Sale of Green Certificates Surges 79% by 8.38 Lakh Units in March

Vibrant Energy, Saint-Gobain Sign PPA for Round-the-Clock Renewable Energy

The sale of renewable energy certificates (RECs) increased more than 79 percent to 8.38 lakh units during March 2020 mainly on account of good supply.

During the month of March in 2019, 4.68 lakh units of renewable energy certificates were sold, as per the official data.

RECs are market-based instruments, and a REC is created when per MW-hour of power is generated from an eligible renewable energy source.

According to official data, quoted PTI, an aggregate of 5.2 lakh RECs were traded on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) during March 2020, from 2.25 lakh during the same period the previous year.

During the month under review, Power Exchange of India (PXIL) has recorded sale of 3.18 lakh RECs, as compared to 2.43 lakh during March last year.

Both IEX and PXIL exchanges are dealing with trading of RECs and electricity. The trading of renewable energy certificates is scheduled to be conducted on the every last Wednesday of the month.

As per the IEX data, both solar and non-solar renewable energy certificates saw supply, with sell bids, exceeds buy bids.

However, there were buy bids for more than 6.93 lakh renewable energy certificates in March 2020, from sell bids of more than 26.84 lakh renewable energy certificates in the same month.

During the month at PXIL, the supply was high and there were buy bids for more than 3.73 lakh renewable energy certificates and sell bids for more than 5.59 lakh units.

Furthermore, the overall supply for the renewable energy certificates was high as an aggregate sell bid at both PXIL and IEX was more than 10.66 lakh units, as compared to sell bids of over 32.43 lakh units.

While, under the renewable purchase obligation (RPO), bulk purchasers like Discoms, open access consumers and capacitive users are required to buy a certain proportion of RECs.

Such parties can buy RECs from the renewable energy producers in order to meet the RPO norms. The proportion of renewable energy for utilities is fixed by both the central and state electricity regulators.