Sector Update | 7 July 2017
Utilities
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DISCOMs getting more efficient in power purchase
Long-term PPAs may remain elusive; Buy PWGR, NTPC
Refer to our report
on Utilities, July 2016
DEEP, a recently created electronic market for merchant power, has not only
substituted bilateral transactions (thus weeding out corruption in power
purchases), but has also helped states to reduce overall power purchase cost.
States are sourcing peak load requirements rather than signing long-term PPAs
where they have to incur fixed cost for full day. Our data analysis suggests that
UP and Torrent DISCOMs are among the key beneficiaries.
DEEP also provides a peek into the evolving demand-supply. As the share of
renewable energy increases in the grid, the variability in conventional power
generation will increase during a typical day. We expect DISCOMs to
increasingly use merchant power to optimize power purchase costs and shy
away from signing new long-term PPAs.
The merchant market (e.g. DEEP) will also help in directing investment in
connecting low cost power to demand centers and handling variability in load.
Demand-side management tools like “time of day tariff” will evolve. We
expect rates for peak demand hours to rise gradually, which will encourage
better utilization of hydro and gas power.
We continue to like regulated business models of PWGR and NTPC. We also
like CESC for its strong distribution franchise and value unlocking through
splitting into concentrated businesses. We also like JSW Energy for its ability
to benefit from the stress in the power sector, given its strong balance sheet.
Refer to our report
on Utilities, February 2017
The government had launched ‘DEEP’, a reverse bidding electronic platform for
power purchase in April 2016. The objective was to make DISCOM power purchases
transparent, moving away from bilateral transactions in the earlier set-up. All
purchases by DISCOMs that are less than one year and not day-ahead need to
happen on ‘DEEP’.
Since its launch, ‘DEEP’ has scaled up materially. It has gained market share of ~3%
within a year of its launch, equal to IEX, which has been in existence for more than
five years (Exhibit 1). The data from ‘DEEP’ provides interesting insights:
DISCOMs are getting efficient in their power purchase
‘DEEP’ provides flexibility not only on the months over which power can be
purchased, but also the time of day it is needed. DISCOMs can thus plan their
purchases to match their peak load requirement. Long-term PPAs can be signed for
the base load needs (and thus, utilized optimally) and peaking power (time of day)
contracts can be entered into to match demand load. This is already happening on
‘DEEP’. Of the ~34BU traded on ‘DEEP’, about one-third of the power is time-of-day.
Prominent are states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which have higher share of
residential consumption and more variable (peaking) load (Exhibit 2). How UP is
saving with time-of-day contracts is mentioned in detail below. Interestingly, and to
our surprise, the price gap between full day and time-of-day tariff is insignificant
Motilal Oswal research is available on www.motilaloswal.com/Institutional-Equities, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, Factset and S&P Capital.
Investors are advised to refer through important disclosures made at the last page of the Research Report.
8 August 2016
Sanjay Jain
(SanjayJain@motilaloswal.com@MotilalOswal.com); +91 22 3982 5412
Dhruv Muchhal
(Dhruv.Muchhal@motilaloswal.com@MotilalOswal.com); +91 22 3027 8033
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