Six Of 13 States Barred From Bidding For Spot Power Now Allowed

Six of the 13 states that India barred from buying power in the spot market because of unpaid dues have been allowed to trade on the exchanges, according to a person aware of the development.

The states allowed to bid for spot power include Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Manipur, the person told BQ Prime on the condition of anonymity as details are not public yet.

It wasn’t immediately clear if these states paid the dues.

The six states will come back to the real-time market for trade, the person quoted earlier said.

Bidding restriction continues on Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, and Mizoram.

The Ministry of Power didn’t immediately respond to BQ Prime’s emailed queries. Phone calls to mobile number of the secretary in the ministry went unanswered.

The Power System Operation Corp., under the Ministry of Power, had asked three power exchanges — IEX, PXIL and HPX — to restrict electricity trading by 27 distribution companies in 13 states having outstanding dues towards power producers, the PTI reported on Thursday.

The outstanding dues to exchanges, according to government’s data, stood at Rs 5,085 crore as on Aug. 17.

The states have been barred from either buying or selling power in the spot market or transact bilaterally unless they clear their outstanding dues to power generators or transmission companies.

According to the rules introduced in June, state distribution companies will lose access to short-term sources of electricity if they fail to pay within two-and-a-half months from the date bills were raised.

Following the restrictions on states, the volumes in the day-ahead market on the IEX dropped to 74 million units on Thursday compared with 130 million units a day earlier.

The volumes are expected to pick up after the restricted six states come back to the real-time-market, a senior executive at IEX said.