IEX shares fall 4% as APTEL dismisses firm's plea in market coupling case

IEX shares fall 4% as APTEL dismisses plea of IEX in market coupling case

• IEX shares fell after APTEL dismissed its market coupling plea
• CERC allowed to proceed with market coupling regulations
• Market coupling may reduce IEX's market share and margins

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Shares of Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) fell 4% on February 13 as APTEL dismissed plea of the energy exchange in market coupling case.

APTEL allowed CERC to proceed with coupling regulation framing, reported CNBC-TV18 on February 13.

The APTEL decision dismissing IEX's plea and allowing CERC to proceed with market coupling may reduce IEX's market share and margins due to uniform pricing across exchanges.

At 11:35 am on February 13, IEX shares were trading 3.5% lower at Rs 121.51 apiece.

IEX is India's premier power exchange, providing a nationwide automated trading platform for the physical delivery of electricity, renewable energy, and certificates.

Market coupling is an economic model used in energy markets to create a single, uniform price for electricity across different trading platforms or exchanges, diluting IEX's dominant position.

In July 23, 2025, CERC issued directions for implementing Market Coupling under the provisions of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Power Market) Regulations, 2021. The implementation of this mechanism was expected to negatively impact the trading volumes on IEX, following which the stock fell 30% the next day.

There are two modes of trading on power exchanges: the real-time market (RTM) and the day-ahead market (DAM). According to a CERC order, starting January 2026, Grid-India will aggregate energy prices across all power trading platforms and publish a single unified price, a process known as day-ahead market coupling. The order said this mechanism would improve the efficiency of power exchanges and strengthen market participants’ confidence in exchange operations.

At present, electricity trading takes place on the market leader IEX, Power Exchange of India, and Hindustan Power Exchange of India. IEX dominates the market with an overall share of about 85% and a near-total presence in key segments such as DAM and RTM. Currently, buyers and sellers place bids independently on each exchange, resulting in separate price discovery across the three platforms.

With market coupling, a single market-clearing price will apply across all exchanges. The exchanges will only gather bids and forward them to a designated agency responsible for determining the common price. As a result, market coupling removes the advantage of trading on the dominant exchange, as bidders would have little incentive to prefer IEX over the other platforms.