IEX launches new contracts to enable renewable energy trade on the same day and up to 11 days ahead

From pv magazine India

The Indian Energy Exchange, India’s premier energy trading platform, has announced the expansion of its delivery-based green market with the launch of two new products, a green daily contract and a green weekly contract. With this launch, IEX Green Market now has four contracts, and offers greater choice to market participants to buy renewable energy on the same day and up to 11 days ahead.

Trading made possible by the new contracts in both solar and non-solar segments will commence with immediate effect.

In a first for IEX Green Market, the daily and weekly contracts will enable market participants to trade on an energy basis (MWh), with the bidding taking place on a 15-minute time-block.

“The trading in energy terms will help to address the intermittency issues involved in renewable energy procurement. Further, this will also assist market participants in minimizing deviations as well as related penalties. The energy will be delivered leveraging the national, regional, and state-level transmission network,” read an IEX statement.

The green market at IEX was formally launched by power minister R.K. Singh in September this year.

The market has received encouraging response from all stakeholders. It has cumulatively traded 459 million units (MU) comprising 404 MU under solar and 55 MU under non-solar segments within 100 days since the commencement of trading on August 21, 2020.

Moreover, with an average price of INR 3.47/kWh ($0.047/kWh) in the solar and INR 3.77/kWh ($0.051/kWh) in the non-solar segments, the market offers an attractive avenue to market participants for renewable energy procurement.

Speaking at the launch, IEX Chairman SN Goel said, “India is witnessing a rapid change in the energy sector with renewables driving the energy shift. To meet our ambitious renewable energy targets and sustain the existing pace of growth in renewable capacity addition, there is a need for a market-based framework.

“As already witnessed in developed countries, markets have been facilitating integration of energy from various sources to meet the country’s power demand in the most efficient and competitive manner.

“Therefore, green markets have an instrumental role to play in enabling energy landscape transformation in the country. At IEX, we are committed to facilitating India to build a sustainable energy economy through energy markets. We will continue to build and deepen the green market with the introduction of new products.”