Spot power price dips to `2.91/unit in February

New Delhi: Average spot power price declined 6 per cent to Rs 2.91 per unit in February on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), according to official data.

The price had stood at Rs 3.08 per unit in February 2019. "The average market-clearing price in DAM (day-ahead market) at Rs 2.91 per unit saw a significant 6 per cent decline over the price of Rs 3.08 per unit in February 2019 and resulted into substantial savings for the market participants," the IEX said.

The electricity market on the IEX recorded a trade of 4,516 MU (million unit) in February, registering a 57 per cent year-on-year rise. The DAM traded 4,289 MU during the month. The increase in trade volume was mainly due to distribution utilities opting for replacement of their costlier power with the Exchange-based procurement.

The other key reason for increase in demand on account of early onset of summer and higher agricultural demand in southern as well as western states, particularly in Telangana, due to lift irrigation, it said.

The volume growth is a testament to the IEX continuing to be the most-attractive platform for the distribution utilities for procuring electricity coupled with the highest degree of flexibility, the Exchange added.

The total sale bids of 10,372 MU during the month were twice the buy bids of 5,233 MU. It ensured lower clearing price and brought significant savings to both the distribution utilities as well as the commercial and industrial consumers. According to the IEX data, 'one nation-one price' prevailed for 28 days during the month. However, DAM saw a volume loss of 2.03 MU due to the real-time curtailment. Term-ahead market (TAM) volumes grew 168 per cent y-o-y to 226 MU, signifying the increasing preference of TAM contracts by the distribution utilities for meeting their intra-day to weekly requirements. According to data from the National Load Despatch Centre, the peak demand on an all-India basis stood at 177 gigawatts (GW) in February 2020, a 9 per cent y-o-y rise over demand of 162 GW in February 2019. The energy met at 105 billion units (BU) in February saw an increase of 11 per cent as compared with 95 BU a year ago.