Indian non-solar REC demand in Jun 2014 rises by 376%

Jun 25, 2014 - Demand for non-solar renewable energy certificates (RECs) in India for June jumped by 376% on the previous month with buy bids surpassing 139,000 units, consultant REConnect Energy Solutions Pvt said today.

Actually, the month-on-month rise is not that impressive as May demand was the lowest since August 2011. The transactional value of the sold non-solar RECs was INR 208.8 million (USD 3.5m/EUR 2.6m), according to a monthly update by REConnect. The certificates have been trading at the floor level -- INR 1,500 apiece for 22 months.

In June non-solar REC inventory hit 6.98 million.

Solar REC demand this month fell by 22% to only 1,654 buy bids with a transactional value of INR 15.4 million. At the same time, supply grew by 11% so the solar REC inventory in India now stands at around 230,000 units. Due to the gap between demand and supply the certificates’ price has been INR 9,300 apiece since June 2013, the lowest allowed under the REC mechanism.

Under the REC scheme, companies that produce renewable power in India but do not take advantage of feed-in tariffs receive one REC per MWh generated. The RECs are traded on the last Wednesday of each month on the Power Exchange India Ltd (PXIL) and the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX). Utilities and certain other power consumers are obliged under the renewable purchase obligation (RPO) to purchase RECs or produce green electricity alone to help offset their environmental footprint. However, the poor enforcement of the RPO so far has affected significantly the functioning of the REC trading mechanism.

(INR 10 = USD 0.166/EUR 0.122)

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