The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) on Thursday approved three pre-specified time slots — round-the-clock (RTC), solar and non-solar — for the term ahead market (TAM) at power exchanges.
TAM on power exchanges provides a range of products allowing participants to buy or sell electricity on a term basis for a duration of up to 90 days.
The regulator was hearing petitions from Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), Power Exchange India (PXIL) and Hindustan Power Exchange (HPX) for approval of pre-specified slots TAM, Green TAM (G-TAM) and High Price TAM (HP-TAM) on their platforms.
‘Core intent’
The CERC said the “core intent” behind proposing pre-specified timeslots in TAM contracts is to align with the conditions specified in the Commission’s Orders (June 7, 2022 and December 13, 2022) and avoid the scope of any manipulation by restricting the slots to a fixed specification.
The Commission also informed that Grid India has proposed to structure the TAM contracts as “solar and non-solar hours” rather than “peak and off-peak”.
This is because a common four-hour peak hour slot cannot be defined at the national level for bidding at power exchanges because each State reaches its peak demand at a different time based on its demand curve, it added.
Besides, imposing uniform peak hours across all regions would hinder buyers from optimising their power procurement strategies with their actual demand profiles. Another factor is that region-wise peak hour slots will lead to liquidity fragmentation in TAM.
Grid India also said that low visibility of peak and off-peak hours for future months because peak and off-peak hours are declared only a month in advance by RLDCs, while power exchanges offer contracts in TAM up to 3 months in advance, CERC said.
The regulator said that it finds “merit” in Grid India’s suggestion for structuring TAM contracts based on solar and non-solar hours instead of peak and off-peak hours.
Slot structures
With regard to the various slot structures and recommendations submitted by all the power exchanges and stakeholders, the Commission has observed that while the exchanges and stakeholders have proposed region-specific peak hours, two-hourly delivery slots, and seasonally adjusted variations, such proposals are not aligned with the objectives of pre-specified time slots in TAM, GTAM and HPTAM envisaged in the order dated April 28, 2025, it added.
While the duration of RTC contracts is 24 hours, solar contracts duration will be from 6 AM to 6 PM and non-solar contracts from 6PM to 6AM.
“Broadly, we approve three types of pre-specified time slots for TAM contracts, namely, RTC, solar and non-solar contracts. Under solar and non-solar contracts, there shall be further classification of contracts… These time slots are based on the prevailing national solar and non-solar hours,” CERC said in the order.
It also directed Grid India to issue a detailed procedure for separately notifying solar and non-solar hours on a national basis, factoring in regional variation as far as possible.
“The directions to the power exchanges pertaining to pre-specified time slots for TAM/ HP-TAM/ GTAM (hydro) and GTAM (other than hydro) contracts shall come into effect within a week from the date of the order. However, all such contracts traded or entered into before the date of this order shall continue to be valid,” the CERC order said.
Published on May 22, 2026