Renewable energy companies have long had a grouse — often, the buyer of their power, usually a State government owned utility, would refuse to buy their electricity, citing grid management issues. In such backdowns, the renewable energy generating company has no option but to suffer loss of revenue.

But now, with the launch of G-DAM, or the green-day-ahead-market by the Indian Energy Exchange, renewable energy companies have the option of selling their power on the exchange.

G-DAM was formally launched today by the Union Power Minister, RK Singh. Sellers and buyers can submit sale or purchase bids during a window each day; the electricity would be delivered the following day.

If an electricity distribution company, Discom, refuses to buy, the energy company now has the option of the market.

On September 1 last year, IEX, India’s bigger power exchange company, launched the G-TAM product, (green-term ahead market) but that was not for sale or purchase of power the following day. ‘G-TAM’ has performed well; over 3 billion units have been sold, at an average price of ₹3.87 a kWhr — meaning that exchange prices are much better, against prices agreed in long term power purchase agreements. (IEX earns a commission of 4 paise per transaction.)

More importantly, the sellers will get paid the next day.

‘Open doors’ for RE

Launching IEX’s G-DAM, Minister Singh said that the government would “open the doors” for the renewable energy sector. “In the new regime, anybody can put up renewable energy capacity and sell to whomsoever they want,” he said.

‘Open access’ shall be given to them in 15 days; and they would have to pay any wheeling charges, cross-subsidy charges and any charges applicable in case a standby capacity is kept aside by the buyer. There will be no other charges, Singh said.

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