Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of Axis Capital, I am pleased to welcome you all for the IEX Q3 FY26 earnings conference call. We have with us the management team of IEX, which is represented by Mr.

Rohit Bajaj, Joint Managing Director, Mr. S.

N. Goel, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr.

Vineet Harlalka, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Amit Kumar, Head of Market Operations, New Product Initiatives and Exchange Technology, and Ms.

Aparna Garg, Head Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. We will begin with the opening remarks from Mr.

Rohit Bajaj, followed by an interactive Q&A session. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Good evening, friends. A very happy New Year to all of you and a warm welcome to the IEX earnings call for Q3 FY26.

With me today on this call are Shri Satyanarayan Goel, CMD, IEX, Mr. Vineet Harlalka, CFO and Company Secretary, Mr.

Amit Kumar, Head of Market Operations and Exchange Technology, Ms. Aparna Garg, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, and Mr.

Aditya Wali. India continues to be the fastest-growing major economy in the world, posting a strong GDP growth of 8.2% in the second quarter of FY2026.

In the backdrop of continued global uncertainty, the International Monetary Fund, IMF, has recently revised India's GDP growth estimate for FY26 to 7.3% from its earlier forecast of 6.6%. This growth path has been driven by robust domestic demand, heightened investment activity and steady performance across industry, services, agriculture and construction.

Policy reforms such as rationalization of GST rates, new labor laws, and the recently concluded India-EU Free Trade Agreement have also firmly positioned India on a long-term trajectory towards becoming the world's third largest economy by 2030. On the power sector front, electricity demand picked up during December with an increase of 6.6% on a year-on-year basis.

However, prolonged monsoon in 2025 led to a lower electricity requirement across the country. Consequently, electricity demand during Q3 FY26 remained flat at 392 billion units.

For nine months FY26, demand also remains subdued at 1,286 billion units, similar to the corresponding period of FY25. Going into January, demand has increased to 6% compared with a year ago.

During the first nine months of FY26, an additional 44.7 gigawatt of installed capacity across thermal and renewable sources was added, taking total installed capacity to over 500 gigawatts. Renewable energy accounted for more than 50% of the total installed capacity.

Notably, India achieved the milestone of sourcing 50% of its cumulative installed electric power capacity from renewable sources five years ahead of the 2030 target. On the fuel side, ample fuel has been available at competitive prices.

India's coal production reached 272 million tons in Q3 FY26, similar to 273 million tons produced in Q3 FY25. At nearly 722 million tons, production in the first nine months of FY26 has also remained similar compared with the same period in FY25.

Coal inventory as of January 17th stood at 25 days, while the quarter imported coal price for 4,200 GAR coal declined to nearly 47 dollars per ton, a decline of 10% compared with the same quarter last fiscal. Overall, the fuel situation for the sector has remained comfortable.

Let us now talk about a few important regulatory updates and policy initiatives. The government has released draft National Electricity Policy 2026, aimed at aligning the power sector with Viksit Bharat goals over the next two decades.

Draft prioritizes cost-reflective tariff reforms, a phased reduction in cross-subsidies, and time-of-day peak-hour pricing to improve efficiency and strengthen discom finances. It sets ambitious consumption targets, per capita electricity use rising from 2,000 units by 2030 and over 4,000 units by 2047, and calls for stronger generation, transmission and distribution planning.

Key strategies span resource adequacy planning, cost-reflective tariffs with ATC loss reduction to single digit, RE expansion with storage, thermal, hydro, nuclear enhancements, etc. For deepening power markets, suitable policy and regulatory frameworks shall be established for generation capacity addition through market mechanisms such as bilateral contract settlements.

Standardized contracts for collective transactions will be executed on power exchanges. Electricity from long-term PPAs may be encouraged to be routed through power exchanges or any other platform recognized by the Central Commission.

Recently, key amendments were proposed to the draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2025, wherein state electricity regulatory commissions have been specifically empowered to determine tariffs suo motu to ensure timely cost recovery and avoid delays. Cross-subsidies are to be progressively eliminated within five years for sectors such as manufacturing, railways and metro operations.

In a push for C&I and open access consumers, DISCOM may be exempted from their obligation of supplying to C&I users with more than one megawatt load. Also, discoms would provide non-discriminatory open access to multiple distribution licensees on payment of wheeling charges.

These proposals should open up DISCOM resources for supply, avoid tying up stranded power, and enhance competitiveness of the C&I segment. Draft provides renewable purchase obligation, RPO, not be less than central RPO trajectory and proposes a specific penalty of 35 to 45 paisa per unit for RPO non-fulfillment.

CERC issued final guidelines for virtual power purchase agreements, VPPAs, in December. These guidelines recognize power exchanges as authorized platforms for sell-off electricity by RE generators under VPD arrangements.

Renewable generators entering VPPAs would be selling the electricity component in the collective segment on power exchanges. This should help increase volume on exchanges.

In reference to the carbon market, final notification regarding greenhouse emission intensity, GEI targets, have been published by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for obligated entities across seven sectors such as aluminium, chlor-alkali, cement, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, petroleum and textiles. Final notifications are awaited for the iron and steel sector.

The baseline emission of these seven sectors with base year FY24 is 480 million tons equivalent, with targeted reduction to 465.32 million tons equivalent by FY27. These sectors cover around 16% of India's GHG emissions.

This development has laid the foundation of trading of carbon credit certificates on power exchanges. The MOP had earlier issued the final notification on Renewable Consumption Obligation, RCOs.

The notification defined RCO fulfillment method to also include RECs acquired under VPPAs, among others, and also provided for fungibility of obligation under wind, hydro and other components. We have sought CERC approval to align our green contracts with the revised RCO components.

The order in the matter is reserved. Once aligned, these contracts will provide due clarity to market participants for RE sale procurement, which has the potential to increase RE participation going forward.

CERC issued an order on implementing market coupling on 23rd July, in which the regulator decided to initiate the process of implementation of market coupling of day-ahead market. According to the order, this was to be done by January 2026.

IEX has filed an appeal in Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, APTEL, and today the hearings concluded. We expect the final order to be released shortly.

Moving on to performance, in Q3 FY26, IEX recorded electricity trading volume of 34.1 billion units, a year-on-year growth of nearly 12%. For the first nine months of FY26, electricity volume touched nearly 102 billion units, higher by 14.3% on a year-on-year basis.

Revenue for the company grew by 14% year-on-year, increasing from rupees 160.5 crores in Q3 to rupees 183.1 crores in Q3 FY26. Profit after tax increased by 11%, rising from rupees 107.3 crores in Q3 FY25 to rupees 119.1 crores in Q3 FY26.

For the first nine months of FY26, profit after tax was higher by 16.4% from rupees 312.1 crores in nine months FY25 to rupees 363.1 crore in nine months FY26. The board of directors have announced an interim dividend of rupees 1.5, equivalent to 150% of face value of the equity share.

In Q3 FY26, nearly 18.6 lakh renewable energy certificates were traded, lower than nearly 27 lakh certificates traded over the same quarter in FY25. During the nine months till December, over 115 lakh RECs were traded, higher by 4% over the same period last fiscal.

The RTM segment continues its strong growth, maintaining 40% share in the electricity volume at IEX. For Q3 FY26, RTM volume at nearly 13 billion units was higher by 36% on a year-on-year basis.

In the first nine months, RTM volumes have grown 38.6% on a year-on-year basis to reach 40.5 billion units. This segment has been playing a critical role by offering flexibility in power procurement, providing immediate responsiveness to efficiently integrate renewables with the grid.

Green market volume in Q3 FY26 rose 7.2% on a year-on-year basis to nearly 3 billion units compared with Q3 FY25. In the first nine months of FY26, the segment traded over 8 billion units to be higher by 23% over the same period in FY25.

The Green Market helps obligated entities, including distribution companies, meet their renewable purchase obligations. With capacity addition, increase in solar, hydro, and sustained supply from coal-based generation, supply liquidity on power exchanges improved and led to substantial drop in prices.

In Q3 FY26, sell bids in day-ahead market of IEX increased 44% on year-on-year basis. As a result, the average day-ahead market price was rupees 3.22 per unit, down 13.2% year-on-year, while price in the real-time market averaged rupees 3.56 per unit, a 16% year-on-year drop.

Even on a nine-month basis, sell liquidity in the day-ahead market in FY26 has been higher by 43% compared with FY25. The average DAM price during this period at rupees 3.85 per unit has been lower by 14% compared with the same period in FY25.

Similarly, the average price at rupees 3.56 per unit in RTM segment over nine months since April has been lower by 16% on a year-on-year basis. These prices presented an opportunity for discoms and commercial and industrial consumers to meet their demand at competitive prices and to replace their costlier power by procuring through exchanges.

On the products front, we continue to await approval from the CERC on our petition to extend the term-ahead market contracts to 11 months. With regards our green RTM petition, CERC has reserved its order.

As mentioned previously, to facilitate merchant storage capacity in the country, we have filed a petition with the CERC for introduction of peak day-ahead market and peak real-time market segments. This segment would facilitate trading of power during high demand hours, such as late evening and early mornings.

Stakeholder consultation on the same has been completed and the matter awaits further proceedings. Moving on to IGX performance, December 2025 marked five years of operations for the Indian Gas Exchange, IGX.

IGX currently represents close to 3% of India's overall gas consumption and 20% of the spot market. Over the years, IGX has steadily expanded its market footprint, increasing the delivery points available from 4 in FY22 to 23 today, covering both domestic as well as RLNG.

The product portfolio at IGX has also grown over the last five years, up from six contract types available initially to ten contract types currently available. For Q3 FY26, IGX traded gas volumes of 17.5 million MMBtu, an increase of 8% over Q3 FY25, led by volumes from domestic gas producers, heightened power demand, and demand from city gas distribution.

For the nine months period, April to December in FY26, IGX traded gas volume of 58.52 million MMBtu, a growth of 46% on a year-on-year basis. IGX recorded a profit after tax of rupees 8.8 crores in Q3 FY26, which was higher by 6% compared with 8.3 crores in Q3 FY25.

For the nine months till December, IGX recorded a profit after tax of rupees 32.5 crores, higher by 47.9% compared with rupees 22 crore in the same period in FY25. As gas prices continue their downtrend, the policy initiative remain positive in the sector, volumes at IGX would continue to be robust.

Even as weather-related events soften power demands this year, CA projection of consumption nearing 2,500 BU by 2032 would continue to drive exchange volume in the coming years. To meet this surging demand, nearly 4 to 5 gigawatt of capacity is being added in the country on a monthly basis.

The power sector also continues to evolve with the emergence of market mechanisms such as battery storage arbitrage, firm and dispatchable renewable energy, FDRE, virtual power purchase agreement, VPPAs, electricity derivatives, battery energy storage solutions, BESS. Already 13,200 MWh of BESS projects have been awarded under the first tranche, and tenders for nearly a third of 30,000 megawatt projects in the second tranche under BESS have also been awarded.

The reduction in battery storage cost has further accelerated BESS adoption. As recently as November 2025, APTransco discovered rupees 1.48 lakh per megawatt per month for 2,000 megawatt two-hour two-cycle tender under the BESS mechanism.

This is the lowest price discovered for BESS under the BESS mechanism, in a big positive start for BESS in the country. Earlier this month, we witnessed the first merchant BESS trades at IEX from Juniper Green Energy Limited, the largest operating BESS asset till date in the country.

These developments are set to play a pivotal role in deepening India's power markets and facilitate the successful energy transition. Our diversification initiatives are also gradually gathering momentum.

For Q3 FY26, the International Carbon Exchange, ICEX, issued 51 lakh IRECs, higher by 219% compared with Q3 FY25. For the first nine months of FY26, cumulative 133 lakh IREC were issued, surpassing 59 lakh IREC issued in FY25.

Revenue for ICEX in Q3 FY26 stood at 1.8 crores and rupees 5.5 crore for the first nine-month period, respectively. With regards to the coal exchange, Ministry of Coal has appointed Coal Controller Organization as the regulator for the coal exchange.

MOC has also come out with the revised draft rules for exchange and invited public comments, which were open till January 19. IEX has been working with stakeholders to explore setting up first coal exchange in India.

As India advances towards its net-zero goal, energy exchanges are expected to play an increasingly significant role in shaping the nation's energy ecosystem. Thank you, and now we can have question and answers.

Thank you. This is Preetam from Avendus.

Sir, I had a question on the hearing. When would be the expected announcement date of the verdict?

I understand we have to submit our written submissions by 4th Feb. When can we expect a verdict date?

Can't say, but it should happen within a month's time.

Within a month. Okay.

Also, just a follow-up on this. In a scenario where things don't go in favor of us, what is the next possible situation or next possible thing we are planning to do?

Why are you saying that if things don't go in our favor? Things will definitely go in our favor.

In any case, even if they have to go with the coupling, a lot of things are to be done yet. If you are following up the hearings, they have to issue the draft regulations, invite comments on that, and give statement of reason for that, why they want to do coupling.

Everybody will have opportunity to comment on that. Then they will be allowed to issue final regulations, procedure to be finalized.

I think a lot of work is to be done. We will have opportunity to express our views at each and every stage, and let's see.

I just want to understand how long it can get drawn on for. I'll get back on to you, sir.

Thank you.

Good evening. My first question is in relation to the volume growth that we saw for electricity volumes on IEX in the month of December where power demand growth improved, your volume growth was about slightly under 3%.

I understand the merchant prices firm up as the demand increases from the grid. How far?

Even in Jan, the demand is not as good as December in terms of growth, but so how is this cooldown likely to remain? Let us say India's power demand grows 5-6% instead of 0-1% like it has been last few months.

How would your volumes be impacted in the electricity segment?

See, in calendar year 25, the demand in the country was subdued mainly because of the weather reason. We had more than above monsoon, because of the good monsoon, the agricultural load that crashed, and also because of the good weather, the air conditioning load was also low.

Overall the demand did not increase because of that. Otherwise if you looked at the industrial production, there is definitely an increase in that.

Since the demand growth was not there, but the availability of power was there, we have enough capacity, we had enough coal to generate power. The rate in the, was then what it used to be.

Because of the low rate, it provided opportunity to the distribution companies for optimizing their power procurement cost. As a result of that, even though there was no demand increase in the country, we saw reasonably good volume growth.

I think it was almost about 14%, 15% kind of volume growth in the first nine months, and January month is also going strong with a volume growth of almost about 18-19%. So

January is 18-19%? Okay.

Yeah.

Is there any correlation that if power demand actually firms up, like December volume growth was 3%. I'm just wondering whether is there anything to read there?

You cannot make any correlation on month-to-month basis. Yes, we have seen that on yearly basis if the demand increases, definitely it leads to increase in the volume.

This year when the demand did not increase, then also there was a volume increase because of optimization opportunity, because of the low prices. I think because exchange provides both ways.

One can purchase power to meet the demand, and also when the demand is less, they can optimize the power under the PPA.

Yes, very clear. The second question is on the REC volume.

In the nine-month period, we have seen that REC volume growth has been in low single digits. We are hearing so much on RPO obligations and everything.

Why is the slowdown? What is the outcome?

See, REC volume in the first six months was reasonably good, but subsequently what happened, one is that the compliance which was to be done by 30th September, that timeline has been extended up to 31st of March. Some of the buyers now, they have shifted their buying to the month of February, March.

Secondly, CERC also came out with a discussion paper on REC, and wherein they have specified that in case somebody is not able to meet the RPO obligation, he can deposit amount with the government, which is equivalent to 1.05% of the average price of REC in the preceding year. With this kind of provision, many are thinking that maybe can even meet the RPO obligation by just depositing the money with the government.

Because of this, the REC purchase is slightly low, but in any case, I think by the end of the year we will be able to still do better than what we did last year. But

this sounds like a very regressive step, right? If you are able to deposit money and not...

We have made our submissions with the Hon'ble Commission that in case of REC, REC is based on the generation of green power.

Correct. But

in case of depositing money, it is not promoting the renewable energy. We should continue with the existing process.

We have made our suggestions, and let's see what is the outcome of that.

Just last one question. Typically, if I divide the standalone revenue of the company by the total gross volume, the ratio comes to less than four paisa.

This time it is coming as 4.00 paisa. Typically there is some discount that is there, which shows up in numbers.

It is REC, remember? The pricing is lower, and also you have some discount in TEM.

This time it is not showing up. Is there anything I am missing?

No, in case of REC, the transaction fees is reduced to 20 rupees.

Correct.

In fact, for the first part of the year, this year for the full year, just 20 rupees. Even out of that also, looking at the market conditions, we have to give incentives to the buyers and sellers, some amount of incentive.

In case of that, otherwise in case of electricity, I think it is around four paisa.

Yes, but if you divide the revenue for December quarter standalone, 1439 million, by the volume, the ratio is coming to 4.00 paisa. It is typically less than that.

Revenue also includes annual fees by the member.

Yeah. Okay.

So

in the past few quarters it was always less than four paisa. I was wondering if there is something else also this time.

Maybe there is a variation in the yearly fees.

Trade volume sometimes related to the revenue recognition, it happens. That also impacts slightly with monetary realization than the trade volume.

Vineet. Thank you so much.

Thanks.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity, sir.

First question again on the market coupling case. If you could help us understand, is the case now boils down to whether the process was followed while the implementation of market coupling rather than the market coupling regulation itself?

What are we kind of doing in the appeal? Is it the process that we are challenging, or just the whole regulation?

What we had challenged in the appeal was that this order should be set aside because the order has not followed the due process of order making. The transparency was not ensured, and there was no merit in implementing market coupling.

During the discussions, it also emerged that CERC has mentioned that they will be doing this market coupling only after making the regulations, and during the regulation making process everybody will have the opportunity of making the submissions. The complete transparency will be maintained during that process.

This order is basically to initiate the process of regulation making. Let us see what is the final outcome of this.

There was one round of public comments that were invited on market coupling. You are saying for the regulation, again CERC is required to do the...

That was a staff paper. Views on the staff paper, but when you make regulations, you issue draft regulations, which indicates the intent of the commission and why that intent is, and on that they invite the comments.

Right. There were some news articles mentioning...

Staff paper is invariably, in all commission, a discussion paper initiated by the staff of the commission, but draft regulations are by the commission.

Understood. In most likely post the appeal, there is a possibility that CERC will start the process of the market coupling regulation.

Let us see. I can't say anything on that.

Good evening. I just had a couple of questions, sir.

The first one being in your opening remark you said that electricity from long-term PPAs might be routed through the exchanges, if I heard correctly. Can you explain me more on that?

How does that work? How will the tariffs work on that?

Will it be the same process? Just a little idea on that.

Okay. Just a minute.

This was point related to deepening of power market, where as per the National Electricity Policy draft, suitable policy and regulatory framework shall be established for generation capacity addition through mechanisms such as bilateral contract settlements. They are relating it to contract for difference model, where the exchanges are used to dispatch that power, and whatever realization is there from exchange, that will be kept by developer, and whatever is the missing money as compared to the strike price, which is discussed, that is settled outside the market through bilateral contract settlement.

That is the intent of this thing. This is similar to what is being done globally, across Europe and other places in India also.

This has been discussed for a long time. In fact the VPPA guidelines, which has come in the month of December, very recently, this is also very similar to it.

It is also on the basis of bilateral contract settlement.

Got it, sir. Understood.

Just another question, just to understand, sir, even if coupling comes in, I just want to understand how, because now also it'll take time for it to get implemented in the DAM market at first. How much longer will it take, if that happens, for that to happen in the RTM market as well?

Because my understanding is it is very complicated, but just wanted to get your idea on it.

For implementing in the DAM market itself a lot of work is to be done. As I told you, there are going to be draft regulations, public hearing, final regulations, process to be finalized, and a lot of things will be done.

Right. And

after that, commission is already in the order they have mentioned that they will look at the experience of this, and thereafter decide whether they want to go for the RTM or not. Because in case of RTM, the complications are more.

You have to do it eight times in a day, and the timelines available for execution of market is very short. In case of coupling event, whether the timelines available within that, whether the coupling will be possible or not, I think they will study all these things and then decide about that.

Got it, sir. Just lastly, sir, there is this news article that mentioned that the tariffs, like the exchange fees, might be cut from 4 paisa to whatever, 0.5 on each side.

What is your idea on that? Do you see that happening?

I haven't heard any such thing. There are many news items, I don't really pay any much attention to that.

As far as the commission is concerned, we haven't heard anything like that from the commission.

Got it, sir. Got it.

Thank you. Thank you for answering my questions.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the question.

Sir, my query is first related to market coupling. Sir, assuming if market coupling happens and the round robin fashion is adapted, is it necessary that the volumes will flow to a particular exchange for a particular period of time, or will it be open for all the exchanges at that period?

How will it be?

It will be open to all the three exchanges on every day basis. Buyers and sellers can submit their bid in any of the exchanges.

Only thing is that bids of all three exchanges will be aggregated at one place for the purpose of price discovery.

Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay.

Basically price discovery moves to Grid India from the exchange, which is currently where it is.

Price discovery will be done on the round robin basis. Maybe for one month one exchange will do, for next month another exchange will do, for next third month another exchange will do, and will keep on rotating between the exchanges on round robin basis.

Okay. Okay.

Okay. Fine.

Sir, my second question is in terms of new products that was shared at the start of the call, right? Just come based on the recent government paper.

Sir, how do you see IEX's ability to introduce those products and the acceptance or reception of those products by customers, and the timeline for the launch of these products?

See, when we file petition with the Hon'ble commission, before that we do the market survey. We interact with the customers, and based on the requirement of the market, we file petition for introduction of the contracts.

And

in fact, when we do public consultation also, in that also we have received good response from the market for introduction of these products which we have filed with the Hon'ble commission.

So

commission has done the hearing. Let us see.

This order is reserved in one or two cases.

Sir. Just one final, for these products, sir, what would be the total market size or TAM as such?

In the sense, how big will it be possible?

For long duration contract, the market size can be another 15-20 billion units.

15-20 billion units. Okay.

Green RTM is something, because a lot of renewable capacity addition is happening in the country, is going to take place in the country now. Renewable capacity has large variations.

On real-time basis, they will be able to make good those variations through the real-time green market. Today they don't have any such product.

So

as the renewable capacity additions increases, the transactions to the green RTM will keep on increasing.

And

third product is basically peaking power. Today we have shortage of power for maybe two hours, three hours in a day during the peak hour time.

Generators and capacities like battery storage or the pump storage or the gas-based plants where the cost of generation is slightly higher, maybe they can participate in this market. If in this market the cap price is made slightly more, it will incentivize these kind of capacity additions in the market and help in meeting the demand during the peak time.

That is the intent of the peaking power tariff.

Perfect, perfect, perfect. Thank you, sir.

That's it for my side.

Thank you and good evening. In terms of your gas exchange and the carbon exchange, how would the growth in these two markets pan out, say in the next one or two years, compared to the growth in the power exchange, and how would that impact your growth in revenue and profitability?

See, in case of power exchange, IEX, it is operating from the last 17 and a half years. It has attained that kind of a maturity.

Growth is going to be in the range of 15 to 20 percent, which we have been achieving over the years. In case of gas exchange, it's at the nascent stage, and this year in the first nine months, the volume increases almost about 47-48 percent.

The trend in the market is that the gas prices are going to be reduced in the next one or two years. If that happens, there will be a good traction in the market, and we expect that the gas volumes will definitely continue to grow at a rate of maybe 25-30 percent over the next four-five years.

And

what about the carbon exchange?

Carbon exchange, in fact, earlier we had idea of starting a voluntary carbon market, but Government of India under the CCPS scheme, they have decided to launch this mandatory and voluntary carbon market under the regulatory framework. They are making the regulations for that, and hopefully that market will start sometime in FY26 or 27 or 28.

As and when that market starts, CERC will be the regulator for that market. It's very difficult to say at this stage what is going to be the opportunity in that when the transaction starts and looking at the market participation, we'll work out that.

Request for your final couple of thoughts also on the gas exchange. As you see growth, would you also see higher margins in the gas products compared to the power products?

Secondly, what is the timeline? How are you progressing on the proposed IPO for the gas exchange?

See, in case of power or gas exchange, the margins are fixed. Our revenue is based on the volume we do.

As I told you that in case of gas exchange, we expect a significantly higher volume growth of 25-30% in the coming years. I'm sure the numbers will be much better.

As far as IPO is concerned, basically, as per the regulations, we have to. Our holding in the gas exchange is 47.5%.

We have to bring it down to 25% as per regulations. We have requested IEX to proceed with the IPO for this.

They have initiated action. Let's see.

Maybe by... we plan to do it in this year.

It all depends on the different activities to be done and the clearances when we get from the SEBI. It all depends on that.

Thank you very much and wish you all the best.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Am I audible?

Yes.

Yeah. There was this concept of checking whether coupling RTM and SEB markets would be feasible and if it's economically good.

Where is that right now, sir? Or is it only now regulations on market coupling is the priority, after that DAM coupling will happen, and only after that all these things on RTM and SEB, all these things will happen?

As far as RTM and Schedule is concerned, I think CERC in their order has already mentioned that this will involve redesigning of a lot of regulations and the process and other things. They will look at this at a later stage.

They have not made any mind on that. At the moment they are talking about day-ahead market, and based on the experience of day-ahead market, they will think about RTM.

They will take a view about RTM.

Okay. From what I understand, the regulations, public hearing, final regulations on market coupling, and implementation in the next...

correct, sir?

Yeah. Your voice is breaking.

Sorry, I was just checking how long according to you...

Can't say. It's a regulatory process, and we really cannot say how much time it will take.

Your voice is cracking, sir. There is some disturbance in the line.

I'm not able to hear you.

Is it better?

Yes, it is better now.

No, I was just...

No, no, no. I think...

Just one quick question. What is the cash and cash equivalents as of 31st December?

We have a total cash of around 1,500 crores as on 31st of December, and out of that the shareholder fund is around 700 crores.

Okay. Secondly, I just wanted some idea on how this virtual power purchase agreements are expected to increase demand for IEX?

See, under the virtual power purchase agreement, a buyer will do the agreement with the generating company for generation of green electricity. That electricity will be sold on the exchanges, and green attribute will be taken by the company which is getting into this PPA, virtual PPA.

Definitely it will increase sell volume on the exchanges, and it will have definitely a positive impact on the volume cleared also. It all depends on the quantum of virtual PPAs which happen in the market, interest of the market in getting into these transactions.

Okay. Secondly, the total unrequisitioned power that is available for trading on the exchanges, that is currently at 7%, isn't it?

Currently at?

7%. How much is it?

It is almost about 9 to 10% now.

Okay.

It is increasing. Earlier NTPC was participating.

Now we find that many other generators are also participating in this market.

Okay. Lastly, from your vantage point, when I see the GDP growth at 7-4, 7-5, and you have the IIP growth also coming up, but the power demand is not catching up.

Is there some dichotomy there? What do you see?

Why is it happening?

As I told at the beginning of this conference also, that this year we had a very good monsoon, more than above monsoon, and because of good monsoon, the agricultural demand had crashed. In fact, even air conditioning load was also very low.

As a result of that, the demand increase was not there. This year, if the weather is normal, definitely the demand increase is going to be not less than 5-6%.

Out of this, the industrial demand continues to increase, but you are saying the agriculture and household demand has gone down.

Yes, yes, yes.

Thank you very much, sir.

For the follow-up, one question is, will the depth and the liquidity of electricity exchanges be a constraint on the extent of VPPAs that can be introduced, as they are treated as contracts for differences. At the current moment, how much VPPAs can you actually introduce, given the volumes exchanges handle?

I think as of now, maybe you can give some figure on that.

See, your point is related to how much buy is there. Let's say if we start to execute more and more VPPAs, then all this surplus generation will come to market as a sell.

So

what I understand is you want to ask how much buy is there and how much this sell can be absorbed in the market, right?

Correct.

Let's take the worst case, which is solar during the daytime, and VPPA doesn't mean only solar. It could be hybrid, it could be wind, it could be BESS, it could be anything.

Even if we take example of solar, on an average during the daytime there is 6-7,000-8,000 megawatt of demand is always there. I am talking about average.

There are extreme days where it is high, there are days where it is low. If we go by that logic and VPPAs, since they already have an agreement, there is already PPA is there, they would be price takers, which means they would be putting the lowest price in their bids, right?

The price point that they are placing for their sell. By that logic, if I collate both by RTM as well as DAM, there is liquidity available to the extent of 10,000 megawatt.

To that extent there should not be any problem, and today this number stands much, much less than 1,000 megawatt. If I talk about how many VPPAs are today there and who are coming to Exchange, this number is much less than 1,000 megawatt, which means there is a large window available for them to come to this market, and that will get absorbed.

What we also see is that during the daytime, the sell availability is a lot higher than the buy, the prices are depressed. If you are just going to increase more liquidity on the exchange in terms of sellers, it will just crash the price, right?

No, see, what is happening here is during the daytime, because many of these thermal power plants are also back down, they are also participating in Exchange, and there is very good quantum of URS power also coming in the market. Now all this power is coming at a price point.

None of these thermal generators are quoting less than 2.5 or 3 rupees, right? They are not going below that because that is their variable cost, coal cost.

Now let's say 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 megawatt of additional VPPA power will come. It will bring down the price, no doubt about it.

How much that would be, that is to be seen. It's not that it will crash it left, right, center, and price would come down to zero level or less than one rupee level.

That will not happen. Yes, if there is more supply, then it will bring down the price.

In fact, in the day-ahead market, it is more of conventional power which is coming. If you look at our GDAM market, in the GDAM market, we have large buy volumes.

There is an interest from the buyers, but the quantum available in the GDAM market is comparatively much lower. When the VPPAs come, of course they will come in the conventional market.

If green power comes to the market, yes, that will help us.

Just one data question: in the nine-month period, what was IEX market share in REC and the DAM segments?

Electricity overall, we are around 83% in first nine months, and REC is about 50%. I do not have exact number for REC available right away, but electricity is 83% for sure, REC about close to 50%.

TAM is what, 50%?

It varies between 45 and 50. TAM is generally below 50, but overall electricity is 83.

Got it. We can reverse calculate also.

Assume 99% for RTM and DAM and REC.

83 number will help you arrive.

Yes. Thank you so much.

Thank you, friends. I would like to thank each one of you for being part of today's call.

Throughout the third quarter, we witnessed efforts from the government and regulators to establish a favorable policy and regulatory climate to develop the energy sector. We at IEX remain committed to contribute to the development of a sustainable and energy-efficient future for India.

Have a wonderful evening. Thank you once again.