the changing scenario of electricity trading and power ...

Proceedings of the National Power Engineering Conference (NPEC‟10) Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai – 15, Shafqat Mughal : Power Market Mechanism In India 2 & 3 December 2010, pp. 6 – 12

THE CHANGING SCENARIO OF ELECTRICITY TRADING AND POWER MARKET MECHANISM IN INDIA Shafqat Mughal M.Tech student (Advanced Power Systems) NIT Hamirpur, H.P, India email: [email protected]

parties compete with each other to win their market share and remain in business. Open access is the key to a free and fair electricity market. Power producers (sellers) and dealers/customers (buyers) have to share a common transmission network for wheeling the power from the point of generation to the point of consumption. Thus, interconnected transmission system is considered to be a natural monopoly so as to avoid the duplicity, the problem of right-of-the-way, huge investment for new infrastructure and to take the advantage of the interconnected network viz. reduced installed capacity, increased system reliability and improved system performance. Managing risk is primary tasks of any trading system [1]. Many developed countries have already undertaken electricity sector reform since the1980s. The experiences in developed countries should be valuable sources of information for India. Although the fundamental goal of electricity sector reform is to increase efficiency, it is not yet clear how best to achieve this goal. As a matter of fact, there exists diversity in the operation of the wholesale electricity market. The policy makers and the market participants in these countries look as if they are „experimenting‟ with various procedures to promote electricity trading. Hence, the selection of appropriate strategies for India to follow in developing an efficient wholesale market remains controversial. Even if the best practice is identified, it is important to consider country-specific factors that may prevent India from following the same practice.

ABSTRACT Indian power sector is undergoing reform to introduce competition to the market. A clear trading system is very important for free and fair competitive electricity market operation. Trading system should be capable of risk hedging associated with price volatility and other unexpected changes. Unlike many developed countries, however, there is no definitive plan to introduce retail competition in India. While there could be many ways of introducing competition to improve the economic performance of the sector, one of the specific targets proposed at the national level is to create a nationwide electricity market to efficiently allocate the capital and energy resources across the nation. This paper besides giving an overview of electricity trading system discusses the various power contracts and points out key challenges for the development of efficient and competitive power market. INDEX TERMS Power trading, wholesale market, Electricity Act 2003, CERC, Regulation. 1. INTRODUCTION India‟s electricity sector is currently undergoing reform to introduce competition to the market. The reform process began in 1990 but the progress in the subsequent years has been slow. Recently, however, new legislation (Electricity Act, 2003) was passed and the government intends to accelerate the process of reform. Although there are many agenda for the intended reform, one of the priorities is to facilitate nationwide electricity trading at the wholesale level. Such trading activity is expected to develop an efficient wholesale electricity market in India, which is key to the success of the sector‟s reform. An open, transparent market place would reveal the inefficiencies of the current system and encourage competition among generators to improve the sector‟s economic efficiency. Electricity sector restructuring, also popularly known as deregulation is expected to draw private investment, increase efficiency, promote technical growth and improve customer satisfaction as different

2. POWER TRADING CONTRACTS There are a variety of power contracts which are available for trading of electricity. These contracts are essential for developing an efficient wholesale market. In some instances, these financial contracts can be used to accomplish what might be termed as virtual divesture. A. Future Contracts Future contracts include an obligation to buy or sell a specified quantity of an asset at a certain future time for a certain price. The futures are

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Shafqat Mughal : Power Market Mechanism In India

standardized contracts which are traded on and cleared by an exchange and the exchange could guarantee that the contract would be honored [2]. Note, however, that the only point of negotiation is the price. All other terms and conditions are prespecified, thereby making it a standardized contract. The main justification of futures contract is that it permits specialization between two elements of the economic process: the function of holding commodities and the function of bearing the risk of price changes [4]. The seller of a futures contract on a commodity does not normally intend to deliver the actual commodity nor does the buyer intend to accept delivery; each will, at some time prior to delivery specified in the contract, cancel out obligation by an offsetting purchase or sell. In fact, historically, less than one or two percent of futures contract have been fulfilled by actual delivery. Robert [5] modified the future contract to create a unique resettlement mechanism which makes future contracts more useful for hedgers on both sides of market.

between strike price and spot price. Thus both parties have hedged their exposure to spot price.

Fig.1- Payment streams in a CfD

A one way CfD is similar to financial option contract and also include an option fee in addition to strike price and contract quantity. Under one way contract, difference payments are made only if spot price rises above the strike price.

B. Forward Contracts Forward contract are in some aspects similar to future contracts. They include an obligation to buy or sell a specified quantity of an asset at a certain future time for a certain price. Forward contracts are traded bilaterally or over the counter between two financial institutions or between a financial institution and one of its corporate clients and the contracted parties usually customize the contract in order to make it fit their needs [4].Usually, In future contracts; there is a range of possible delivery date. Whereas forward contracts have a specific expiration at which the asset is delivered and payment is made [3]. The buyer of contract is called long whose purchase obligates him to accept delivery unless he liquidates his contract with an offsetting sale. The seller of the contract is called short.

D. Option Contracts An option contract includes a right (not obligation) to buy or sell a specified quantity of an asset at a certain future time for a certain price. In case of futures/forwards, contract is either held for delivery or liquidity, but option contracts maybe held for liquidity, delivery or expire worthlessly [1]. To enter an option contract, the buyer pays a premium to the seller of options, while in futures and forwards, the buyer does not have to pay any charges. A call option gives the holder the right to purchase the underlying asset at some future date, and a put option gives the holder the right to sell the underlying asset at some future date. Let utility-A purchase call options from utility-B with a strike price of $8/MWh at a premium of $2/MWh. For utility-A, any future price of $8/MWh or less would result in loss equal to premium, which is $2/MWh. At a future price of$10/MWh, utility-A‟s profit (loss) is zero (it is called breakeven transaction) and at any price greater than $10/MWh, utility-A would gain up to an unlimited value. In another case let utility-A purchase put options from utility-B with a strike price of $20/MWh at a premium of $2/MWh. For utility-A, any future price at $20/MWh or more would result in a loss equal to the premium, which is $2/MWh. At a futures price of$18/MWh, utility-A‟s profit (loss) is zero (it is called breakeven transaction) and at any price less than $18/MWh, utility-A would obtain a gain. Since option contracts are tradable, the holders have the flexibility to sell the contract in secondary

C. Contract for Differences (CfDs) CfDs, which are mechanisms to stabilize the power costs to consumers and revenues to generators, is one form of forward contract. These contracts are suggested due to the fact that the spot price set by Pool Co fluctuates over a wide range and difficult to forecast over a long periods. A CfD can be either one way or two-way [8]. A two-way CfD is similar to financial future contract and is defined in terms of a strike price ($/MWh), and a quantity (MWh). As shown in Fig. 1, when spot price is above the strike price, the seller pays buyer an amount equal to difference between the spot price and strike price and when the spot price is below the strike price, buyer pays the seller an amount equal to the difference

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market [4]. However, option contracts are financial instruments and are not directly related to physical delivery of electricity. The holder does not have to exercise this right. This fact distinguishes options from future contracts. A new electricity forward contract bundled with bilateral financial options or optional forward contract is introduced in [6], which gives option holder a right but not an obligation to purchase or sell the contract energy at a delivery time for a given price. This allows both seller and buyer to take advantage of flexibility in generation and consumption to obtain monetary benefits while simultaneously removing the risk of market price fluctuations.

particularly the distribution companies had to focus on revenue collection and efficiency improvement. 4. INDIAN ELECTRICITY MARKET Power Trading Corporation of India Ltd. (PTC), the leading provider of power trading services, in India is trading power on a sustained basis since June 2002 through purchase from surplus utilities and sales to deficit State Electricity Boards (SEBs) at an economical price, providing best value to both the buyers and sellers and ensuring that the resources are utilized optimally.PTC is a „pure-play‟ trading entity, and does not own any generating units or transmission facilities. PTC acts as a single-window service provider that manages both financial as well as operational risks for the buyer and seller entities in its trading transactions. On the one hand timely payments are ensured to the sellers of power and on the other hand a definite quantum of power is delivered to the buyers of power in a reliable manner. For its services, PTC charges a predetermined amount of transaction charges, worked on a per unit (KWh) basis or as a percentage of the cost of power. The pricing and margin information is known to both the counterparties in a transparent manner. In some instances PTC has both bought and sold power from the same entity at different times of the day depending upon the load profile of the entity.PTC catalyses the development of power projects by entering into multi-year contracts for future trading of power. These Power Purchase Agreements with PTC are being recognized by lenders as security for financial closure of power projects. Typically, the counterparty contracts for these projects or Power Sale Agreements are structured with multiple buyers, through which about 80% of the power generation from the project is tied up for long term sale, and 20% is kept as reserve for the short-term market. PTC has been identified as the nodal agency for cross border trading with neighboring countries: Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, which are rich in hydro power resources. Utilities in Bhutan account for the nearly 24% trading volumes from cross-border sources. Being the pioneer in trading in India, PTC sees a developmental role for itself to increase the depth and breadth of the market under new Electricity Act 2003.PTC also views an opportunity in alliances with emerging entities for setting up their operations in the manner that the business is recognized globally. In future, it intends to set up an online trading platform similar to a power exchange. Though the power-trading scenario in India is at a nascent stage, it is growing at a rapid pace. The

3. CHANGING ELECTRICITY SUPPLY STRUCTURE IN INDIA In India power development program implementation was opened to private sector participation in the earlier Nineties. Existing power supply utilities had to be restructured. By now most of monolithic public sector utilities (State Electricity Boards/Corporations) have been unbundled. Non Government electricity supply utilities are now in the field contributing to power generation programs and distribution companies have - Higher responsibilities-service parameters include customer satisfaction and ensure cash flows - Evolving competitive environment in distribution leading to service beyond tariff collection - Legal foundation for emergence of competitive or multi-buyer structure in the Indian Power Sector was laid by the Indian Electricity Act 2003 mandating certain restructuring needed for the purpose. The Act also brought in certain legislation empowering the consumers to have a choice to decide a supplier to take power from with multi-user. This is the basic ingredient of competition. The unbundled single buyer model is essentially a chain of connected monopolies. All generating stations who supply electricity in the state sell to the Transco. The Transco in turn procures all electricity that needs to be supplied to end consumers. The discoms can purchase their requirements only from the Transco and consumers in each of the discoms have no choice but to buy their electricity supply from the local distribution company, which has the monopoly to serve in that area. Although the single buyer model could have at best been a transitory model, it was never clear what the eventual structure the electricity supply industry should aim at. However, what it did achieve was ensure that each function of generation, transmission and distribution received the focus of management as it was a separate entity. And along with regulatory oversight, each of the companies,

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power market in India has evolved over the last four years and it is expected that it is likely to grow at a faster pace – with the reforms of SEBs and building up of transmission highways across the regions to increase Inter-regional power transfer capacity from currently available 8000 MW to 30,000 MW.

by the Commission which ever was earlier. After Notification of Trading Regulations, the interested parties could file fresh applications before CERC, seeking inter-state trading licenses, in accordance with these Regulations. The Commission is also initiating actions for preparation of Regulations for establishment of a market mechanism for electricity. The Regulations for market mechanism will be done after following a transparent process as is the normal practice of the Commission. The Regional Load Despatch Centre is proposed to be the apex body to ensure integrated operation of the power system in the concerned region. The Regional Load Despatch Centre shall comply with such principles, guidelines and methodologies in respect of wheeling and optimum scheduling and despatch of electricity as the Central Commission may specify in the Grid Code. Fig (2) shows the structure of interstate trading of electricity in India.

5. POWER TRADING IN INDIA In India, while there is a huge section of consumers, who are power deprived, there are a lot of Captive Power Plants (CPPs) that are underutilized and a lot of merchant capacity also expected to be added in the near future, there is a need to encourage the peaking power plants and bring the surplus captive generation in the grid. The Electricity Act, 2003, mandated development of power markets by appropriate commissions through enabling regulations. This paved the way for the new trends to emerge like Open Access and the one in February, 2007, when the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) issued guidelines for grant of permission for setting up operation of power exchanges within an overall regulatory framework. The emerging trends will help in proper flow of power from surplus regions to deficit regions and thus try to bring about a balance in the power sector. The National Electricity Policy, pronounced in February 2005, stipulated that enabling regulations for inter-and-intra-state trading, and also regulations on power exchange, shall be notified by the appropriate Commissions within six months. On 6th February 2007, the Central electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) issued guidelines for grant of permission for setting up and operation of power exchanges within an overall regulatory framework. Private entrepreneurship is allowed to play its role. Promoters are required to develop their model power exchange and seek permission from CERC before start of operation.

CS-1

CS-2

IPP

RLDC coordinates

Regional Grid

STATE-A

STATE-C STATE-B

CS-central sectors ; IPP-independent power producers Fig.2-Interstate trading of electricity

7. TRANSMISSION OPEN ACCESS CERC has issued open access regulations as per EA 2003and introduced for the first time to promote competition among the generating companies in May 2004. The open access provided non discriminatory use of the interstate and intrastate transmission system, facilitating the trading of power from one utility to other. It also facilitates setting up of Independent Power Producers (IPPs), Captive Power Producers (CPPs), and merchant power plants. Open access at the state level will be facilitated by the intrastate availability based tariff (ABT). Long-term open access transactions (those more than25 years) have priority over the short-term open access transactions during congestion. Therefore, in realtime operation under congestion, pro-rata curtailment is done to all the short term open access transactions.

6. INTER STATE TRADING OF ELECTRICITY The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has issued final Regulations for Inter-State Trading of Electricity after taking into account the suggestions and comments received from the stakeholders. The Electricity Act, 2003, recognizes trading as an independent activity and accordingly prescribes issue of trading licenses by the CERC for inter-state trading. The Commission earlier received applications from various companies for issue of trading licenses immediately after the enactment of the Electricity Act, 2003 and the Commission had permitted all of them to continue trading till 31.3.2004 or till the issue of Regulations

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At present, the short-term open access is provided based on margins available in the existing network. The open access can yield desirable results if one can ensure adequate margins in the transmission system. After implementation of open access, the experience gained has been providing signals for identification of congested corridors and expansion planning. The increased number of bilateral transactions under open access results in the loading of transmission lines close to the limit. To ensure the security from impending disturbances, defence plans are implemented. The plans include automatic under frequency load shedding, under voltage load shedding, islanding schemes, etc. These defence plans have successfully operated for many disturbances.

Fig. 3- Flow chart of power exchange mechanism 9. POWER EXCHANGE BENEFITS The power exchanges provide a fair and transparent mechanism for efficient price discovery of the power traded. The trading system is based on an auction mechanism and is divided into multiple sessions meant for sell, buy, trade matching and price revision, which provides bidders with sufficient time and information to plan their bidding strategy. It Performs activities of schedule coordination, settlement handling and physical delivery, under a single roof and further assists in creating deep and liquid market on hourly basis for any size of bid. They also eliminate credit risk by performing the role of a counter party to all trade. A new trend that is emerging is that the existing generation companies have reduced their long term power sale commitments from 90-100% to 75-80% and sell the remaining 20-25% through the open market which provides them better returns thus improving their financial position. Power exchanges act as a catalyst for efficient transfer of power at fair and transparent prices using open access. In FY200607, short term market size was worth Rs.7200 cr and it is expected to increase about Rs. 40000 cr in coming five years.

8. POWER EXCHANGE MECHANISM It is the CERC which currently permits the purchase and sale of electricity on a day ahead market basis through exchanges. The Indian markets are based on the auction trade mechanism where bids for the purchase and sale of contracts of one hour duration that cover all 24 hours for the next day are collected by between 10am and 12am. The model adopted by the power exchanges in India is based on that of the Nord pool market. The Indian power market is divided into 10 separate bid areas which have different prices in case the unconstrained electricity flow between biding areas exceeds the available transfer capacity. Flow chart of power exchange mechanism is shown in fig (3). Bidders submit the bids to PX

10. CHALLENGES AND ISSUES CONFRONTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF POWER MARKETS A number of issues are affecting the development of power markets in India. Following are the important issues.

PX calculates MCP &MCV

PX informs NLDC/RLDC about the required Transmission capacity

1. Lack of Participation in Electricity Trading on Power Exchanges: One of the most important objectives of setting up power exchanges in India was to introduce competition. The very concept of competition lies on the premise of presence of a large number of buyers and sellers, so that no single player can exert undue influence on the entire market. The multi-buyer and multi-seller model as envisioned by the Electricity Act 2003 is yet to materialize in a concrete manner.

NLDC/RLDC inform PX about ATC

PX obtains NLDC concurrence before dispatching day ahead schedule

2. Definition of Appropriate Market place and its Forces: In order to ensure the success of Power Markets, it is imperative to ensure the working of a

RLDCs issues day ahead generation & dispatch schedule

Settlement on T+1basis

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free, fair and transparent market place and its various participants. This necessitates the step to first define market place appropriately. Power Markets are typically defined on the basis of tenure and geographical limits.. In addition to this, real time/ balancing contracts also need to be developed. These contracts are typically based on random events and contingencies and give rise to intra-day demand and supply need of power. These kinds of contracts enable a participant to enter the market on a real time basis and trade power. In the geographical context, the biggest challenge is that Indian power exchanges operate on a “multiple control points”, as a result of which there are transmission constraints on a single line. One of the solutions suggested to deal with this problem is to develop the infrastructure for a super capacity highway to assist fast and decongested transmission of electricity. The process to connect regional and national markets to each other via the national grid must be quickened. The regulatory commission must make it mandatory for states to foretell their procurement requirement and assist them in the construction of enabling transmission infrastructure at their respective boundaries.

bids and buyers requiring electricity match such prices 4. Deficit Market: An important point to highlight here is that India is perhaps the only country to have a growing power market in an overall deficit condition. In such a scenario, the benefits of trading cannot be sufficiently passed on to the consumers. Therefore, it goes without saying that generation capacity addition to bridge the demand supply gap is a pre-condition to ensure efficiency of power markets. Besides, in a deficit market the participants face quantity risk in addition to price risk. Deficit market also poses a hindrance to the introduction futures trading, as their delivery on maturity cannot be guaranteed. 5. Pricing Mechanism: While introducing exchangetraded collective transactions, a form of point-ofconnection tariff on MW usage basis was conceptualized. This mechanism though suitable to the day-ahead market, isn‟t amenable to long term contracts. In fact the pricing mechanism varies across the various categories of trading contracts. Below are mentioned some characteristics of the pricing of different term contracts. This varied inherent nature of different term contracts makes the entire process of pricing complex. In such a scenario, it is essential to define the extent of regulatory jurisdiction over pricing. The prices determined by market forces have been an uphill task, therefore it becomes all the more important to deliberate over the fact that should exchange prices be completely left to demand and supply forces. When is the right time for the regulator to step in? The market matching mechanism being used now in the day-ahead market, needs to be suitably evolved to suit the needs of products of longer tenure. There are various market matching mechanisms which can be utilized for the power markets such as pay-as-bid auctions and Vickrey Auctions, to name a few.

3. Introduction of Innovative Market Products: The Indian Power Markets are characterized by lack of innovative financial products and liquidity. One of the best ways to attract greater participation and liquidity to power markets is to introduce various kinds of products to suit different consumer needs. There is a need to differentiate between markets for physical delivery and market for financial products. Currently 100% of the Indian power exchange market operates in the delivery mode and trades in derivatives/ futures are yet to evolve • Long tenure products: week-ahead, 1st month ahead, 2nd month ahead and 3rd month ahead contracts. • Intra-state products: The intra-state products involve 2-day-ahead transactions wherein a market participant can buy/sell power from/to other market participant within the same state. • However, the unmatched trades would be brought to the national day-ahead market on next day. • Day-Ahead-Contingency (DAC) product: It has been designed by PXIL to provide buyers and sellers with additional opportunity to clear their volume at the end of the day after trading is over for the dayahead market. According to PXIL authorities, given the perishable nature of electricity, surplus electricity which could not be traded during the earlier session can still be cleared if the sellers reduce their price

6. Regulation: Though the Indian exchanges currently operate under CERC‟s supervision, broader market defining regulations delineating the role of each participant in the power market value chain are yet to be developed. The concept of power trading is still in its nascent stage and appropriate regulatory framework to guide its success is critical. Regulators should work in collaboration with the power exchange authorities to keep in mind participants and consumer interests and at the same time ensure a vibrant and smooth functioning of the exchanges.

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7. Open Competitive bidding (short- term): In the short term trade, market participants and intermediaries are invited for discovery of best levels of sale and purchase prices. But, this works well only in an unconstrained and efficient market. In a constrained market, characterized by limited evacuation paths, lack of participation and overall shortage situation, it leads to price spikes. Thus, in order to tackle such a situation, the exchanges should adopt a method based on a combination of • Adequate leeway to participants to deploy sound commercial practices in entering short-term arrangements; and • Evolving, over a long term, a bidding methodology that allows generators and utilities in an unconstrained system to discover a system-MarginalPrice

3.

8. Information Asymmetry: There are a varied group of entities involved in trading through the Power Exchanges, each having its own set of valid information. Valuable information thus gets distributed in different form, structure and places. Also, the timeline for this information is not laid down. Thus, there is an urgent need to streamline all relevant data and develop a comprehensive data to cater to the needs of power trading and help in making the entire process more efficient.

8.

4.

5. 6.

7.

9.

10.

11. 11. CONCLUSION Although the fundamental goal of electricity sector reform is to increase efficiency, it is not yet clear how best to achieve this goal. As a matter of fact, there exists diversity in the operation of the wholesale electricity market. The policy makers and the market participants in these countries look as if they are „experimenting‟ with various procedures to promote electricity trading. Hence, the selection of appropriate strategies for India to follow in developing an efficient wholesale market remains controversial. Even if the best practice is identified, it is important to consider country-specific factors that may prevent India from following the same practice.

12.

13.

14. 15.

16. 1.

2.

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BIOGRAPHIES Shafqat mughal was born in district kishtwar of Jammu and Kashmir State. He received his B.E in Electrical engineering in 2008 from Govt.college of engineering and technology Jammu. He is presently pursuing Mtech in advanced power systems from NIT Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh. His areas of interests are HVDC, Deregulation and Power System Optimization etc

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