Indian Energy Exchange Limited earnings call

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to th e Indian Energy Exchange Q2 FY2024 Results Conference Call hosted by Axis Capital Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode , and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need any assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing “*” then “0” on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sumit Kishore. Thank you and over to you Sir!

Good Afternoon everyone. On behalf of Axis Capital I am pleased to welcome you all for the IEX Q2 FY 2024 earnings conference call. We have with us the management team of IEX represented by Mr. SN Goel, Chai rman and Man aging Director, Mr . Vineet Harlalka, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Rohit Bajaj, Executive Director Business Development, Strategy and Regulatory Affairs; and Ms. Aparna Garg, Head, Investor Relations and Corporate Communication. We will begin with the opening remarks from Mr. Goel followed by an interactive Q&A session. Over to you Sir!

Good Afternoon, friends. I welcome you all to the IEX earnings call for quarter two of FY2024. With me today on this call are Mr. Rohit Baja j, our Executive Director, Business Development, Strategy and Regulatory Affairs ; Mr. Vineet Harlalka, our CFO & Company Secretary, M r. Amit Kumar, Head of Market Operations and New Product Development, Ms. Aparna Garg Head of Investor Relations and Communication and Mr. Aditya Wali. Friends, the Indian economy continues to be the world' s fastest growing major economy. The recent success of India's G20 presidency, and the G20 New Delhi leader’s declaration has further raised India’s standing as a global leader. Further, achievements during the India G20 presidency included the creation of a Global Biofuels Alliance, which aims to share knowledge, technology, and fin ance to develop and introduce cleaner fuels and the finalization of India, Middle East, Europe Economic Corridor Agreement. The summit demonstrated to the world that India is not only emerging as a world leader, but also becoming a voice of the global South to achieve the goal of inclusive development and tackle challenges of climate change through global cooperation. Moving on, the Indian economy is sustaining its growth momentum over the past two years in the face of global headwinds. India’s GDP for first quarter FY2024 grew at a rate of 7.8% the highest among major economies. This growth momentum has been on the back of an expanding service sector , private consumption, and increased capital expenditure. At 57.5 in September 2023 , India's manufacturing PMI remained exp ansionary for the 27th straight month. The quarter two FY2024 print came in at 57.9 compared with 55.9 in quarter 2 o f last fiscal r eflecting the count ry's healthy demand environment. The service PMI pulled off slightly from a 13-year high of 62.3 in July to 61.0 in September , printing a quarter 2 FY20 24 number of 61.1 compared with 55.7 same period l ast year. In this backdrop the World Bank estimate of India's economic activity for the current financial year is on track to grow at a rate of 6.3%. Coming to power sector update On the power sector front electricity consumption in India for quarter 2 FY2024 stood at 435 .8 BU a growth of 13% on a year -on-year basis. Power demand was higher than anticipated for the monsoon months with peak power demand touching nearly 240 gigawatt in Septembe r first week. States like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, witnessed soaring demand this quarter. In the previous quarter cooler ambient temperatures had kept demand for power sector lo wer than anticipate d. By the end of quarter 2 of FY 2024 India's total installed capacity stood at 425 giga watt out of which 179 gigawatt was contributed by renewables. India remains on track to attain its target of achieving 50% of energy consumption from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. On the fuel side, India's coal production increased by a robust 16.2% on year -on-year basis to reach 205 million tons in quarter 2 of FY2024. For the period April to September coal production was up by 12% on year-on-year basis to 428 million tons. Coal dispatches to the power sector increased by nearly 11% on year-on-year basis during quarter 2 FY2024 to 181 million tons. E-auction coal premium has also continued to decline since the beginning of this financial year. The premium declined to about 100% in September 2023 from 276% in September 2022 and a peak of 4 25% in May 2022. The average imported coal price of 4200 GAR coal also continued to ease at $56 per ton lower by 35% over the same quarter of last fiscal. Imported gas price has reduced by nearly 60% year -on-year basis to $16 per MMBTU. Average coal inventory st ood at near ly 13 days during quarter 2 FY2024 higher than 11 days which was there in qu arter two of last fiscal. The improved supply side scenario resulted in incre ased sell liquidity, but an unexpe cted surge in power demand has kept th e prices higher on the exchange. The average market clearing price in the DAM market during quarter two of this year was Rs.5.88 per unit compared with 5.4 per unit i n the same quarter last year, higher by nearly 9% over the first quarter of this year. With supply side volumes continuing to i mprove and robust power demand , volumes at the exchange are expected to grow going forward. Let us now talk about the noteworthy regulatory updates and policy initiatives introduced by the government in quarter 2 FY2024. The CERC has notified the Indian Electricity Grid Code, the Sharing of Interstate Transmission Charges Regulations and the long awaited GNA Regulations. The salient feature of these regulations are: i. The long -standing anomaly in transmission charge betwe en collective and bilateral trans actions has been corrected, which will facilitate movement of volume from D AC market back to DAM market since sellers will no longer be required to pay interstate transmission charges. ii. Under IGC, generators with long -term PPA s would also be able to sell their surplus power which is not requisition by the DISCOMS in the day-ahead market without consent of buyers. To improve availability of sell in the market , on 5 th September 2023, Government has directed generators with P PAs to o ffer on exchange the URS power on day ahead market also. iii. Generators would now be allowed to meet their commitment in case of unit shut down or forced outage by purchasing power through the exchanges. iv. Buyers will be able to use their GNA optimally as transmission charges in collective transactions will be applicable only for the b uy quantum in excess of their GNA, which will facilitate b uy on the exchange , as the working capital requirement will be reduced for participation in DAM and DAC. v. Interstate transmission charges and losses will only be applicable on buyers. This will provide level playing field for all generators irrespective of their location s and will facilitate competition on the exchange platform. vi. The overall philosophy of transmission planning has changed . Efforts are made to enable adequate transmission capacity addition, which will secure a congestion free transmission system and reduce volume loss due to congestions. vii. These regulations will also facilitate energy transition in a big way by providing flexibility to thermal generators to replace their brown power with green power , introduction of RE aggregators, and connectivity to aggregate 50 megaw att RE capacity. All this will deepen green market on the exchange platform in future. In other up dates, CEA has issued the first amendment to the procedure for cross border trade in electricity. The amendment allows for cross border trade of power through the real- time market operated by the power exchanges. This is expected to increase cross border volume from the exchange. In addition, final guidelines for Resource Adequacy Planning were issued by Ministry of Power in consultation with Central Electricity Authority to enable adequate generation capacity to meet project ed demand in the country. Resource adequacy creates the basis for capacity contracting and can lead to opportunity for I EX to introduce capacity contracts . Such a market will also help in increasing sell side liquidity. The Ministry of Power issued guidelines for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding Process for procurement of RE power wherein developers have been provided flexibility to supply up to 5% of the contracted power by purchasing from the exchange. Guidelines on dispatchable RE power through energy storage, these guidelines now allow generators to supply excess power from the RE plant to any third party or a power exchange without requirement of NOC from the buyer. In June this financial year the Ministry of Power shared a letter with CERC directing it to look into market coupling for the India n power sec tor. The CERC subsequently released a staff paper on market coupling in August. A detailed reading of the staff paper explains the advantages, disadvantages and execution challenges of market coupling. The Commission is yet to take a ny view on implementation of market coupling. We have also submitted our suggestions explaining why market coupling should not be implemented. We do believe that current market operations of IEX will continue undisrupted. In a strategic move to promote a circular econo my and one that aligns with IEX commitment to sustainability and decarbonization and in har mony wi th I ndia's Net Zero commitments, IEX acquired a 10% stake in Enviro Enablers India Private Limited . This deal will augment the value offerings of EEIPL’s material waste platform (MWP), which brings together all stakeholders in the waste sector. Material waste platform holds significant potential to enhance the scientific processing of waste across India and establish a circular economy for a wide range of waste materials. I am happy to inform that we had launched the IEX Academy this year in June to cr eate a pool of skilled professionals for capacity building in the power market. In a span of less than three months we have seen nearly 250 enrollments across programs. In line with our aim to provide seamless experience to our customers, the last quarter witnessed onboarding of members to the web-based bidding platform and to the automated bidding API for DAM and RTM. Recently, we also launched the high price Term-Ahead market. With this we wil l be able to facilitate imported coal based and gas-based power plants to be able to offer high-cost power for up to 90 days. This will ensure there is enough sell side liquidity available during crisis period. The product would also provide sell avenues to battery energy storage system power plants on the exchange. In terms of business performance , IEX achieved 26.5 billion units of tr aded volume across all segments during quarter 2 of FY2024 registering 15% year-on-year basis growth. In the electricity segment particularly, the growth was about 17%. IGX generated a total volume of 195 lakh MMB TU during quarter 2 of FY2024, a jump of 262 % over the same quarter last fiscal. The volume jump was largely on the back of increased domestic gas volume and decreased gas p rices compared with spot prices. The profitability of IG X for quarter 2 FY2024 increased to Rs.7.85 Crores from 2. 42 Crores in the same period last fiscal, an increase of about 224%. Let me now summarize the financial performance of the co mpany. In this quarter on a consolidated basis revenue for quarter t wo of FY2024 increased 16.9% on year -on-year basis to Rs.133 C rores from Rs.113.8 Crores in last year. Consolidated PAT during the quarter came at 86.5 Crores higher by 21.5% on year -on-year basis from Rs.71.2 Crores in quarter 2 of FY2023. With improving coal production, inventory and easing coal prices we expect rationalization of our prices on the exchange and volumes to improve in the coming months. Based on CEA’s draft plan , power consumption in the country should increase by more than 100 billion units annually till 2030 and this presents an opportunity for IEX to tap into incremental volume. IEX will continue to introduce innovative products and market segments to strengthen its existing produc t portfolio . We have been explo ring options to extend the Term -Ahead market contracts from 90 days to one year to provide better optimization opportunities for DISCOMS. We will continue to work with the ministry, regulator, system operators and our partne rs and clie nts and all of th e stakeholders to accelerate India's sustainable energy transition. Thank-you friends, and now we can have question-and-answers.

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question -and-answer session. The first question is from the line of Damodaran from Acuitas Capital Advisors. Please go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity. Three questions from my side. So one is you spoke about , GNA getting implemented in October, but if I look at the share of the Day -Ahead Contingency market, that has already come down sharply in September. So what is t he reason for that, I mean, given that G NA is being implemented now , where do you see the share stabilizing on a sustainable basis. So that was one, then if you look at the mix of volumes, Term-Ahead market has seen a very sharp growth, so what is the reason for that in the last quarter. That was one question , and if you look at C ERC, I think given a deadline for October 16th to give all the comments and suggestions by all market parti cipants. So now what are the next steps that the C ERC will take to arrive at a decision on market coupling. That is one question and the last one was, if I look at the share of bilateral trades in overall volumes, that has also gone up over the last three or four months. I mean, the data is there through July on the CERC website. So if you can throw some light as to what is the reason behind that. These are my questions. Thanks.

Yes, first thing you asked about GNA. Yes, GNA has been imple mented from 1st of October and in the first two, three days we saw very positive development after implementation of GNA. The DAC volume had reduced but subsequently in the month of October you can say right from 5th of October to 15th of October the demand was very high in the country and exchange clearing price was almost Rs.10 throughout the day. And when you have this kind of price , then buyers they try to get into bilateral market to ensure availability of power, so th ey contract in the bilateral market or D AC mark et. So that shifting of, I mean, the impact of GNA was not re ally positive during those days . But then subsequently when the prices started going down th e supply side scenario improved, we are again now seeing that good volume is happening in the Day-Ahead market of exchange and our overall volume growth for the month of October because of GNA implications in electricity has been almost about 20% now. So that is a positive development and I am sure in the coming m onths the growth will be better. Your second question was that our market share in the second quarter was lower. See the reason was basically the second quarter, as I told you, the demand increased by almost 13% and because of the high demand increase many of th e distribution companies they contracted power through the bilateral contracts and in fact bilateral contracts volume increased by almost about 25% during this quarter. So substantial volume shifted to the bilateral contracts because of which the DAM volumes reduced and our market share was lower. But I am sure in the coming quarter you will s ee good increase in the market s hare. Coupling, yes CERC had issued a discussion paper , it was issued on 21st of August and I am sure you must have gone through the discussion paper and the reading of the d iscussion paper indicates that CERC has not taken any view, they are neutral in the paper, they have listed out the advantages whatever they can achieve, but the disadvantages and the challenges in implementation of coupling are more and they have highligh ted all those things. What we understand is that participants have submitted the comments on that and CERC is just compiling the comments . They have not taken any view on that. Bilateral volumes, yes, they have increased as I told you because demand for power was very high and many distribution companies got into bilateral contracts. So, now I think demand has reduced slightly . It is not 5,200 million units per day. Now it has come down to almost about 4 ,300/4,400 million units per day. So our clearing price is also down to almost about Rs.5/unit. So we should see good volume in Day-Ahead and RTM market.

See I can tell you the process part of it. They will have to compi le the comments, take a decision, Commission will have to take a decision based on the comments. They also do consultations. There is a Central Advisory Committee of the Commission, they do consultation in that also, and based on all the inputs Commission will take a view on that. If the view of the Commission is that, we should go ahead wi th the coupling then draft regulations will have to be prepared, and when the y prepare the draft regulations they will also indicate why they intend to go ahead with coupling. The statement of reasons also will be there, and then they will invite comment for that. After receipt of comment from that they will then again see whether they want to go ahead with the coupling or not , if they want to go ahead with the coupling, they will issue the final regulations and then the activity for implem entation o f coupling will start. So, this process of finalization of regulation itself may take one year time and after that implementation of coupling is getting a software, customizing the software for Indian conditions, and putting in place the clearing and settlement mechanism. So all those thin gs, I mean, it may take anything between one and a half to two years’ time for implementing coupling after that.

Sure, but that is very helpful. Thanks, that is all from my side.

Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Mr. Sumit Kishore from A xis Capital Limited. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Sir. My first question is in relation to the long duration contracts. What is the total volume handled by IEX in LDC in the second quarter , in the first half of the year and what is the market share composition in LDC and how much does IEX have?

In the first half, total volume done in LDC is 3.6 billion units, but if we talk about specific months it was more in Septe mber where we did more than 1 billion units and October it is about 1.7 billion unit. So, it started on a smaller note and if you look back last year , total volume done in LDC was 1.4. So as compared to 1.4 we have done in the first half itself 3.6 and a lot of traction is there , distribution companies are finding it very attractive to source power through LD C contract and we are seeing a l ot of transactions are happening. There we have organized more than 300 reverse auctions in this particular segment, and wherever rates were suitable, distribution company went ahead and sourced this power. So started on a little slower note, but now picking up very fast.

Total number is not readily handy with me, but our share was close to 60% in case of LDC contract. We can say close to 7 billion units was all done in the LDC contract.

My next question is that we have been seeing high demand environment although there has been easing of supply side constraints, exchange price discovery has been in the vicinity of Rs.6 and exc hanges have not been able to gain market share . Market sh are has moved towards bilateral. So would you like to comment on how the medium -term situation will evolve because India seems to be headed into a situation where we could have tight liquidity or is that a wrong assessment?

See our reading is this situation that we are seeing where there is a huge supply si de constraint, this is temporary. What we have seen is, in last three, four months there is lot of softening in the prices particularly coal as well as gas and because of that there is so me improvement in the liquidity. Demand increase in some parts was more than expected . So that has taken away whatever additional supply was brought in the market, but going forward we expect that som e more capacity is going to get commissione d. There are projections which say that 9,000 megawatt capacity will come in next five to six months. So this will give us lot of support and renewable capacity as we all know is continuou sly getting added in the system. So, whatever shortages we a re seeing now , deficit we are seeing now will get covered eventually in coming months and with that situation will only improve and we expect prices to be in a decent level. So this is our reading of the situation and as th is will hap pen we expect more li quidity or more buy will start to come on Day- Ahead and RTM market which is the most preferred option for any State because there, the price discovery is more efficient. These are the most competitive market segment s that are available, and we have seen historically prices are lowest in these particular segments.

Finally, how do you see the share of overall short-term markets moving over the past couple of years and has it been as per your original assessment ? Exchanges within the m ix have been falling short because of bilateral markets growing faster, how do you think that the next couple of year s are likely to evolve ? So the short-term markets overall and exchanges within the short-term market.

If you see last fiv e years data , you will find that short -term market is growing very fast, exchanges are the ones which are growing at the fastest pace. So, this has been the historical trend. There are s ome aberrations. The point Mr . Goel explained, the point that I was sharing because of some uncertainty in availability , some sudden increase in the prices , there was a small shift that happened within , from exchange to bilateral market. We have seen that in q uarter one this shift was there, but as the stability will come , as the situation will stabilize which it has already started with increase in coal production, with increase in more generation getting on board, we expect again the things would be a ligned and exchanges would be the fastest gr owing segment within the short-term market . But one more point here is , since no long -term PPAs are being signed today , earlier distribution companies were not taking, now many generators are also not interested to lock their power under long-term PPAs. So, which means that going forward there would be this merchant capacity which is present , will not go away and more capacity will come in terms of distribution companies getting more power under the long-term PPAs, the plants which are going to get commissioned . Together, this will create more liquidity on the sell side which will help exchange market to grow.

Thank you. Those were my questions.

Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Vikas Jain from Financial Quotient. Please go ahead.

Hi, Good Afternoon everyone on the call and many thanks for the detailed summarization of what we have done at IEX. My first question was on market coupling, but I think that has been answered very fairly by the management team. So, just wanted to know about the PAT level figures for IGX and ICX for Q2 if any.

Yes, for IGX our profit has been about Rs.7.8 Crore in second quarter. The volume growth in case of I GX in the second quarter was significant. ICX, we have not launched yet. So ICX we are only doing the development activities at the moment. As of now t here is no revenue except for the treasury income, which is very small.

When ICX operations might be expected to get commenced.

ICX, I think will need some more time because Government is also coming out with their CCTS which is the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme and there are some changes, what we are expecting with respect to the mandatory and compliance marke t. So, we are analyzing all that and then we will launch it after analyzing all these things.

Just one more clarification Sir, so this ICX would have voluntary and involu ntary both the credit markets right.

Compliance market will be operated by I EX, basically that will be regulated market , regulated by CERC. So, all CERC regulated exchanges will be able to offer the compliance market of carbon cred it. As far as voluntary market is concerned, there is no clarity about that. Our intention is to launch ICX, international carbon ex change, for the voluntary market, so that we are able to get the voluntary market share but whether that market also will be regulated or not, still the clarity is yet to come on that.

All right thank you so much I wish you all, all the best for the coming quarters. Thank you and have a good day.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arul Selvan from Independent Advisor Private Limited. Please go ahead.

Hi, Good Afternoon. I just have a few questions. The first question here is regar ding the market share of I EX in the different segments . I believe , the slide in the PowerPoint presentation which had all these market shares was not given this time. So, could you please help with that?

Okay what else.

The next question here is just one question about this relationship between the high -priced power and bilateral trades. So could you please help me understand what is the incentive for the parties to transact in the bilateral markets when pric es go to double digits on the exchange? Those are my two questions.

Let me tell you about the mark et share . In the collective transactions which is our Day- Ahead market and the R TM market our market share con tinues to be almost about 99.9%. Long duration contracts which are daily, weekly and monthly contracts our market share is almost about 55% and in Day-Ahead Contingency market, the market share is close to 40%. And with the implementation of this GNA, the DAC volumes a re expected to go down. So overall market share will improve.

Have they gone down in the month of October , the total vo lumes of el ectricity created on the DAC versus…

You are right that volumes traded in the month of October have significantly gone down with respect to September . I believe in the month of September the average daily volume was close to 50 and it was close to 25 in the month of October. In the month of November, I am sure what is happening is hard ly in the single digit DAC volumes are happenin g now. Your second question was about bilateral transactions at HP-DAM market.

This HP-DAM market transactions will happen mainly when the crisis is there and the co al- based power plants are not able to meet the demand. So, if you have to get the power from the gas-based power plants where the cost of generation is something around Rs.13, Rs.14, Rs.15. So, we are not seeing much transactions in that market because distrib ution companies are not willing to buy power at that high price . But when there is a crisis , very high demand, there is a tendency on the part of distribution companies to purchase power in the bilateral market even by paying slightly more premium , so that they are assured of power supply, because on the exchange platform if they are purchasing power in the Day - Ahead, in the RT M market then they a re not very sure whether on that particular day will they be get the power or not. So that is why we have se en in the past also , whenever the demand is very high , the bilateral trans actions increase . And now for the month of November, December, January, February wh en the volu mes of demand is slightly lower with respect to the summer months, the bilateral transactions will go down.

I am a little bit surprised you are saying that when the prices are high the DISCOMS are not willing to purchase on the exchange because there i s no certainty that they will receive the electricity is that the case.

Yes, see when the price is high, it means that t he demand is high, and supply is not commensurate with the demand. That is a high demand period and d uring the high demand period some of the DISCOMS who want to ensure 24x7 power supply and who want to purchase power at any cost they pay premium over the market price and purchase power in the bilateral transaction.

No, t he only question I am wondering here i s, is there a material di fference between the high price segment which we ha ve launched recently and the bilateral market? Is there a difference in terms of the availability of power or the ease of convenience or on the transaction charges? I am just trying to understand in what way is the bilateral market better than the exchange market?

See the point is , let me first clarify one thing that on the exchange platform w e have also bilateral contracts. These contracts are for weekly, fortnightly, monthly basis for delivery of power up to three months . But in all these contracts the ceiling price is Rs.10. If somebody wants to buy power if he i s not able to get power within that, if he wants to buy gas -based power then he will have to go to the HP-DAM market. Whereas in the bilateral transactions even the c oal-based power plant , domestic coal-based power plants also supply power and the rate should be Rs.7, Rs.8, Rs.9. So bilateral transactions there is no segregation of HP - DAM market, high price market or the normal market.

Right, I understand. Ok. That is it for now. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Viraj Mithani from Jupit ar Financial. Please go ahead.

Good Afternoon Sir. I have three questions. My first question is on carbon exchange. When you talk about this international trading on the carbon exchange , what would be the benchmark we would be using, would it be a Paris based benchmark or the US based any thoughts on that ? And can you give more color in terms of the volumes we can att ract in days to come since we have signed this 2030 Paris Accord and world is going green that is my first question? My second question, is suppose if the coupling is implemented then what are our plans to mitigate that and how are we getting prepared for that ? And my third question is how are we placed against the competition ? That is it from my side. Thank you and all the best.

On the international carbon exchange, as you mentioned that we intend to operate it in the voluntary carbon market and the way in the voluntary carbon market the trade happens is that there are global registries which are available , like Ver ra, Gold Standard which basically register projects and they certify projects for issuance of carbon credits. And those carbon credits which get issued by these global registries Verra and Gold Standard and there a re few other registries as well. They are basically then eligible for trading in the voluntary carbon market. So, basically once we commence our operations , we will have integration with these registries so that the project developers whose projects are registered for credit issuance they will be able to list those credits for sale on our platform and the buyers who want to buy these carbon credits to do offsets , they will come and buy these credits from our excha nge platform. So that is how , basically the voluntary carbon market operates, and that is what we intend to tap in from an international perspective.

What will be the benchmark like, would it be based on certain benchmark right, either by the Paris or the US or India or something?

The registries for different projects they have the methodologies defined. So, like for forest projects, Verra will have a methodology defined. The projects, let us say, there is a forestry project that meets the requirements of the methodologies that are defined within Ver ra, those projects once they apply for registration , Verra will approve those projects. So each registry for different types of project. Because carbon credit is a heterogeneous commodity, there are different types of like you have nature -based carbon c redit, cook stove, then you have carbon credit from renewable . So for cook stove there is a set of methodologies that each registry will define. Now project, for it to be accepted for approval for credit issuers, they have to be aligned to the methodology that registry defines. So that is how basic ally the credit issuance, and the project approval works in the voluntary carbon market.

The other two questions.

Can you repeat the question please.

My next question was if the coupling is implemented how are we prepared to mitigate that issue?

First of all implementation of coupling itself is doubtful , no view has been taken by the CERC so far . And we do not think based on our interactions that coupling is going to get implemented. In any case, I mean, I respect your question, if coupling is implemented, we are already working on different strategies to create a strong customer connect and you must have seen that in the last two, three years we have done lot of development in our technology platform also . We have a strong integration with our cu stomers to the API system and we are also providing value added services to our customers , the data analytics which we are providing. I think all these things are giving lot of value to the customers and the relationships which we have built with the customers over the last 15 years I am sure with all that we should be able to maintain our market share.

How are we placed against the competition? I guess we are the largest exchange so far right.

Yes.

How are we placed? Are the competitor gaining more grou nds against us. So, we are stil l performing better than them, if you can give some light on that, color on that.

As far as the collective transactions are concerned, which are the flagship transactions in any exchange platform which is Day-Ahead m arket and Real Time market in these two segments our market share is 99.9%. And if you look at the volume in these two segments it is almost about 75% of the total volume happening on the excha nge platforms. So, in this 75% volume our market share is 100% you can say. So rest of the 25% which is consisting of DAC market, TAM market, Certificate market, all these things our market share is close to 40 %-45% so you can say as of n ow our market share is about 85% -86% but going forward it should improve further.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Devesh Agarwal from IIFL Securities. Please go ahead.

Good Afternoon Sir and thank yo u for the opportunity. My question is around the supply side. You did mention that supply i s likely to improve going ahead, but I just wanted to understand better in terms of what is giving you that comfort ? And secondly given that we would be entering into State elections and then Union election wouldn’t SEBs be wanting to sign s hort-term bilateral contracts to ensure that the supply is i ntact during this election period?

Yes, I mean, liquidity as of now in the market i s very good. We are getting every day close to 300 plus MU on the sell side whereas demand is only for about 200 MU, 225 MU and so there is more sell available than the buy requirement and I am sure this situation is g oing to continue for the next 3 -4 months. From March onwards when the election fever will catch up some of the DISCOMS may get into a bilateral mode because this is a v ery politically sensitive issue. So, it is very difficult t o make any comment on that, but yes some of the DISCOMS may get into bilateral contracts also.

We have more offerings , they can tap them to buy power for up to thr ee months now and going forward we will launch up to 11 mo nths also since the GNA has been implemented and short -term contracts are allowed and can be done up to 11 months. So we will get approval and we wil l launch 11 month contract also. So we are also gearing up for this , we also understand there would be some tendency among some of the distribution company to source power under b ilateral and since we have an offering now, earlier days we had only TAM which was up to 11 days so situation is a little di fferent and we are gearing up to compete with other bilateral contracts.

Just to understand better you did mention that in the LDC market in the first half we did 3.6 billion units. So if you were to divide this in one month or 3 month contract where are we seeing most of the volume s coming, where is the concentration of volume ? Is it in like 10 day, 15 day contracts or one month or three months?

So, today the concentration is up to one month, but recently or lately I would say we have started seeing some activity in the second month also. So, if I talk about H1 it was majorly first month, but now some transact ions are happening for December, January also which means that it has extended to second also and going forward we will add some more months, it would be third, fourth and hence… .

We will be filing our petition with CERC in the next 10 -15 days for offering long dur ation contracts for delivery up to 11 months and C ERC normally takes abou t 2 months’ time to approve that. So hopefully by end of December we should have approval and from 1st of January we should be able to launch this contract for delivery up to 11 months.

Understood. Sir, any recent bilateral agreements that have been signed if you can give some sense of what is the price that is being discover ed in the b ilateral market versus the price that we see on the exchange platform?

See one thing is prices in the bilateral contracts are definitely more than the prices on our DAM market, DAM or RTM market. So that is why people only go to the bilateral contracts when there is a crisis , and they want to just ensure av ailability of power at any cost. There are many instances where distribution company purchase power in the bilateral market at a higher price and on the real time basis. Because of seasonal variations demand in that particular case was lower and they ended up in selling power on the exchange platform at a lower price bought at a high price in the bilateral and sold at a lower price in the Day-Ahead market or RTM market. So distribution companies are also realizing it n ow, that too much of reliance on the bilateral market is not desirable and they are contracting maybe certain minimum contract based on their demand and supply projections.

The final question from my side. This Government has extended the Section 11 until June 2024. So does this scenario in any way help or hurt us in terms of volume?

See Section 11 extension up to June 2024 will d efinitely ensure increased availability of power in the market and if there is incre ased availability of power in the market , then desperate situation will not be there.

It is good for the sector, it is good for exchanges because overall liquidity on the sell side will improve and we would be able to, or together all of us would be able to meet the demand.

Understood, thank you so much. Those are my questions.

Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Mr. Nikhil Abhyankar from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

See in the last two years we have added many products and we did RTM market t hen we launched green market, Green Term-Ahead, Green DAM, now HP -DAM, HP-TAM. HP- TAM also was introduced in the month of October . So and now we are going for the long duration contracts for delivery up to 11 months that i s also expected in the next two, three months’ time. So, I do not think you can add new products every two months . There is a limit to that . Only thing is whatever new products were introduced we have to bring m ore liquidity in those products. Green products, Green DAM and Green TAM market, there the volumes are still not significant. I mean, I think combined volume in a year is almost abou t 8 to 9 BU. So we have to bring more liquidity in the green market . Lot of a ctivities are happening in that. So we are working with the generators, we are working with the States also, how to bring more liquidity in this. With Government also we are doing the policy advocacy with the Government. Government has allowed that you can purchase up to 5% of the power in a contract to meet commitment from the green market. All this and they a re also working on the CFD contracts for the green market, virtual power purchase agreements are also now becoming popular . So all these initiatives are being taken to bring more liquidity in these markets.

Is there anything around power derivatives, electricity derivatives?

Power derivatives should be launched on the exchanges which are regulated by SEBI that means MCX or NSE or BSE. So, there is a Committee which is working on this and I think they have still not come to a conclusion of launchi ng deriv atives at thi s s tage because volatility in the market is too high at the moment.

You mentioned that LDC volumes are high in the past three, four months and once we get the approval of LDC for 11 months can we expect a large part of the bilateral contra cts will shift to us.

Should shift, yes, that is our effort . That is the i ntent with which we ar e going to offer this contract. And we will start interacting with the distribution companies and generating companies to ensure their participation in those contracts.

Final question we have around 1 ,400 Crores of cash on our balance sheet, investments and cash. So, can we expect more buybacks going ahead?

Okay thank you that is all from me.

Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Jiten Rushi from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.

Good Afternoon Sir, thank you for taking my question. My first question is on e - certificates. So the cycle two is over in October , we have seen volumes coming off significantly. So we expect the cycle over for this year and when can we expect the next cycle to begin?

Yes, cycle 2 is over now and we have to now wait for cycle 3.

That will be in next three years right.

It depends on when BEE notifies that. Yes, we are expecting next year.

On the LDC just want to reiterate you said volumes in LDC in October is almost 1.7 BU.

Yes.

Okay that is from my side sir. Thank you and all the best. Wish you happy Diwali. Thank you.

Thank you so much. The next ques tion is from the line of Amey Kulka rni from Candor Investing. Please go ahead.

Hi, Good Afternoon. I had a couple of questions. We had this proposal for Gross Bidding and we had also submitted a petition to CERC sometime in 2021. Is there any rethinking/update on this issue and what is the progress with the Transmission System Operator for the gas sector? Just one or two more questions, is there any update on the renewable contract by using the strike price which we call a contract for difference? Thank you.

First one is on the Gross Biding. See Gross Bidding is basically optimization by distribution company. And this concept is more relevant when the prices are competitive in the range of maybe Rs.3.5 to Rs.4 but since the last two years our prices have been around Rs.5, so there is not significant opportunity from Gross Bidding at the moment. In any case, the new GNA regulations and Sharing of Transmission Charges Regulations which have been iss ued by the CERC, under those regulations, now Gross Bidding it can be impleme nted. You do not need any separate approval for the Gross Bidding. It can be implemented by the distribution company very effectively and many of the distribution companies are already doing it. See there is no extra payment to be made by a distribution company for sale of pow er on the exchange platform now. Suppose, a distribution company has got a PPA with a generating company and under that PPA they have p ower available and they do not need that power , they can schedule that power in the morni ng hours, submit bid on the exchange platform based on the variable cost of that, if that power is cleared they can continue with the schedule and if the power is not clear ed they can revise the schedule of the generator on the lower side. So, all these flexibilities are there, there are no transmission charges to be paid for sale of power and n o losses are accounted for that. So that flexibility what we were looking for under the Gross Bidding petition that has been already provided by CERC in the GNA and Grid Code - all these new r egulations which have been implemented now . And we find there are states like Punjab, MP, Haryana, Maharashtra, many of these states are submitting bid s there for purchase of power and sale of power both and that is basically with the intent of doing optimization in their power procurement cost. So, we are working with the States now that how they can use the GN A provisions to effectively implement, I mean, not Gross Bidding, but you can optimize your cost now, which was the intent of the Gross Bidding. Second question was on the gas system operator, yes, I mean, Government in fact had mentioned in many of the forums that they are going to create gas system operator but as of now nothing has happened much on that and y our third question was about?

CFD.

Yes, CFD contracts. Yes I mean this issue is under discussion. What I will s ay that final stage of approval but only they are looking at taking a view that if at all there is a gap in the contracted price and the market cl earing price, how to fund that , so once they decide about that they will approve that contract . Otherwise, all other modalities are already discussed and finalized.

So just one last point, the distribution companies when they buy under the LDC contract , the long duration contract. Suppose we ext ended to say 11 months , do the distribution company need approval from the regulator for the prices discovered in these contracts or because they are traded on the exchange regulatory approval is not required?

Yes, for the LDC contracts they normally take approval from their respective State Regulatory Commissions.

In many of the States they have given certain limit up to this price they can i.e. distribution company can purchase the power, but if the price is more than that they can take the approval and such approvals do not take much time because the regulators are also a ware about the market condition.

Okay thank you so much.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhruv Muchhal from HDFC Asset Management Company. Please go ahead.

Thank you so much. I had just one question. Somebody who is a buyer who is buying from the exchange, green products , does he have to pay transmission charges or that is also waived for the buyer?

As per the new GNA regulations sellers whether they are from green plant or whether they are from the coal-based power plant, no seller is required to pay any transmission charges.

And Sir, buyer?

Transmission charges a re to be paid by the buyer only. In case of green power , for the projects commission up to 2025 even the transmission for the buyer also is waived off.

But the buyer is generally, say, for example some third party or somebody see if I am trying to understand if somebody sell ing in the merchant market then ? So green market would be merchant market that way.

No, I think it is for the projects which are under the PPA note.

For the green products that we have , the buyer h as to pay transmission for that ? Is the transmission charge exempted for the volumes that you do on exchanges?

So for exchanges also it is exempted but the problem is it is not yet implemented we expect going forward very soon this will be implemented and then it will be wa ived off to begin with. It is easier to implement that for bilateral contracts , but through exchanges it is a little difficult for collective, but eventually in months to come it should get implemented.

So it i s a clarification which probably or some modification that we will be seeking and once that happens it will be helpful.

Thanks so much and all the best Sir.

Thank you so much. We would take that as our last question, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Thank you friends . I would l ike to thank each one of you for being part of today's call. During the quarter we have witnessed a lot of initiatives announced by the Government and the regulators towards creating a favorable policy and regulatory environment to transform the energy sector. We remain committed in doing our bit towards building a sustainable and efficient energy future. Have a great evening. Thank you very much and a Happy Diwali.

Thank you. On behalf of Axi s Capital Limited that concludes this confer ence. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.