PXIL to Launch Real Time Market for Electricity Transactions From June 1

PXIL is launching a real time market which will enable buyers & sellers to purchase/ sell electricity from anywhere in the country with just 1 hours notice

The Power Exchange India Ltd (PXIL) has said it will be launching a real-time market for electricity transactions from June 1, 2020. The Real Time Market (RTM) provided by PXIL would ensure that buyers and sellers can purchase or sell electricity from anywhere across the country with just one hour’s prior notice.

The entire transaction would be online and accessible from any part of the country, a PXIL statement said. As per the statement, this would be the first exchange contract that would allow even generators with long term power purchase agreements to participate in the exchange where they can sell their unrequisitioned surpluses. This would also allow renewable energy generators, who may have unanticipated surpluses to sell such supply and earn revenues and in turn obtain Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) as well.

The RTM on PXIL also has a provision for generators who may have faced a forced outage, to purchase power and fulfil their contractual commitments.

For discoms, this market would provide a golden opportunity to access the market to meet any last-minute sudden requirements, either due to unforeseen weather, unplanned events or even to access electricity at competitive rates to manage their overall power purchase portfolio more efficiently.

RTM is designed as a half-hourly market, comprising 48 auction sessions of 15-minute duration each. The auction sessions would be conducted during even time blocks of the hour with delivery to commence from one hour after the closure of the trade session. RTM provides Double Sided Closed Bid Auction with Uniform Market Clearing Price. PXIL’s RTM trading platform can be accessed through its portal – PRATYAY.

“RTM would be a game-changer in the electricity market as it, for the first time, allows generators with even long term PPAs to participate in the vibrant power market of the country,” Prabhajit Kumar Sarkar, MD & CEO of PXIL said in the statement.

RTM would present to Discoms as well as both conventional and renewable generators a vibrant market-based platform to better manage their power requirements in a planned, efficient and transparent manner, he added. RTM would thus provide a platform where generation capacity would be available from all types of sources and enable the Discoms to balance the demand in their systems even at the last moment.

It will offer the Discoms immense flexibility to meet their dynamically varying schedule with delivery of power within an hour of the closure of the bid session. It provides an alternate mechanism to access the larger market at a competitive price one hour prior to the start of the delivery. It meets the requirement of power after the end of the right to the revision of schedules by purchasing in RTM.

Generating companies otherwise tied up to long term PPAs can also access the power market through RTM for transacting their un-requisitioned surpluses. Till this point no other market mechanism allowed generating companies to do so, it added. Generators with untied capacity will have the opportunity to sell power by participating in an RTM session one hour prior to starting of the delivery, it said.