The Power Ministry on Friday launched a portal that aggregates excess generation capacity on a national basis, offering Discoms a better view of the electricity supply and demand scenario.

Besides, the Ministry also launched the High Price Day Ahead Market (HP-DAM) segment on power exchanges, which will offer costly electricity produced by gas-based and imported coal-based (ICB) power plants in the country.

Launching the initiatives, Power Minister RK Sigh said “HP-DAM was part of the overall strategy to ensure that all available power capacity is utilised for supplying power to consumers.”

Singh asked the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and the Grid Controller to ensure that prices are reasonable in HP-DAM and take necessary action to ensure that no power producers charge exorbitant prices.

The steps are being taken in anticipation of higher than normal temperatures pushing up electricity demand during the summer months (March–May 2023) with peak power demand expected at 229 gigawatts (GW) and energy requirements at 142 billion units (BU) in April 2023, which is likely to be the highest for FY24.

On Thursday, the Ministry unveiled a multi-pronged strategy to meet the rising power consumption in the country, including additional 2.92 GW of power from ICB plants and nine GW of gas-based capacity, as well as power utilities undertaking maintenance in advance to avoid shutdowns during the peak demand season (April–May 2023).

PUShP Portal

The Surplus Power Portal (PUShP) will help in flexibilisation of PPAs for optimal resource utilisation and reducing power costs. The portal will help states get a better view of the country’s generating capacity.

Discoms usually have long-term PPAs for power supply and have to pay fixed charges even when they do not schedule power. Now they will be able to indicate their surplus power in block times, days, and months on the portal.

The discoms that need power will be able to requisition the surplus power, and the new buyer will pay both variable charge (VC) and fixed cost (FC) as determined by regulators. Once power is reassigned, the original beneficiary shall have no right to recall as the entire FC liability is also shifted to the new beneficiary.

The financial liability of the new buyer shall be limited to the quantum of temporarily allocated or transferred power. This will reduce the fixed cost burden on Discoms and also enable all the available generation capacity to be utilised.

HP-DAM segment

On Friday, Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) launched trading in the HP-DAM segment. This will provide a new avenue to the high-variable-cost generators who may not have been able to participate in DAM due to the existing price ceiling of ₹12 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

HP-DAM will enable high-cost generators, such as gas-based power plants using imported RLNG and naphtha, ICB plants using imported coal, and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), to participate in the market. These generators will now be able to sell electricity on IEX with a price range of ₹0 per unit to ₹50.