BY Ahmed Al-Ebrahim, Chief Executive Officer, GCC Interconnection Authority
ON March 1, 2020
Originally published in APEx Newsletter Volume XXI – June 2022.
Indian Energy Exchange is India’s first and largest power exchange offering participants an automated platform to trade in Electricity, Renewable Energy Certificates and Energy Saving Certificates. The exchange enables competitive and efficient price discovery, increases the accessibility and transparency of the power market and enhances the speed and efficiency of trade execution. The Exchange is certified for quality management, Information Security Management and environment management and is a listed Company on the Indian stock exchanges – NSE and BSE.
Working relentlessly over the last 12 years, IEX has succeeded in the goal of providing electricity at the most competitive price to 55+ distribution utilities and 4500+ commercial and industrial consumers. Today, IEX accounts for ~35% of total short-term electricity market in the country.
The Indian government is extensively pushing for decarbonizing the energy sector and aims for a new target installed renewable capacity at 500 GW by 2030. The renewable energy currently comprises 23% in terms of installed capacity – 86 GW on total installed base of 369 GW and about 10% in terms of energy generation – 103 BU renewable energy on total energy production base of 1400 BU as of March 2019. As per the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) – India needs $500 million to $700 million investments in renewable energy over the next decade in order to reach the 2030 target.
The current structure of long-term bulk supply agreements being pursued for green capacity addition is not a favorable paradigm anymore. As a technology led energy marketplace, IEX is best placed to lead the rapid transformations in power sector. The market orientation can facilitate grid integration of the renewable energy and achieve the capacity targets in the most optimum and competitive ways and IEX is leading this discussion in the Indian context with policy makers and regulators. The other way to meet RE aspirations is through enablement of micro grids which means more local renewable addition close to the point of consumption, storage capacity backed by peer to peer networks to trade energy. Renewables will eventually switch to a microgrid architecture, driven by technology.
IEX strongly believes its success has been possible through its approach to develop committed relationships with stakeholders across organizations and geographies. With an expert-led approach, and a deep understanding of the customer, their environment, and their issues, IEX has always developed unique tailor-made innovations to maintain a high level of customer centricity and trust. IEX business is fulcrumed on the spirit of good governance and it stands committed to improving ease of doing business, reducing cost of doing business thereby enhancing business competitiveness and sustainability.
The Indian energy sector is on the cusp of a significant transformation. A big change we foresee is a strong move towards consumerization of power– i.e. choice to consumers to choose their electricity provider and flexibility to select the source of power which will have a positive impact on the entire power value chain. This concept of ‘Energy as a Service’ which will lead towards uberisation of power. IEX is uniquely positioned to spearhead transformation enabled by smart optimized technology-based
solutions. Additional information about the IEX can be found at the following link: https://www.iexindia.com/articles.aspx?id=G0%2f7eYJNhus%3d&mid=Gy9kTd80D98%3d.