Hindustan Power Exchange backed by BSE, PTC to commence operations

The third power exchange in the country, Hindustan Power Exchange (HPX) backed by BSE and Power Trading Corporation (PTC) was launched on Wednesday, after being floated in 2019. PTC India and BSE Investment hold 25 per cent each in HPX, followed by 9.9 per cent held by ICICI Bank.

Other shareholders are Greenko Energies (5 per cent), Jindal Power (2 per cent), Meenakshi Power (5 per cent) and six others. HPX received a nod from the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) last week.

The other two exchanges in the country are Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange of India ltd (PXIL), of which IEX holds a 98 per cent almost monopoly on the total traded power in the country.

Akhilesh Awasthy, chief operating officer at HPX, told Business Standard, “For 20 years or more, almost 90 per cent of India’s electricity is traded via bilateral contracts between power generation companies and state utilities. These contracts do not provide the flexibility to sector participants to take advantage of market conditions at different times. The introduction of HPX will give a push to the development and progress of spot trading in electricity.”

Awasthy said the new exchange already has a heterogeneous mix of stakeholders, including state-owned private utilities, generating companies and consultants. Power distribution companies of Haryana and West Bengal are already on board to trade electricity; so are the two discoms of RP Sanjiv Goenka group – Noida power and CESC. Among equity partners are Jindal Power, SJVN and Greenko and Manikaran partners, a leading power trader and Mercados Energy Markets, which is a consulting agency, Awasthy said.

“This takes us ahead of the two exchanges already as most of the equity is controlled by power companies. In terms of technology, we are offering all contracts on a single platform. Unlike others, our technology platform was audited by one of the big four accounting firms and the report was scrutinised by the regulator,” Awasthy said.

He further said the module of price discovery has been designed on the lines of European power markets and their platform will ensure minimal or no manual intervention at all in the price discovery.

“We would be able to challenge the monopoly of existing platforms in no time,” Awasthy said. The exchange will initially offer trading in Contingency contracts, Green Contingency contracts, and Renewable Energy Certificates.

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