India's Electricity Demand Boosts IEX

07 Nov 2023 CW Team

In October, with a significant surge in electricity consumption across India, the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) reported a substantial increase of 21% in its electricity volume, reaching 9,260 million units (MU). Their day-ahead market (DAM) also witnessed growth, rising by 8.3% to 4,742 MU compared to 4,379 MU in the same month last year.

Data from the Grid Controller of India Limited (GRID-India) for October revealed a 22% increase in the country's energy consumption, reaching 139 billion units (BU) compared to the previous year. This increase was attributed to below-average rainfall in October and a lower consumption base in the previous year.

The heightened power demand prompted distribution companies (Discoms) to actively engage in power purchases through the exchange to meet the growing demand, resulting in a significant increase in trade volumes on IEX. Additionally, this surge in demand led to a 68% rise in DAM prices, reaching Rs 6.45 per unit.

During the month, the green day-ahead market (G-DAM) achieved a volume of 180.80 MU, with a weighted average price of Rs 6.37 per unit. The segment saw participation from 194 market participants.

The green term-ahead market (G-TAM) recorded a volume of 7.23 MU in October, with a monthly average price for non-solar energy at Rs 8.40 per unit.

The real-time electricity market (RTM) volume increased to 2,402 MU in October, compared to 2,265 MU in October 2022, marking a 6.1% increase. The RTM segment offers distribution utilities and industries greater flexibility for real-time balancing of power demand and supply, optimising their portfolios.

The day-ahead contingency and term-ahead market (TAM), encompassing contingency, daily, weekly, and monthly contracts up to three months, traded 1,911 MU in October, marking a significant year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase of 207.6%.

Infrastructure Transport

12 Mar 2026

Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah

"Kavach version four has been commissioned on 1,452 route km, covering the high density Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors. The rollout included laying 8,570 km of optical fibre, installation of 1,100 telecom towers, deployment of trackside equipment over 6,776 RKm and establishment of 767 station data centres. Trackside implementation has been taken up on 24,427 RKm covering Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and High Density Network sections. The programme aims to strengthen signalling and train protection on key routes.Kavach is an indigenously developed automatic train protecti..

Railways Advance Kalyan–Murbad Line And Mumbai Capacity Expansion

"Indian Railways is advancing multiple rail infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, including the sanctioned Kalyan–Murbad new line and sizable investments under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project. The Kalyan–Murbad 28 km new line has been sanctioned at Rs 8.36 billion (bn) on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis with the Government of Maharashtra and has been declared a Special Railway Project for land acquisition; proposals covering 214 hectares are at various stages of acquisition. Budgetary outlay for projects falling fully or partly in Maharash..

Parliamentary Panel Flags Funding Gaps in Heavy Industries

"The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (Rajya Sabha) presented its 332nd report on the Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI). Figures converted from crore and lakh are expressed in million (mn). The Budget Estimates 2026-27 for the Ministry stand at Rs 79,399 mn against a projected requirement of Rs 94,843.2 mn, a shortfall of about 16 per cent, with revenue at Rs 79,370.8 mn and capital compressed to Rs 28.2 mn from Rs 5,020 mn.The committee flagged recurring BE-to-RE compression and declining revised estimate utilisation, and calle..