The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) proposed the implementation of market coupling in the Day Evidence Market (DAM) segment of Power Exchange since January 2026, which could have little profit for the power sector and is contrary to the conclusions of the pilot study conducted by the Grid controllers of India, according to industry officials and analysts.
He said that marginal reforms do not offer “compelling arguments” to implement market coupling on a full scale, especially in the absence of a detailed “strength and sensitivity” analysis.
He said that the January 2026 timeline will also be challenging for implementation.
An industry official said, “The results of the shadow pilot made by Grid-India released in July 2025 do not indicate any significant benefit from the market coupling. It is in line with the first CERC order of 6 February 2024 on 6 February 2024,” an industry official said, “said an industry official.
“In the dam segment, the overall welfare increased by an negligible 0.3%, and the total volume increased by only 0.2%. Similarly, in the real -time market (RTM) segment, in the real -time market (RTM) segment, both overall welfare growth and increase in volume were seen as a negligible advantage of 0.01%,” the official said.
Apart from this, an increase of ₹ 38 crore of social welfare in terms of dam coupling does not mean that ₹ 38 crore will be saved.
The official said, “Savings will be minimal, if at all. The information of an increase in social welfare of ₹ 38 crore in the dam is theoretical, which is used for algorithm modeling, and the real consumer does not save,” the official said.
The official said, “The central market coupling mechanisms introducing the risks, delaying the operation of the market, and copying tasks, the liquidity of the market, deepening the participation or improving the main challenges like improving the trust of the investor, said,” the official said.
According to industry officials, while the idea is presented as ‘market coupling’, the proposed design is more closely attained than the ‘Exchange coupling’ with no predecessor globally.
He said that while Grid-India presented a detailed report to CERC, the Commission’s order does not adequately reflect the widespread conclusions of that report.
To ensure transparency and stakeholder confidence, the full grid-India report should be publicly provided publicly to convenience informed discussions and independent assessment of recommendations, insisting.
According to a report by JM Financial, the benefits of market coupling are negligible.
“A shadow pilot study by Grid-India has shown that the price resulted in a overall welfare benefit of only 0.3% and 0.2% in the quantity. The amount of power that could not be cleaned as a% for unpublished clearing volumes, was just 0.10% in FY 2014,” JM Financial Analysts said in the report.
“The anticipated profit (value, volume, transmission) of the market coupling is not clearly clear in the Indian context,” he said.
According to him, the implementation of the power market coupling requires upgradation and integration of software, amendment in infrastructure for compatibility, the formation of data sharing protocols as well as consensus on financial settlement mechanisms.
“We believe that the January 2026 target for the implementation of the coupling is very ambitious, and the implementation will not be possible before December 2027,” he said in the report.
“If applied elsewhere, this approach will merge NSE and BSE or even competitive platforms like BSE or even Jio and Airtel – it refutes the principles of open markets. It will effectively kill innovation, service excellence and encouragement to launch new products effectively,” Ashish camphor, Invest Shop, Invest Shopy Shopy, Inventory Fir Said.
Published – 02 August, 2025 09:21 pm IST