Hindustan Power Exchange’s (HPX) request for the inclusion of hydropower contracts in the Green Term-Ahead Market (GTAM) exceeding T + 11 days has been granted by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).
The Commission instructed HPX to include the necessary clauses in its bylaws, business rules, and regulations and submit them to the Commission within two weeks.
In order to implement hydropower contracts in green contingency, GTAM contracts, and long-duration contracts (daily, weekly, monthly, and any day) in TAM and GTAM contracts, to help obliged parties comply with their hydropower purchase obligations (HPOs), HPX had earlier submitted a petition to the regulator.
According to Ministry of Power regulations, HPO can be satisfied by purchasing electricity from qualified big hydropower projects that were put into service on or after March 8, 2019, and up until March 31, 2030.
The Commission authorized hydropower contracts in GTAM on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) on February 24, 2022.
In order to facilitate the trading of electricity, HPX, as of now, provides day-ahead contracts, day-ahead contingency contracts, intraday contracts, term-ahead contracts, and real-time contracts.
According to HPX, participants in the new hydro GTAM contracts will be able to trade during all time frames, including day-ahead contingency, daily, intra-day, and weekly, just like they can with the present GTAM.
In response, the Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) stated that it is better to have long-term and medium-term access to hydropower scheduling as hydro is a flexible resource, which plays a significant role in the portfolio for purchasing utilities.
It would not only provide sufficient income and long-term commitment but also enable the use of hydropower for crucial grid balancing close to real-time.
After hearing the case, the Commission allowed the introduction of monthly contracts, as well as ongoing daily, any-day single-sided, and weekly contracts with amended schedules for pre-specified time blocks that were previously disclosed to market participants.
Further, a delivery period of T+2 to T+90 days for daily contracts and TW+1 to TW+12 weeks for weekly contracts has also been approved by the regulator, alongside increasing the time frame for any day single-sided contracts from T+2 to T+90 days and from TM+1 to TM+3 months for monthly contracts. Here, T, TW, and TM stand for the zeroth trading day, week, and month, respectively.
Additionally, the Commission specified that the capacity from a resource in the same time block provided as a sell bid in the power exchange under the daily, weekly, monthly, and any-day single-sided contracts would be independent and non-overlapping.
Any party to the transaction who violates these rules will be excluded as a member or customer.
