IEX Sees Price Correction Owing To Improved Coal Supplies, Onset Of Winter Season

Electricity prices in the day-ahead market and real-time market on Indian Energy Exchange witnessed a significant price correction in the last seven days following improved coal supplies and low demand due to the onset of the winter season. 

"The power prices in the Exchange electricity market- the Day-ahead and the Real-time market have witnessed a significant correction in the last 7 days supported by measures initiated by the government to address the various supply-related challenges," a statement said.

According to the statement as per the data available on the IEX website, the average price of electricity in the last 7 days (from 23 to 29 October'21) in the two key electricity market segments have corrected significantly with the average day-ahead market price at 3.75 per unit and the average real-time market price at 3.03 per unit.

It is worth noting that about two weeks back, the exchange prices were about Rs 14 per unit, it informed.

Some of the reasons that have helped in the correction of power prices at the Exchange include there has been a considerable improvement in the availability of domestic coal at the power generating stations.

The coal stock at power generating stations -- which was about 7.3 million tonnes on October 12 -- has risen to 9.4 million tonnes as of October 27, with stock for more than 5 days, it added.

"On 12 October 21, there were 79 power plants, which had less than 4 days of coal-stock. This number for power plants has come down to 60 as on 27 October 21, indicating significant improvement", it said.

The onset of winters in Northern states has resulted in minimum temperature hovering around 16-degree C.

The average daily energy consumption during the last 7 days has dropped to 3,579 million units from 3,864 million units in the second week of October (registering a drop of 7 per cent), whereas the peak demand also stands corrected to 168 GW from 172 GW in the second week (a drop of 2 per cent), it added. 

(PTI)