Average Spot Power Price Falls 19% in April to Rs 3.22/Unit

The average market clearing price (MCP) at Rs 3.22 per unit saw a 19 percent decline over 3.98 per unit in April 2018.

Average spot power price at the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) declined 19 percent 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 percent 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 (A market-clearing price is the price of a good or service at which quantity supplied is equal to quantity demanded, also called the equilibrium price) of Rs 3.22 per unit in April 2019 increased 3 percent 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 units (MU) in April 2019 as against 3,356 MU traded in March 2019, registering a 19 percent 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 percent of the total volume traded in DAM. The percentage of time congestion occurred was 16.3 percent. 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 percent rise on a year-on-year basis and 35 percent increase on the m-o-m basis. The electricity market at the IEX — DAM and TAM combined — traded 4,338 MU registering a four percent jump as compared with 4,189 MU traded in April 2018 and a 20 percent rise over 3,602 traded in March 2019. 

The all-India peak demand met reached a new high of 176.8 gigawatts (GW) in April 2019, registering a rise of nine percent 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 units registered 7 percent increase over 105 billion units in April 2018.