Indian Energy Exchange wins CNBC-TV18’s IBLA Most Promising Company of the Year Award

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Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) was selected as the Most Promising Company of the Year at CNBC-TV18’s 17th Indian Business Leader Awards (IBLA) for emerging as the country’s leading energy marketplace since its launch in 2008.

The exchange, which is one of two in India, was set up to provide power generators and consumers with a platform to trade in electricity in a transparent and efficient manner. IEX has captured a 95 percent market share.

The exchange started with one product, catering to the ‘day-ahead market,’ with 58 participants and reported volumes of 20 million units at the time. Since then, the exchange has added products catering to segments including term-ahead market, real-time market, cross-border electricity trade, green term-ahead market, renewable energy certificates and energy saving certificates.

Volumes on the exchange have expanded at a compounded annual growth rate of 32 percent since launch.

IEX currently has over 6,800 participants located across 29 states and five Union Territories, comprising over 55 distribution utilities and more than 500 conventional generators. It has more than 4,400 commercial and industrial consumers from across sectors.

IEX was originally promoted by Financial Technologies but after group company National Spot Exchange was embroiled in a scam, it was sold to private equity firms at the behest of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. In 2017, IEX was listed on the National Stock Exchange and BSE. Institutional investors hold about 50 percent of the company’s equity shares.

IEX reported a net profit of Rs 213.5 crore on revenue of Rs 317.11 crore in FY21. In the nine months of FY22, standalone revenue increased by 37 percent year-on-year to Rs 350.1 crore. Net profit in the same period rose 48 percent on-year to Rs 221.6 crore.

In 2020, IEX launched a gas trading platform – Indian Gas Exchange – to duplicate its model for the gas market. IEX is now gearing up to launch longer-duration delivery contracts in the electricity and renewable energy segments.

Satyanarayan Goel is the chairman and managing director of the company. He was formerly with PTC India and NTPC.