India launches a new platform for green energy trading all over India

As a first step towards Greening the Indian short term power Market, Minister of State for Power R K Singh  on Tuesday launched pan-India Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) in electricity through video conference in New Delhi.

The introduction of GTAM platform would lessen the burden on the RE-rich States and incentivize them to develop RE capacity beyond their own RPO. This would further promote RE merchant capacity addition and help in achieving RE capacity addition targets of the country, the minister said.

The GTAM platform would lead to an increase in the number of participants in the 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 the pan- India market, the minister said.

India has already set a target of generating 175 GW RE Capacity by 2022 is driving accelerated renewable penetration pan-India. Green Term Ahead Market contracts will allow additional avenues to the RE generators for sale of renewable energy; enable Obligated entities to procure renewable power at competitive prices to meet their Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO); and provide a platform to environmentally conscious open access to consumers and utilities to buy green power.

Ends

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 Contracts

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 a 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 the 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.

Union Power Minister also mentioned that other products to be introduced in the power market for the promotion of Renewable Energy are in the pipeline and would be introduced soon.