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Informist, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026

 

--IEX shares volatile as hearing in market coupling case underway at tribunal 

--CERC lawyer to Tribunal: To implement mkt coupling only through regulation 

--Tribunal asks IEX to file affidavit by Jan 19 on amendments sought 

 

MUMBAI – The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity will hear the market coupling case on Jan. 19. The tribunal directed the Indian Energy Exchange to file an affidavit by then, detailing amendments sought in the case. It has also directed Central Electricity Regulatory Commission to submit the order passed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India in a week and disclose the actions taken against CERC officers mentioned in the SEBI order.    

 

Indian Energy Exchange sought withdrawal of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission's July 2025 order on day-ahead market coupling. On Tuesday, the lawyer representing the CERC told the Electricity Appellate Tribunal that the regulator was ready to take instructions from the tribunal and withdraw its order on market coupling. The CERC had issued a circular earlier on Friday which said that its July 2025 order should be read as "direction" and not an "order". In the hearing on Friday, the legal team representing CERC asked for time to respond on withdrawal of coupling order. The lawyer represeting CERC clarified that the market coupling will be implemented only through regulation. 

 

Shares of IEX were volatile throughout the proceedings Friday. While shares had risen 8% to a high of INR 160.27, they gave up gains and fell soon after the hearing began as the CERC lawyer asked for an extension to respond. The company's stock briefly rose again, but gave up gains after Justice Ramesh Ranganathan repeatedly said that the tribunal's judgement cannot bar the CERC from making further regulations on market coupling. At 1402 IST, shares of the company were over 7% lower at INR 139.26 on the NSE.

 

The IEX, in its petition, said that the CERC's July 2025 order was arbitrary and violated the principles of natural justice, CNBC TV-18 reported. The IEX claimed that the coupling order will only lead to the loss of market share without any conceivable benefits, according to the report.

 

According to CERC's July 2025 order, from January, Grid-India will aggregate energy prices across all power trading platforms and publish a single price. This process was called day-ahead market coupling. According to a Moneycontrol report, IEX dominates the electricity trading market with an overall share of about 85% and a near-total presence in key segments such as the day-ahead market and real-time market. Since bids are placed independently on separate energy exchanges, price discovery across the platforms is different. With market coupling, a single market-clearing price will be used on all exchanges, erasing benefits for traders on the largest energy exchange platform.  

 

In October, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said that officials at the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission traded in IEX derivatives and shares ahead of a market coupling decision that was likely to affect the company. In Tuesday's hearing, the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity said, "We were told that this (coupling order) was done only for some officers to make money. Saw a lot of theatrics in making of these (coupling) regulations," CNBC-TV18 reported.

 

For the quarter ended September, IEX reported net profit on INR 1.22 billion on revenue of INR 1.52 billion.  End

 

Reported by Eshitva Prakash

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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