The price of electricity sold on the Indian Energy Exchange fell to ₹3.03 a unit in March on the back of transmission constraints imposed by few States.

The average Market Clearing Price (MCP) for the month was almost 8 per cent lower than ₹3.29 per unit in the previous month.

“The exchange expected significant increase in demand of electricity in lieu of the impending Lok Sabha elections this month, however, transmission constraints as well as open access restrictions in Gujarat and Karnataka led to stagnancy in the spot market,” IEX said in a statement.

In March, Karnataka prohibited its generators from selling electricity outside the State. Gujarat imposed restriction on open access buyers in two of their distribution companies restricting them from buying electricity under short-term open access due to technical constraints.

The unavailability of the transmission corridor continued to be a deterrent in March also. “Moreover import of electricity into Southern region, and Northern region along with exchange of electricity between southern states was affected due to congestion,” it said.

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