Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) has witnessed sales of 5,401 MU electricity during Aug’19, recording a 33% increase on Y-o-Y basis from 4,061 MU in Aug’18.
IEX noted that the increase in volume on exchange was mainly attributed to the rise in demand for electricity largely from the eastern and southern states. Incidentally, the southern state of Telengana had seen an uptick in demand arising from the agricultural consumers along-with part commissioning of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project.
It is pertaining to note that the market participants – both distribution companies and industrial consumers access the exchange platform by means of both the day-ahead and the term ahead electricity market to secure power supply at competitive price.
The day-ahead market traded 4,675 MU of electricity in Aug’19, registering 18% increase from 3,975 MU traded in Aug’18.
Term-ahead market traded 726 MU in Aug’19 from 87 MU in Aug’18, recording an exponential increase of 738% on Y-o-Y basis. The market is leveraged by the distribution utilities to manage demand-supply variability close to real time.
Lower Spot Prices in CY19:
Despite the hefty rise in electricity sales, spot price of the traded volume had remain subdued during Aug’19.
IEX’s spot sales in the day-ahead market noted at INR 3.32 per unit electricity was slightly below-par compared with INR 3.34 per unit price in Aug’18. In fact, it was the 7th straight month in which spot prices had fallen on the y-o-y basis.
IEX had highlighted that higher availability from long term sources and better domestic coal availability had resulted in lower demand for power in the spot market. In addition, the spot sales were also affected by several imported coal plants coming into operation which was not the case last year.
The drop in electricity generation further underscores weak demand conditions. Notably, Indian power generation from conventional sources has decreased 3% on the month to 105.5 BU (Billion Units) in Aug’19.
Extending its continual fall, spot prices were hovering at its lowest mark for CY19, recorded at INR 2.93 per unit as on 24 Sep’19.
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