Sales of renewable energy certificates (RECs) declined by 49.34 per cent to 8.19 lakh units on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange of India (PXIL) in August, compared to 16.18 lakh in July this year.
The Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) is mandated by central/state regulatory commission and is applicable to power distribution companies, open access consumer and captive consumers. They are under obligation to buy RECs from renewable energy producers to meet this norm.
The auction of RECs is conducted once by the two exchanges on the last Wednesday of every month.
IEX and PXIL sold 3,11,797 and 5,07,811 RECs, respectively, totalling 8,19,608 RECs for the month of August in the auction conducted yesterday, as per the official data released by the exchanges.
In July this year, the PXIL and IEX sold 6,17,757 and 10,00,312 RECs respectively, totalling 16,18,069 RECs, as per data available on both the exchanges.
"The PXIL successfully conducted REC trading for the month of August 2018. PXIL attained a market share of 56 per cent in solar REC segment and overall 38 per cent market share," the exchange said.
The IEX said in a statement, "The REC trading session held on August 29, 2018, saw a total trade of 5,07,811 lakh RECs comprising of 2,91,588 lakh non-solar RECs and 2,16,223 lakh solar RECs. The distribution companies emerged as the major buyers in the session followed by open access and captive consumers.