Market coupling in power sector: Industry flags risks

EVEN AS THE Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has approved the implementation of market coupling for power exchanges beginning January 2026, several leading industry players have raised concerns over execution challenges and regulatory uncertainty.

- ARUNIMA BHARADWAJ

The experts have cited a lack of clarity on technology sourcing and infrastructure readiness. A functional rollout could take up to two years, they said.

"There needs to be a common technology platform, which must first be developed and then made available to all the exchanges. Besides, the necessary IT infrastructure must be in place at each exchange. There also needs to be a mechanism for inter-exchange settlement," said an industry source.

Market coupling involves aggregating the "buy" and "sell" bids from all exchanges to arrive at a single, uniform market clearing price. Essentially, it allows electricity traded across all exchanges to have a uniform price point at a given time.