Cumulative green energy traded in GTAM across IEX and PXIL is 879 MU

Cumulative green energy traded in GTAM across IEX and PXIL is 879 MU

Green Term-Ahead Market (GTAM), the novel trading market for Renewable Energy is aimed at “greening” the Indian short term power contracts. GTAM is an alternative platform for renewable developers to sell power in the open market without long-term PPAs. With GTAM, corporate buyers, especially companies signatory to RE100 initiative, can buy renewable power and fulfil their RPO obligations, while meeting their short-term electricity demand at competitive prices, without any geographical limitations.

GTAM gives corporate buyers the option to purchase renewable power from power exchanges while continuing to procure power from DISCOMs. When using GTAM, corporate buyers do not need to tie up capacity in advance or sign Power Purchase Agreements with electricity generators.

GTAM trade activity has been encouraging since its launch on 21 August 2020 on IEX (Indian Energy Exchange). As of April 16, 2021, the cumulative green energy traded in GTAM across the two platforms of IEX and PXIL (Power Exchange India Limited) is 879 MU. Amongst its many benefits is the fact that GTAM enables distribution companies (discoms), industrial consumers and green generators to buy and sell green power and concurrently, fulfil their Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) targets. With these platforms featuring solar and non-solar segments, IEX and PXIL are currently offering 6 green products/ contracts as mentioned in the figure below.

Fig. 1: Evolution of GTAM  

Since its inception 8 months ago, GTAM has witnessed highest monthly trade volume during October 2020 at 208 MU. During the corresponding period (21-Aug-20 to 16-Apr-21, the average trade price in IEX’s GTAM’s Green-Day-ahead Contingency contract (Rs. 3.83/kWh) was 23% higher than the average trade price in the IEX’s Day-Ahead Market (Rs. 3.12/kWh).

Fig. 2: GTAM Trend Snapshot

Source: IEX, PXIL, JMK Research

Participation in IEX-GTAM trading have varied between 20 to 38 companies per month. So far, this niche market of IEX has attracted major companies including, Amplus Green Power, CESC (Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation), Dalmia Cement, DVC (Damodar Valley Corporation), Jindal Stainless, TATA Power. Various distribution utilities from Haryana, Delhi, Bihar, Karnataka, West Bengal, Telangana, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are the key buyers of green power through GTAM platform.

Moreover, with the absence of policy and regulatory consistency linked to long-term open access renewable purchasing in India, GTAM may prove to be a more attractive option for corporate buyers.