Economic Times

"One suggestion which is on the table is to allow countries like Bhutan who are exporting power to participate in the exchanges. So, we are looking at examining it in consultation with the Ministry of External Affairs,” power secretary A K Bhalla said.

New Delhi: The government is looking at a proposal to allow neighbouring nations like Bhutan to participate in domestic electricity exchanges including Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), the largest platform for spot power trade. The idea is to deepen the country’s market for sale and purchase of electricity by boosting volumes.

“One suggestion which is on the table is to allow countries like Bhutan who are exporting power to participate in the exchanges. So, we are looking at examining it in consultation with the Ministry of External Affairs,” power secretary A K Bhalla said. He was addressing audience here at an event celebrating a decade of operations by IEX.

He added the government expects more supply to come into the system and an increase in the number of registered consumers on the exchange. “We should do more to deepen this (market size) so that the share of power traded at the exchanges as a percentage of the overall generation goes up from the current 4 per cent to 6 per cent in a short time frame,” the secretary said.

The country generates around 1,200 Billion Units of power annually, around 10 per cent of which is transacted in the short-term market. This includes bilateral trade (4.7 per cent); day-ahead transactions on the exchanges (4 per cent) and Deviation Settlement Mechanism accounting for 1.7 per cent.

India imported 5,600 million units of power from Bhutan last financial year.

Bhalla also stated that the distribution companies (Discoms) should run like corporate entity and get listed in the exchanges like National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). He was of the view that discoms should be managed like a corporate and should have their own dividend-paying system.