 per unit for RTM alone.
Renewable Energy Certificates
The REC trading session which was scheduled on July 29, 2020 could not take place because of the stay order from APTEL in response to the petitions filed by a few renewable energy associations against the CERC order dated June 2020, regarding correction of the floor and forbearance prices of RECs.
“We are of the view that REC trade sessions should not have been halted as it prevents needy distribution utilities as well as the open access customers to meet their statutory requirement of RPO,” the IEX release added.
(Note: MU = million units = million kwh)
