IEX Power Market Update for Jan ’23: IEX Clocks In Fiscal’s Highest Monthly Vol of 8639 MU

The Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), India’s premier energy exchange, achieved 8639 MU cumulative volume in January 2023. This is inclusive of Green Power trade worth 347 MU, and 3.95 lac RECs (equivalent to 395 MU).

IEX is India’s premier energy exchange providing a nationwide, automated trading platform for physical delivery of electricity, renewable energy and certificates including renewable energy certificates as well as the energy saving certificates.

The volume of total electricity volume on the Exchange in January ’23 at 8245 MU, saw an increase of 9% on Year on Year and 4% on Month on Month basis. The overall volume on the Exchange during the month was 8639 MU, an increase of 2% on MoM basis. In January ’23, the Exchange witnessed its highest volume in this fiscal year. This may be attributed to better conditions with reference to supply. This has been led by gradually augmenting coal supply and easing e-auction coal prices. Since November 2022, the volume has been steadily witnessing a month-on-month increase.

Improving coal inventory at power plants due to the Government’s proactive initiatives, is expected to lower clearing price on the Exchange in the coming months. This will provide further cost optimisation opportunities to DISCOMS and Open Access consumers, resulting in higher volumes on the Exchange.

According to the power demand data published by the National Load Dispatch Center, the energy met in the country during January’23 was at 126 BU, increasing 13% on YoY basis.

Electricity Market: Day-ahead, Term Ahead & Real time market

The Day-Ahead Market volume slumped from 5001 MU in December 2022 to 4893 MU in January ‘23, that is, 2% degrowth on MoM basis. The Day Ahead Market volume was lower by 7% on YoY basis due to high prices resulting from a constrains in supply. This led to high spot e-auction coal prices during the month when pitted against the same month last year.

The Real-Time Electricity Market stood at 2102 MU volume during the month, recording 33% YoY and 19% MoM growth. There were 707 participants in this segment during the month. The coherent growth of real-time electricity market points that utilisation by distribution utilities  has been effective. At the same time, it also indicates that industries balance their power demand-supply in real-time most efficiently.

The Term-Ahead Market (TAM), comprising intra-day, contingency, daily & weekly contracts, and contracts upto 3 months, traded 902 MU during the month. This is a high increase of 131% on YoY basis and 10% on MoM basis.

Green Market: Green Day-Ahead & Green Term-Ahead Market

IEX Green Market, comprising the Green Day-Ahead and Green Term-Ahead Market segments, achieved 347 MU volume during January ‘23, growing 24% on YoY basis.

The Green Day-Ahead Market achieved 286 MU volume with a weighted average price of Rs 6.30 per unit. The market saw participation from 208 market participants during the month, with the highest number of participants in a single day at 154 on 25^th January.

The Green Term-Ahead Market achieved 61 MU volume with an average monthly price of Rs 6.22/unit for Non-Solar and Rs 8.19/unit for Hydro.

Renewable Energy Certificate Market (REC Market)

In the trading session at IEX held on Friday, 27^th January of this year, a total of 3.95 lac RECs were cleared. This is as against 11.26 lac RECs in the same period last year. The next REC trading session at the Exchange is scheduled on Wednesday, 22^nd February ‘23.