Average spot power price falls 19 per cent to Rs 3.22 a unit in April

Average spot power price at the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) declined 19 per cent to Rs 3.22 per unit in April compared with Rs 3.98 a unit in the year-ago month, mainly due to improvement on the supply side.

“The average market clearing price (MCP) at Rs 3.22 per unit saw a 19 per cent decline over 3.98 per unit in April 2018, mainly due to increased domestic and imported coal availability with thermal generators and improved hydropower and renewable energy generation,” the IEX said in a statement.

However, it said the MCP of Rs 3.22 per unit in April 2019 increased 3 per cent over Rs 3.12 per unit in March 2019.

According to the data from the IEX, the day-ahead market witnessed trade of 4,005 million unit (MU) in April 2019 as against 3,356 MU traded in March 2019, registering a 19 per cent increase on a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis and almost at par with 4,055 MU traded in April 2018.

The increase in traded volume in April over the previous month was mainly due to an increase in demand for power across states on account of increasing temperature and the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. On a daily average basis, 134 MU were traded in April 2019.

The day-ahead market (DAM) experienced transmission congestion mainly towards the supply of power to southern states, leading to a volume loss of 68 MU representing 1.7 per cent of the total volume traded in DAM.

The percentage time congestion occurred was 16.3 per cent. One nation-one price was realised only for 16 days during the month. On a daily average basis, 762 participants traded in the market during April.

The term-ahead market (TAM) traded 332 MU in April 2019 over 134 MU in April 2019 and 246 MU over March 2019, registering a 148 per cent rise on a year-on-year basis and 35 per cent increase on m-o-m basis.

The electricity market at the IEX — DAM and TAM combined — traded 4,338 MU registering a four per cent jump as compared with 4,189 MU traded in April 2018 and a 20 per cent rise over 3,602 traded in March 2019.

The all-India peak demand met reached a new high of 176.8 gigawatt (GW) in April 2019, registering a rise of nine per cent over peak demand met of 162 GW in April 2018, as per data from the national load dispatch centre.

On an all-India basis, the energy met in April 2019 at 112 billion unit registered 7 per cent increase over 105 billion unit in April 2018.

Source: PTI