India’s premier power exchange, Indian Energy Exchange Ltd , seems to be making a windfall on the ‘real-time market’ volumes. In August, the third month of the introduction of RTM, 856 million units were traded in the RTM market, compared with 785 mu in July and 515 mu in June, taking the total RTM volumes since the start of the facility to 2.15 billion units.
Since the commission is two paise on each side of the trade, IEX’s commission income from RTM in June, July and August works out to ₹8.62 crore.
The RTM was introduced on June 1. Under this, generators and buyers of electricity could bid for selling or purchasing of power practically real-time, for delivery in the next hour.
Rajesh Mediratta, Director – Strategic Affairs, had told BusinessLine in July that the company had not expected such high volumes—the expectation had been in the range of 200-300 mu.
The high volumes in the RTM show that there is a demand for the immediate supply of power, especially as it is relatively cheap.
The average price of RTM-traded power in August was ₹2.262 a kWhr, compared with ₹2.49 a unit in July, though in both months the highest transacted price was above ₹5 a kWhr. In August, 5.3 mu were trade at the month’s highest cost of ₹5.10, while 1.54 m u were traded at the month’s lowest price of 59 paise, according to data provided by the exchange.
On G-TAM platform
On August 19, the exchange also introduced Green Time Ahead Market, a separate channel for trading in renewable energy—useful to ‘obligated entities’ obliged by Law to buy a specified amount of their power requirements from renewable energy sources.
At present, one can offer or ask for power for delivery in the next 11 days—the most allowed by Law today. But as and when the central regulator allows longer-term contracts, the G-TAM platform is likely to see more volumes.