Nepal has become the first country to trade on the newly-launched Cross Border Electricity Trade (CBET) segment of Indian Energy Exchange (IEX).
In a release, IEX said that Nepal traded on the day-ahead market of the CBET, on April 17, 2021. Bhutan and Bangladesh are expected to join soon, IEX said.
It may be recalled that in April 2021, IEX launched the CBET platform. This is seen as a first-of-its-kind initiative for energy exchanges to expand their power markets beyond India to the South Asia region towards building an integrated South Asian regional power market.
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Following the notification of CBET Regulations by CERC in 2019 and the notification of CBET Rules in March 2021 by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd (NVVN), a subsidiary of NTPC, secured approval from the CEA, for Nepal’s participation in the day-ahead market on IEX.
Here are some other highlights of electricity trade on IEX in April 2021
- The total volume of electricity trade on IEX was 7707 MU in April 2021, achieving a 90.2 per cent year-on-year growth.
- The day-ahead market traded 5,699 MU volume in April 2021, a 54 per cent year-on-year growth.
- The average monthly price at Rs 3.70 per unit witnessed 53 per cent increase over Rs 2.42 per unit in April 2020.
- The real-time market saw highest-ever monthly volume of 1,473 MU in April 2021, also achieving a month-over-month growth of 4.2 per cent.
- The green term-ahead market traded 186 MU during April 2021 recording a 262 per cent growth over March 2021. The trading volume in April 2021 included 78 MU in the solar segment and 108 MU in the non-solar segment,
(Note: MU = million units = million kwh = Gwh)
(Featured photograph sourced from adb.org, showing a hydropower plant in Nepal, is for illustration only)