May emerged as the second consecutive month in which both solar and non-solar renewable energy certificates (RECs) trading witnessed a spike.

In May 2018, 914,412 solar RECs were traded. This is 39,294 more RECs than the 875,118 solar RECs traded in April 2018. All solar RECs were traded at a price of ₹1,000 (~$14.943).

On the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), a total of 393,822 buy bids for solar RECs were registered.  The May 2018 solar REC trading on IEX witnessed 250,324 less solar RECs compared to those traded on the IEX in April 2018. On the IEX, a total of 417 entities were traded in solar RECs.

The Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL), registered 520,590 buy bids for solar RECs. The May 2018 solar REC trading on PXIL witnessed 289,623 more solar RECs compared to the solar RECs traded on the PXIL in April 2018.

Non-solar REC trading also picked up in May compared to April 2018. A total of 401,214 non-solar RECs were traded in May 2018. In this trading session non-solar RECs were traded in two categories; RECs issued before April 1, 2017, and after April 1, 2017.

Mercom recently reported that non-solar RECs issued on or after April 1, 2017, will be sold at a floor price of ₹1,000 (~$14.809)/REC, according to the latest ruling passed by the Supreme Court.

According to IEX, a total of 323,634 non-solar RECs issued after April 1, 2017, were traded with buy bids at 478,940 and sell bids at 375,218 with a clearing price of ₹1,010 (~$14.935)/REC. A total of 395 non-solar RECs issued before April 1, 2017, were traded with buy bids at ₹2,000 (~$29.575)/REC and clearing price at ₹1,501 (~$22.196)/REC.

The non-solar segment continued to see reversal in demand-supply with buy bids exceeding sell bids and the price was discovered in the market two months back when the inventory was in excess, the trading was taking place at the floor price.

At the PXIL, 77,580 non-solar RECs were cleared at ₹1,000 (~$14.787)/REC. Per PXIL, in the May 2018 trading session, nearly 5.98 lac RECs were cleared leading to market share of 45 percent and clearing ratio of 89 percent.

Distribution companies such as DNH Power Distribution Corporation Limited, Torrent Power and Tata Power Limited were the major buyers in this trading session followed by captive power producers and open access consumers who came forward to fulfill their RPO compliance.

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