May'10: 9.41% of generated electricity traded in short-term

According to a report, prepared by the Market Monitoring Cell (MMC) of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), on the short-term transactions of electricity for the month of May 2010, out of the total electricity generation of 67,980.40 million units (MU), excluding generation from renewable sources and captive power plants, in the country, a total of 6,394.67 MUs or 9.41%, were transacted in short-term. Such transactions consist of 3,194.72 MUs (4.70%) of the total electricity generation) through bilateral mechanisms, that is through licensed traders, tem-ahead contracts on power exchanges and directly between the distribution companies, 2,529.56 MUs (3.72%) through unscheduled interchange (UI) and 670.39 MUs (0.99%) through the two power exchanges, namely Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL).

Further, the price of electricity transacted through trading licensees was found to be relatively high in the month, at Rs 6.17/KWh, when compared with the price of electricity transacted through power exchanges (Rs 4.54/KWh in IEX and Rs 4.65/KWh in PXIL) and the price of electricity transacted through the mechanism of unscheduled intercharge (Rs 5.14/KWh in the North-East-West (NEW) Grid and Rs.4.25/KWh in the southern region (SR) Grid.

That apart, congestion occurred for the electricity transacted by IEX and PXIL in the SR. In IEX, congestion occurred about 7.53% of the hourly time blocks, whereas in PXIL it occurred about 8.06% of the hourly time blocks. Congestion occurred in most number of times during 6.00-12.00 hours of the day in both the exchanges.

About 1% of the actual cleared volume in IEX and about 3% of the actual cleared volume in PXIL could not be cleared due to congestion.

Significantly, during the month, 17 regional entities were involved in the sale of electricity through various short-term transactions, while a total of 21 states made short-term purchases of power. The top five regional entities selling electricity during the month were Chattisgarh (704.99 MUs), Gujarat (661.87 MUs), Jindal Power Limited (523.14 MUs), Himachal Pradesh (394.88 MUs) and Jammu &Kashmir (303.42 MUs), while top five regional entities purchasing electricity were Maharashtra (898.86 MUs), Tamil Nadu (720.07 MUs), Haryana (577.80 MUs), Punjab (439.43 MUs) and Delhi (425.73 MUs).