Both the price and demand for spot power increased in India in July this year compared to the same month of 2017, but were down from June due to the arrival of monsoon, India’s largest power exchange said.
The average price of power sold via Indian Energy Exchange in July was at Rs 3.46 per unit (kWh), up 39% over Rs 2.49 recorded in July last year. However, compared to June, the average traded price was down 7%.
Power is purchased on a ‘day ahead’ basis by utilities and other large customers such as steel plants from the electronic exchange.
Volumes too rose in July compared to the same month last year, coming in at 4,028 million units in July, up 10% compared to July 2017. However, compared to June, volumes were down 19%.
“The arrival of the monsoon good rains over various parts of the country dampened the power demand as well as prices in July vs June,” IEX said.
Out of the 4,028 million units, 0.55 MU was sold by solar players.
On daily average basis 659 participants traded in the DAM during the month, the company said.
Separately, the all India peak demand touched 168 GW on 10th July 2018, about 1% decline over June’18, according to the National Load Dispatch Center.
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The average price of non-solar RECs was Rs 1,200, while that of solar REC was Rs 1,000.
A total of 1,91,988 non-solar RECs were traded, while 8,08,324 solar RECs were traded during the month.