In the day-ahead market (DAM), the total monthly sell bids were 10,195 million units (MU) while buy bids were 5,260 MU. This indicates lower demand and higher supplies in the power market at the exchange.
"The DAM traded 4,333 MU with an average market clearing price at Rs 2.93 per unit vs Rs 3.3 per unit in December 2018, an 11 per cent decline in price," an IEX statement said.
Sell bids at nearly two times of the buy bids coupled with lower clearing prices signified that the market remained attractive for both the distribution utilities as well as open access buyers, it added.
The data also showed that 'One Nation One Price' prevailed for 21 days during last month. The congestion was mainly towards import of power by southern states specially during the peak hours since HVDC (high voltage direct current) Bhadrawati (line) was under outage leading to import capacity reduction.
After a dip in demand over the last three months, all India peak demand at 170 GW in December 2019 was 4.3 per cent higher as compared to the year-ago period. The peak demand last month was 9.6 per cent higher when compared to 155 GW in November 2019, the exchange said.
The electricity market at IEX recorded a total trade of 4,768 MU in December 2019. The market witnessed 51 per cent year-on-year and 25 per cent month-on-month rise in traded volumes demonstrating increased preference by distribution utilities for the exchange platform that offers power procurement at the most competitive prices in a flexible and customized way.
The increase in traded volumes on the exchange was largely due to surge in demand from the northern as well as southern states. The northern states experienced intense cold wave last month leading to an increase in peak demand in several states.
The TAM (term ahead market) volumes rose 347 per cent year- on-year on the back of growing acceptance for TAM contracts by the distribution utilities for meeting their short-term power requirements. KKS
ANU