The electricity market at the Indian Energy Exchange witnessed a total trade of 5334 MU in July 2020. The volume traded in July 2020 registered an increase of 11% over June 2020 and remained at par with volume traded in July 2019, while the national electricity consumption and peak demand saw 3% decline in July 2020.
The day-ahead market traded 4487 MU during the month. The market continued to see high sell side liquidity—the total sell bids at 9734 MU were close to 1.9X of the buy bids which stood at 5199 MU.
With robust sell-side liquidity, the average market clearing price in the day-ahead market during the month at Rs 2.47 per unit registered a 27% YoY decline over a price of Rs 3.38 in June 2019.
The attractive price continued to ensure significant savings to DISCOMs and industries during this time.
The distribution utilities from western, southern as well as a few northern states such as Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, leveraged the Exchange Market to optimize their power portfolio and build on the financial liquidity which is so critical at this hour.
Moreover, as electricity demand and consumption rise to the pre-Covid levels driven by the increasing industrial and economic activity, availability of ample power at affordable prices will assist the economic revival and growth. One Nation One Price prevailed during all 31 days during the month, making Exchange the most reliable partner in power procurement as well as the cost optimization.
According to the data published by NLDC, the national peak demand and energy consumed registered a decline of 3% on a YoY basis, and an increase of 3% and 7%, respectively, on MoM basis. This increase in electricity consumption has mainly been due to the easing of the lockdown restrictions across the country.
