• UGI USER
  • Aug 17, 2023
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Q. The Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) can invigorate the renewable energy sector in India. Evaluate.

Approach:

  • Briefly, write about the Indian renewable energy sector and the Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM).
  • Highlight the potential of the GTAM to give push to the renewable energy sector in India.
  • Conclude the answer accordingly.

Answer:

The renewable energy (RE) sector in India has not witnessed expected growth and one of the major factors responsible is the inflexible tariff structure. To overcome this, the government has recently launched Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM), which is an exclusive platform for short-term trading of renewable energy.

It has been introduced for selling of power by renewable developers in the open market without getting into long term Power Purchase Agreements (PPA). GTAM is expected to bring the following benefits to the RE sector:

  • It would lessen the burden on renewable energy rich states by providing them a bigger market and will further incentivize them to develop capacity beyond their own Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPOs).
  • It would promote RE merchant capacity addition and develop a trading market in RE which will also help incentivize installation of new RE projects.
  • Along with the recently launched real-time trading in electricity, it will support seamless integration of the RE sector by bringing buyers and sellers across different states on a single platform.
  • It would enable discoms, open access consumers and captive power producers to fulfill their obligations to procure renewable power at competitive prices as per their respective RPOs.
  • It would lead to an increase in the number of participants in the RE sector like buyers through competitive prices, transparent and flexible procurement and sellers by providing  access to the pan- India market.
  • It would also provide a platform to environmentally conscious consumers to use open access to purchase green power.

The Government of India’s target of 175 GW RE Capacity by 2022 and commitment under the Paris Agreement 2016 to install 40 per cent i.e. 450 GW of renewable capacity by the year 2030 is driving accelerated renewable penetration pan-India. Considering the above benefits, it can be said that the GTAM will help achieve the target by creating a short-term liquid market yielding increased prices for the RE sector.