The final month of the renewable energy certificate (REC) trading year witnessed a spike in non-solar REC trading. However, REC trading witnessed a reversal in trends during March 2018 when the number of buy bids surpassed the number of sell bids.

In all, 2,999,978 buy bids and 2,785,204 sale bids were registered in March 2018. The recorded figures indicate that the demand for RECs is gradually increasing in India.

Since January 2018, there has been a marked increase in the number of RECs being traded as entities jump at the chance to purchase the RECs needed to satisfy their Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPOs) before the end of financial year (FY) 2017-18.

In the March 2018 trading session, the Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL) reported that nearly 690,000 RECs were cleared on PXIL, giving it a market share of 24 percent and a clearing ratio of 98 percent. According to PXIL, during the year, nearly 1.62 crore RECs were traded, of which nearly 6,855,000 were traded on the PXIL platform, giving it a market share of 42 percent in the REC segment.

All PXIL bids cleared at a floor price of ₹1,500 (~$23.4) per REC, the same floor price reported on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX).

IEX reported that during the March 2018 trading session, a total of 2,256,422 buy bids were received against 2,079,799 sale bids. A total of 1,062 participants traded RECs on the IEX during March 2018, reflecting a marked increase in the total number of participants.

In February 2018, 711 participants participated in REC trading on IEX.

The spike in REC trading followed an October proposal by the Ministry of Power that sought to penalize DISCOMs that fail to secure enough Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to cover 100 percent of their RPO requirements.

RPO compliance is crucial in order for India to meet its aggressive goal of installing 100 GW of solar by 2022.