Indian Energy Exchange share price slumps over 5% today, here's why

The shares of Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) experienced a nearly 4.8 percent decline intraday following an announcement by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) regarding the initiation of a shadow pilot program on market coupling for India's power exchanges. Around 11 am, the stock was trading at ₹145.45.

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According to a notice issued on February 6 by the CERC, Grid India will develop the necessary software within the next two months to facilitate a shadow pilot for market coupling involving the three power exchanges - Indian Electricity Exchange (IEX), Power Exchange of India (PXIL), and Hindustan Power Exchange (HPX). Following the pilot program, the exchanges will furnish data and information to the CERC to evaluate the potential benefits of market coupling.

However, the CERC emphasized that the outcomes of the shadow pilot will not impact the price and volume discovery in the actual real-time market (RTM) and day-ahead market (DAM) of the power exchanges. Furthermore, it clarified that the trial run will not affect the final schedule and settlement for any entity during the trial period.

Satyanarayan Goel, Chairman & Managing Director, Indian Energy Exchange, said, “IEX welcomes directions by the Commission regarding shadow pilot study on market coupling. After examining the stakeholders suggestion on CERC staff paper on Market Coupling dated 21st Aug 23, the staff of the Commission carried out simulations for coupling in DAM and RTM and no significant benefit was observed. One of the suggestions received was for coupling RTM with SCED and simulation studies of this indicated marginal benefit under this alternative. For a detailed analysis CERC has now directed GRID- INDIA to carry out simulations in the next 6 months for different alternatives considering operational, market and regulatory aspects of the implementation. CERC order is only for pilot study and final view will be taken based on outcome of study and consultation with stakeholders thereafter.”

Market coupling entails a model where the buying and selling bids across all three power exchanges are consolidated into a uniform market clearing price.

The shares of IEX reached a 52-week low on June 9th of the previous year coinciding with the government's authorization for the introduction of market coupling across exchanges.

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IEX stock has gained nearly 12.55 percent in the last six months and around 5.18 percent in the last one year.

In the third quarter, IEX disclosed a notable 18.9 percent year-on-year surge in net profit, reaching ₹91.8 crore. Simultaneously, revenue from operations during the same period demonstrated robust growth, escalating by 15 percent to ₹115.3 crore from ₹100.27 crore in the third quarter of the fiscal year 2023.