The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has approved Hindustan Power Exchange’s (HPX) plea for the introduction of hydropower contracts in the Green Term-Ahead Market (GTAM) beyond T + 11 days.

The Commission directed HPX to incorporate the appropriate provisions in its by-laws, rules, and business rules and submit them to it within two weeks.

HPX had filed a petition to facilitate hydropower purchase obligation (HPO) compliance of obligated entities.

Background

Currently, HPX offers day-ahead contracts, intraday contracts, day-ahead contingency contracts, real-time contracts, and term-ahead contracts for trading electricity.

It had sought the regulator’s approval to introduce hydropower contracts in green contingency, GTAM contracts, and long-duration contracts (daily, weekly, monthly, and any day) in TAM and GTAM contracts.

The Commission had on February 24, 2022, approved hydropower contracts in GTAM on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX).

As per Ministry of Power guidelines, HPO may be met from power procured from eligible large hydropower projects commissioned on and after March 8, 2019, and up to March 31, 2030.

HPX submitted that in the proposed hydro GTAM contracts, participants would be able to transact across all periods including intra-day, day-ahead contingency, daily, and weekly which is currently allowed for the existing GTAM.

The Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO), in its reply, said that hydro being a flexible resource forms an important part of the portfolio for buying utilities.

For scheduling of hydropower, it is preferable to have long-term and medium-term access which will not only ensure adequate revenue and long-term commitment but would also allow the use of hydropower for critical grid balancing close to real-time, POSOCO added.

Commission’s analysis

 The Commission approved the proposal to introduce monthly contracts, existing daily contracts, weekly contracts, and any-day single-sided contracts with modified timelines for pre-specified time blocks notified to the market participants in advance.

It also approved the delivery duration from T+2 to T+90 days for daily contracts, and from TW+1 to TW+12 weeks for weekly contracts.

Further, the regulator also extended the time period from TM+1 to TM+3 months for monthly contracts, and T+2 to T+90 days for any day single-sided contracts, wherein T denotes the zero-day of trading, TW denotes the zero-week of trading and TM denotes the zero-month of trading.

Further, it said that the capacity offered as a sell bid in the power exchange under the daily, weekly, monthly and any day single-sided contracts from a resource in the same time block would be separate and non-overlapping. Non-compliance of the same by any of the parties to the transaction would lead to its debarment as a member or client.

In June last year, CERC approved Power Exchange India’s (PXIL) proposal to introduce delivery-based monthly contracts, which can be traded on one-month, two-month, and three-month ahead basis in conventional and renewable energy segments of the term-ahead market.

Earlier, CERC had approved the introduction of the Green Day Ahead Contract (GDAC) at IEX and PXIL in the Integrated Day Ahead Market (IDAM) in a restricted manner.

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