IEX: Average Market Clearing Price (MCP) on Feb’16 was all-time low at Rs. 2.30 per unit

 

New Delhi: The spot power market continued to be the most competitive option for distribution utilities and open access consumers to procure power with average Market Clearing Price (MCP) on Feb'16 at all-time low of Rs. 2.30 per unit in fiscal 2015-16.

Average MCP at Rs. 2.30 per unit is about 9% lower than Rs. 2.52 per unit in January, even average Area Clearing Prices (ACP) across all bid areas reduced by 6-12% in February, Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) said in a statement. 
IEX which is India's premier power trading platform currently operates Day-Ahead Market (DAM) and Term-Ahead Market (TAM) in electricity as well as Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) Market.

Interestingly, ACP at Rs. 2.51 per unit in the Southern region was even lower than ACP in the Northern region at Rs. 2.64 per unit.

This has particularly been due to increase in generation capacity within the southern region and reduced reliance on import of power from the rest of India.

However, transmission congestion in WR->SR and ER->SR corridors continued, added the statement.

At 2,818 MUs, volume traded in February was marginally lower than volume traded in January (2,929 MUs).

However, the average daily volume in Feb'16 was much higher at 97 MUs in comparison to 94 MUs last month.

Aggregated purchase bids for the month were 3,285 MUs (about 4,720 MW on average daily RTC basis) and sell bids were 5,338 MUs (about 7,670 MW on average daily RTC basis).

About 112 MUs were curtailed in Feb'16, about 26% lower than volume curtailed in January (152 MUs).

The ER->NR and WR->NR interconnections were congested 44% and 40% of the time respectively and the ER->SR and WR->SR interconnections were congested about 44% of the time during the month.

Prices (ACP):

In February, average Area Clearing Price (ACP) dipped across all the regions.
In North-East, East and West, ACP was Rs 2.11 per unit, about 6% lower than last month.
In South, ACP was Rs 2.51 per unit, 12% lower than the previous month.
In North, ACP was to Rs. 2.64 per unit, 8% lower over the previous month.


Volumes:

A few key power market highlights are as given below:

Total Sell bids - 5,338 MUs
Total buy bids - 3,285 MUs
Total Cleared Volume - 2,818 MUs

The Northern and Southern States were Net Buyers while the Eastern, Western and North-Eastern States were Net Sellers


Participation:
1,171 participants traded in the spot market on an average daily basis. The highest participation was on 25 February, 2016 when 1,237 participants traded on the Exchange.

Term-Ahead Market:
About 25 MUs were scheduled during the month, mainly in the Intra-day and Day Ahead Contingency segments, IEX statement added.
 

EXPERT COMMENT:

From this we can see the future of short term power market in India. The prices are way below than the long term PPA signed by the Discoms. This will help the Discom to purchase power at very low rate which can reduce their burden to buy expensive power.However the states commissions should make lucrative regulation so that the short term power market can grow at faster pace.