Indian Power Market goes Green

/ Current Affairs
  • As a first step towards Greening the Indian short term power Market, Union Power Minister launched pan-India Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) in electricity in New Delhi.
  • The market is first Exclusive product for renewable energy sector in the world.
  • The introduction of GTAM platform would lessen the burden on RE-rich States and incentivize them to develop RE capacity beyond their own RPO (Renewable purchase obligation).
  • GTAM platform will lead to increase in number of participants in renewable energy sector. It will benefit buyers of RE through competitive prices and transparent and flexible procurement. It will also benefit RE sellers by providing access to pan- India market.
  • The Government of India’s target of 175 GW RE Capacity by 2022 is driving accelerated renewable penetration pan-India.

       Key features of GTAM:

  1. Transactions through GTAM will be bilateral in nature with clear identification of corresponding buyers and sellers, there will not be any difficulty in accounting for RPO.
  2. GTAM contracts will be segregated into Solar RPO & Non-Solar RPO as RPO targets are also segregated.
  3. Further, within the two segments GTAM contracts will have Green Intraday, Day Ahead Contingency, Daily and Weekly Contract
    a –       Green Intraday Contract & Day Ahead Contingency Contract – Bidding will take place on a 15-minute time-block wise MW basis.
    b –       Daily & Weekly Contracts – Bidding will take place on MWh basis. Both buyers and sellers can submit the bid, however the seller will provide profile in terms of 15-minute time block wise quantity (MW) along with the price (Rs/MWh). After the contract gets executed scheduling will take place as per the profile. In case of multiple buyers, the profile will get allocated on a pro-rata basis.
  4. Price discovery will take place on a continuous basis i.e. price time priority basis. Subsequently, looking at the market conditions open auction can be introduced for daily & weekly contracts.
  5. Energy scheduled through GTAM contract shall be considered as deemed RPO compliance of the buyer.