Proposal for power exchange suffers outage

The Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) has rejected the proposal by a private entity to establish an intrastate power exchange-- essentially a ‘stock exchange’ for electricity-- in

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) has rejected the proposal by a private entity to establish an intrastate power exchange-- essentially a ‘stock exchange’ for electricity-- in the state.
According to the KSERC, at present there was no pressing need for a power exchange in Kerala, as proposed by the REI Power Bazaar Ltd

Moreover, the Commission noted the national-level power exchanges-- Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and the Power Exchange India Ltd (PXIL) -- were adequate to meet the state’s present electricity requirements. Barring the ones operating at the national level, no state has a ‘power exchange’. Of the two exchanges,the IEX handles 90 per cent of the business.
“The state’s needs are adequately served by the two (IEX and PXIL). REI Power Bazaar offered a platform for power trading within the state,” said K Vikraman Nair, KSERC member.
“Kerala neither has the power generation levels nor surplus power to justify such a facility. Moreover,the petitioner could not furnish the documents sought by the Commission under various regulations. So the proposal was junked,” he said.

The REI had initially claimed it aimed to corner one per cent of the market,with a yearly growth of one per cent. Further, the platform would act as a ‘building block’ for ‘carriage and content’ separation.
Incidentally, the power sector unions vehemently oppose carriage and content separation, as it enables the private players to use the existing distribution lines and equipment (those owned by the KSEB, for instance) to supply power to the consumers. REI contended its exchange would offer the consumers freedom of choice.
However, the Commission said Kerala already had a main distributor in the KSEB which had the first right of refusal on the power generated at the captive power plants.
Also, there was no hindrance to the power procurement through the national-level exchanges and traders, it noted.

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