Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Indian Energy Exchange Ltd (NSE: IEX) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated Apr. 24, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Aparna Garg — Head Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Unidentified Speaker
Satyanarayan Goel — Chairman of Board, Interim Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Vineet Harlalka — Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary
Analysts:
Rohan Gheewala — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Sumit Kishore — Analyst
Kunal Thanvi — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Indian Energy Exchange Q4FY26 results conference call hosted by Axis Capital Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr.
Rohan Giwala from Axis Capital Limited. Thank you. And over to you, sir.
Rohan Gheewala — Analyst
Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of Access Capital, I’m pleased to welcome you all to the IEX Q4 FY26 earnings conference call. We have with us the management team of IEX which is represented by Mr. S.N. Goyal, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Vineet Harlalka, Chief Financial Officer Ms. Aparna Garg, Head Investor Relations and Corporate Communications and Mr. Aditya Wali, Investor Relations. We will begin with the opening remarks from Ms. Aparna followed by an interactive Q and A session.
Thank you and over to you.
Aparna Garg — Head Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Hi. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the IEX earnings call for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2026. I, Aparna Garg, will be making the opening remarks today. With me today on this call are Mr. Satya Narayan Goyal, CMD, IEX Mr. Vineet Harlalkar, CFO and Company Secretary and Mr. Aditya Wali from the Investor Relations team. Mr. Rohit Bajaj, JMD and Mr. Amit Kumar, Head of Market Operations and Exchange Technology are not available to join us today due to other official meetings. Amid geopolitical challenges in the Middle east and heightened global uncertainty, India continues to remain the fastest growing major economy in the world, delivering a strong GDP growth of 7.8% in the third quarter of fiscal 2026.
Based on second advance estimates released by the National Statistics Office, India is expected to end financial year 26 with a growth rate of 7.6%. The recent middle east conflict has heightened risk to the growth outlook through elevated crude prices, supply disruptions, slower global growth, tighter liquidity and spillovers into domestic credit markets. However, India’s growth performance going forward will be driven by a strong domestic consumption, increased capital investment and steady momentum across industry and services.
Further reforms such as rationalization of GST rates, new labor laws and free trade agreements with the UK and EU position it on track to become the world’s third largest economy. On the power sector front, India’s electricity demand at 423 billion units in quarter four FY26 increased moderately by 2.2% compared with Q4 FY25, though at 1709 billion units, electricity consumption for FY26 remained almost flat. Financial year 2026 witnessed an incremental 58 gigawatts of installed capacity across thermal and renewable sources, taking total installed capacity to 533 GW.
Renewable energy accounted for more than 50% of the total installed capacity at 275 GW, making India the third largest in terms of renewable capacity globally, notably in FY26. India achieved this milestone of sourcing 50% of its cumulative installed electricity power capacity from renewable sources five years ahead of the 2030 target. On the fuel side, ample fuel was available at competitive prices. India’s coal production reached 322 million tonnes in Q4FY26 and in SY26, India’s coal production recorded 1041 million tonnes.
Coal inventory as of 31st March 2026 stood at 25 days according to Ministry of Coal. To address any potential energy shortages in the current evolving situation, the national coal stockpile of over 210 million tonnes represents a buffer of nearly three months of energy consumption, while imported coal price during quarter four averaged nearly $53 per tonne, higher by 6.6% compared with the same quarter last fiscal.
Operator
However,
Aparna Garg — Head Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
At $47 per ton, prices were lower by nearly 10% in FY26 compared with FY25. Overall, the fuel situation for the sector remained comfortable throughout the last year. Let us now talk about few important regulatory updates and policy initiatives during the year. In January, Ministry of Power released a draft National Electricity Policy 2026 aimed at aligning the power sector with Vixit Bharat goals over the next two decades. The draft prioritizes cost, reflective tariff reforms, a phase reduction in fraud subsidies and time of the day peak hour pricing to improve efficiency and strengthen discount finances.
It has also set ambitious consumption targets of per capita electricity use rising to 2000 units by 2030 and over 4000 units by 2047. For deepening power markets, the draft proposes building frameworks to establish generation capacity addition through market mechanisms such as bilateral contract settlements. It further outlines use of standardized contracts to be executed on power exchanges and possibility of electricity from long term PPS to be routed through power exchanges or any other platform recognized by the cerc.
These are positive initiatives for the development of the sector and that of the power market. Amendments have been proposed to the draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2025 wherein State Electricity Regulatory Commissions have been empowered to determine tariffs through a motor to ensure timely cost recovery and avoid delays. Cross subsidies are to be progressively eliminated within five years for manufacturing, railways and Metro operations in a push for CNI and open access consumers. Discounts may be exempted from universal supply obligation to CNI users with more than 1 megawatt load.
Also, discoms would provide non discriminatory open access to multiple distribution licensees on payment of wheeling charges. These proposals would enhance competitiveness of the CNI segment. PERC issued final guidelines for VPPAs in December 2025. These guidelines recognize power exchanges as authorized platforms for sale of electricity by RE generators entering VPP arrangements. This should help increase volumes on exchanges. The CERC issued first amendments to REC Regulations 2026 clarifying REC applicability for designated consumer renewable consumption obligation and VPPAs.
Under these amendments, re based captive plants may be issued REC but cannot trade REC to the extent of self consumption of electricity. Amendments also specify source based REC multipliers that would remain valid for 15 years. These multipliers should help increase REC inventory going forward. The MOP has already issued the final Notification on Renewable Consumption Obligations allowing fulfillment through multiple avenues including RECs from VPPAs and enabling fungibility across wind, hydro and other components.
We have sought CERC approval to align our Green contract with the revised RCO framework and the matter is currently reserved. Once approved, this alignment is expected to bring greater clarity on RE sale and procurement and support higher renewable participation. Ministry of New and Renewable energy of India, I.e. MNRE has approved a 500 megawatt pilot CFD for RE on a 3 hour basis to be implemented by SECCHI. This pilot shall enable RE generators to sell electricity or power exchanges while SECHI settles the difference between the discovered strike price and the reference market price.
The pilot would supply 1,500 megawatt hour of RE power daily for 3 non solar hours with settlements based on dam prices and backed by a CFD stabilization Fund of 76 crores provided by the government with regards to carbon market. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has issued final notifications on greenhouse gas emission intensity targets for seven sectors Aluminium, Chlor, alkali cement, pulp and paper, Petrochemicals, petroleum and textiles while notifications for iron and steel are awaited.
These sectors account for about 16% of India’s GHG emissions with a combined baseline of 480 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent in FY24 targeted to decline to 465.3 million tons by FY27. The carbon credit certificate trading procedures are currently being drafted by the BEE in consultation with Grid India. These developments have laid the foundation for trading of carbon credit certificates on power exchanges. PRC issued an order on implementing market coupling on 23 July 2025 in which the regulator decided to initiate the process of implementation of market coupling of day ahead market by January 2026.
Subsequently, IEX had filed an appeal in the Aptil. In its order issued on February 13, 2026, Aptel mentioned that as market coupling cannot be implemented without regulations, IEX is not an aggrieved party at this stage as per the order. As and when final regulations are issued and if IE is aggrieved by them, they have the liberty to challenge the regulations before an appropriate forum including all grounds raised in the appeal filed before Actil. Further, on April 17, 2026, CERC issued draft regulations for market coupling according to which Grid India would act as a market coupling operator, that is the mco.
Also, Grid India would be responsible to frame detailed procedure for implementation of market coupling. CERC has invited stakeholder comments on the draft till 16th May 2026. On IEX performance in quarter four of financial year 26, IEX recorded the highest ever quarterly traded electricity volume of 39.4 billion units higher by 24.3% on a year on year basis. In the full year FY26 electricity volumes touched 141 billion units higher by 17% on a year on year basis. In terms of recs during the quarter recs a total of 71.7 lakh RECs were traded, an increase of 6% over the same quarter in FY25 and during the full year a total of 187 lakh RECs were traded recording a 5% increase over the last year.
For the quarter, consolidated revenue for the company grew by 12.5% year on year increasing from rupees 174.6 crore in Q4FY25 to rupees 196.4 crore in quarter four of FY26. Profit after tax increased by 10.8% rising from 117.1 cr in Q4FY25 to 129.8 cr in quarter four of FY26. For the full year, profit after tax was higher by 14.9% from 429.2 cross to 492.9 cr. In the present year, the Board of Directors have announced a final dividend of rupees two per share equivalent to 200% of face value of the equity share within electricity segment RTM volumed at nearly 14.3 billion units in quarter four or higher by 48.2% on a year on year basis.
In FY26, RTM volume grew nearly 41% year on year to 55 billion units compared with FY25. The RTM segment has continued to grow strongly with 39% share in electricity volumes at IEX. This segment has played a critical role by offering flexibility in power procurement and providing immediate responsiveness to efficiently integrate renewables with the grid. Green market volumes in quarter four FY26 rose 26.5% to 2.4 billion units compared with quarter four or FY25. For full year the segment traded 10.8 billion units, an increase of 23% over FY25.
This segment helps obligated entities including DISCOMS meet their renewable purchase obligations with capacity addition increase in solar, hydro, wind and sustained supply from coal based generation supply liquidity and power exchanges improved and led to substantial drop in the prices in quarter four of financial year 26. Selling its in the day ahead market of iex increased nearly 49% on a year on year basis as a result of which the prices in the day ahead market at 3.89 rupees per unit were down 12.2% year on year while prices in the real time market averaged 3.68 rupees a unit, a 15% drop for the full year.
Sell liquidity in the dayhead market was higher by 44% at 3.86 rupees per unit.
Unidentified Speaker
The
Aparna Garg — Head Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Average DAM price during the year was lower by nearly 14% compared with the last year. Similarly, at 3.59 rupees a unit, the average price in the RTM segment in this year was lower by 16% compared with FY25. These prices presented an opportunity for DISCOMS and CNI consumers to meet their demand at a competitive price and to replace their costlier power by procuring through exchanges. On the product front, we continue to await approval from the CERC on a petition to extend the term ahead market contract to 11 months.
Similarly, with regards our Green RTM petition, CERC has reserved its order to support development of merchant storage capacity. We have filed a petition with CERC seeking introduction of peak DAM and peak RTM segments. These segments are intended to enable power trading during high demand periods such as late evenings and early mornings. The CERC’s order on this petition is currently reserved. On IGX front, the Indian gas exchange completed five years of operations in financial year 26. The exchange currently represents close to 3% of India’s overall gas consumption and 20% of the spot market.
For quarter four of financial year 26, IGX traded gas volumes of 18.6 million MMBtu lower by 8% over Q4FY25 largely on account of supply disruptions in the Middle east. Beginning March. For the full year IGX traded gas volumes of 76.8 million MMBtu, a growth of 28% on a year on year basis. Led by demand from domestic gas producers, heightened power demand and demand from city gas distribution. IGX recorded a profit after tax of rupees of 9.4 cr in quarter 4 FY26 which was higher by 5.4% compared with 8.9 crores in Q4FY25 and for the full year IGX recorded a profit after tax of rupees 41.9 crores which is higher by 35% compared with 30.9 cr in the same period last year.
Going forward till geopolitical challenges in the Middle east, volumes could remain impacted though some of it may be offset domestically on the way forward. While power demand remained Largely subdued in FY26 owing to weather conditions, CA’s projection of demand approaching 2,500 bus by 2032 continues to support exchange volume growth. For this summer the CA has projected peak demand to reach 270 gigawatts accompanied by the El Nino effect which is expected to strengthen post June 2026 while in the short term this raises some concerns on sell side liquidity.
However the government has already invoked measures under Section 11 for some imported coal based plants to operate at full capacity which will be effective till 06-30-2026. This is expected to increase supply in the system. During FY26 India’s power sector witnessed the emergence of new market Mechanisms such as VPPAs, electricity derivatives contract for difference and battery storage arbitrage. While implementation of 13 gigawatt of BAS projects under the first BGF branches underway, tenders for nearly 3/4 of the 30 gigawatt under the second tranche have also been awarded.
Falling battery storage costs keep accelerating west adoption with AP Transco having discovered the lowest price ever under the VGF mechanism in November 2025. Rupees 145 per unit for a 1000 megawatt 2 hour 2 cycle tender earlier this year in February NBN discovered Rupees 1.77 per unit for a 250 megawatt 2 hour 2 cycle Tender this year also marked the first merchant base trades at IEX from Juniper Green Energy Ltd. The largest operating base asset in the country. Subsequently, Acme Solar and Adani and Greave have also leveraged storage arbitrage opportunities on the exchange platform.
These developments deepen India’s power market and strengthen India’s path towards energy transition. IEX’s other diversification initiatives are also gaining traction. For quarter four of financial year 26, the ICX issued 46 lakh IRICs higher by 29% compared with quarter four of financial year 25. And for the full year ICX issued 179 lakh IRIX recording a growth of over 200% compared with FY25. Revenue for ICX during the quarter stood at 2.2 crores and 7.7 crores for the full year respectively.
With regards to coal exchange, the Ministry of Coal has come out with draft regulations for the exchange and final regulations are expected later in the calendar year. In pursuance of this opportunity, the IEX board has accorded in principal approval to explore establishing a coal exchange in line with the proposed coal regulations 2025 issued by the Ministry of Coal. As India advances towards its net zero goals, energy markets are expected to play an increasingly significant role in shaping the nation’s energy ecosystem.
Thank you. We can now have the question and answers.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and one on the Touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press Star and two participants. You are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue is a reminder to all. You may press Star and one to ask a question. We have the first question from the line of Pala Subramanian from Arian Kapjan.
Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Good afternoon madam. Thank you so much for the opportunities. Madam, I’m trying to understand our coal exchange, ICX and mineral exchange as part of diversifications. So what is the estimated TAM and revenue potential of a coal exchange in India given that coal is largely allocated via long term linkages. So I’m trying to understand what are the monetization models in terms of transaction fees, membership data. Because it’s not like. Like not like gas power. These things are standardized while the coal and all is heterogeneous.
Logistics, heavy commodities. So I’m trying to understand how we are going to take it forward.
Satyanarayan Goel
Yeah. Good afternoon everyone. I am SN Goyard so let me respond to this question. Yes, as coal is concerned today coal is allocated for thermal power generating stations and the location of coal is not to meet the full requirement of the power plants. So many of these power plants who have the PPs still they purchase power, still they purchase coal from the market. And there are merchant power plants, there are other industries also who uses coal. So there is large opportunity on the buy side. On the sell side we used to have in fact shortage of coal.
That is why there were a lot of problems. And that premium in the e oxen market was also very high. But subsequently Ministry of Coal had taken many initiatives. They allocated many mines for the captive production and also some of the mines were auctioned for the merchant production of coal. And subsequently the industries having captive mines they were also allowed to sell up to 50% of the coal in the market. I think all these provisions have now increased production of coal in the market. So the coal is now available in surplus quantity.
So today we have multiple sellers in the market. It is not the coal India alone we have multiple sellers. Captive mines are there, merchant mines are there and also there are many buyers in the market. So we have a multi buyer, multi seller model in the market available. And if you look at the draft regulations it says that even the e auction coal will have to be transacted through the exchange. So the last year the e auction coal transaction was about 80 million tonnes. So this is a which provides a significant opportunity for the coal exchange.
In addition to this there are other industries also which buy coal. So I think the opportunity size based on that is going to be quite large. But we will have to wait for the final regulations to come and only for the final, when the final regulations come then we will be able to estimate the market size. But I feel that it is an initiative of the government of India and because they feel that exchanges provide a lot of value in this which it leads to transparent price discovery and both physical and financial settlement in time.
So I’m sure government also is going to take a lot of policy initiatives to ensure development of the coal market.
Unidentified Participant
So
Satyanarayan Goel
With this
Unidentified Participant
We feel
Satyanarayan Goel
That it’s going to be a good opportunity to get into the co exchanes.
Unidentified Participant
Okay sir. So my next question on that NRGX platform and pitting API API side what percentage of total volumes now flow through API compared to manual web pitting? Is there any large discounts? And CNI customers integrated their ERP directly with IEX APIs?
Satyanarayan Goel
In fact more than 70% of our tiered volume is through the API system. So many of the distribution companies have already are connected with us through the API. So generators are also connected with this. So I think there is a significant improvement on quarter to quarter basis and I’m sure in the time to come almost everybody will do the bidding through the API system.
Unidentified Participant
Okay sir, so my last question in that presentation mentioned about AI based application development and security monitoring. Whether if you could share some examples in terms of AI model deployed, whether it is improved match efficiency, reduced mission penalties or optimized bit suggestions. We got some clarity on the AI based application development and security monitoring side.
Satyanarayan Goel
We are not using AI for the price discovery. Price discovery is by our MIP based algorithm which is a linear programming based model. This at the moment we are using AI for basically we have a software team which is doing all activities for creating new products and I mean managing the things there. We are using the AI system now so it is reducing our coding time and in fact the improvement there is a significant improvement in the efficiency also. And another area is basically security. So that is providing a robust platform and in spite of so many instances of hacking there has not been a single instance where they have been able to penetrate our system.
So these are the advantages of this. And we are also working on many other areas where we can use AI application to benefit our customers.
Unidentified Participant
So it’s basically operational improvement. Right sir?
Satyanarayan Goel
Yes. Yes you’re right. Yeah,
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Thank you sir. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Sunit Kishore from Access Capital. Please go ahead.
Sumit Kishore
Good afternoon Goel sir and Aparna. My first question is on the fourth quarter result. The other income seems to have slowed down. The quarterly run rate over the last four odd quarters down about 29%. Anything to call out here?
Satyanarayan Goel
I’ll request my colleague Mr. Vineet Kharlka who is CF1 company secretary of the company to respond to this question.
Vineet Harlalka
Yeah, hi Sumit. Sumit. The major reason was that if you look at the December quarter number it was a significant increase over the treasury income because there was a one time gain we got because the interest rates were there and the market was improving. And as you all know because of the Iran conflict and rupee situation there was a significant correction in the market during this month of March especially. So a bit of mark to market impacts were there and that was in the numbers. And the previous quarter there was one time gains, those were there and as the market is recovering we will see that the numbers going back to the earlier numbers.
Sumit Kishore
So this is not obviously there are some non recurring factors which have depressed. Second question is, you know regarding timelines. Now the public Comments close on the 16th of May on the draft PMR. But how if you can maybe elaborate on what would be your legal or commercial strategy if you can or what will be the timeline that you have for the final notification of EMR to come out subsequently? When does the the power market coupling procedures come out? So what sort of timelines do you think are in store?
Satyanarayan Goel
It is very difficult to say on that. I mean if you recall this PMR 2021 was issued in February 21st but the draft of that came to best of my knowledge in 2019. So can’t really say how much time they will take because these are issues of bigger issues of market redesign. So I am sure TRC is going to take into comments they receive and also look into the aspect of market redesign. So we really cannot say how much time they will take to issue the final notification.
Sumit Kishore
And this will be public comment. So there will be like. Like the stakeholder consultation which had happened. There’ll be detailed comments from all parties. Okay. Yes. You know I think finally just one question on the gas exchange. I know the straight up almost is still not functional. So in terms of the gas exchange Q1 can be quite depressed if what are the levers to shore up volumes on the gas exchange.
Satyanarayan Goel
See as of now since the gas is not coming from the India was getting significant quantity of gas on that side. That is one issue. And second issue is that gas prices are also very high. So Indian market is quite sensitive to the gas price. So therefore the volume in the March and also in April so far are not as good as what we had planned for it. But I’m sure this situation is going to improve and as and when this improves we should be able to catch up with the volume growth that was that has been happening on the gas exchange.
And my estimate is that maybe in the first quarter we may not get any growth with respect to the last year first quarter. But from second quarter onwards we should be able to even achieve the growth also.
Sumit Kishore
So the volume that you do in Q1 this time that would be with gas coming from where I mean or would it be domestic gas getting traded?
Satyanarayan Goel
Gas is there are still LNG is coming from different other sources.
Sumit Kishore
So
Satyanarayan Goel
Part of that LNG is also getting credit traded. Then there is domestic gas also which is also being settled on the exchange platform in the domestic gas like you know ONGC and Reliance they have high pressure high temperature gas from the eastern east coast site, Krishna Kodavari KGD 6 fields and they sell a part of that gas on the exchange platform. Similarly, domestic gas available with other suppliers also is big part of that is being sold in the market.
Sumit Kishore
Okay. And so basically that stake reduction in IGX. Now you have got time up to which month
Satyanarayan Goel
PNG RBA has given us time up to 31st of December 2026.
Sumit Kishore
Thank you sir and wish you all the best.
Satyanarayan Goel
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Kunal Tanvi from Banyan Tree Advisor. Please go ahead.
Kunal Thanvi
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. I had two questions. One was on the recent draft from CRC on market coupling. So what we understand is like in the last avatar when the draft had come in July 2025, it was about that round robin which we kind of, you know, had a case against. Like we fought it and then finally this new thing has come where they’re saying that Grid India will become, you know, mco. So when we were reading the first draft that was in July 2025, operationally it looked like very cumbersome, you know, to implement.
But when you read this one, what is, you know, ix sense on, you know, implementation of this kind of structure that now, you know, CERC is talking about that is point number one and point number two, like while multiple times, you know, we have done the study and there’s been an outcome that market coupling in the current structure without ambid will not kind of fulfill any objective from a price efficient price discovery perspective. Then what is the intent of the regulator in terms of, of pushing for market coupling?
Is it that they want price discovery to happen on Grid India itself? So like, you know, one particular exchange don’t have advantage or any other insights if you can share. The second was on, you know, a possible buyback. If you can throw some light on how we as management team and the board is thinking about buyback at least. Thank you.
Satyanarayan Goel
Yeah. So let me first respond to your coupling question. So as you are aware, CRC in the order in the month of July they had mentioned that market coupling on the head, market on round of invasives will be done and now they have changed their decision and in the draft regulations they are talking about Green India. So I think situation is still fluid and I personally feel that situation is fluid even on the market coupling. Maybe in due course of time they may review their own decision about the market coupling also and may not go ahead with this.
So I cannot really say anything on this. What is finally going to Happen even round robin was not a complicated mechanism. All three exchanges have their software and they will have to only collect the bids. The designated exchange was required to aggregate the bids and do the price discovery. Now Grid India will have to create the infrastructure and software for this which will be additional cost. So I don’t think it is going to really provide any value in the process. But then it all depends on what regulator decides to do.
So we’ll have to wait and watch for that. And your second question was about the benefit from the coupling. I fully agree with you that based on the studies done so far there is no benefit of coupling and I’m sure will take note of this. The third is buyback. I think on the buyback, the mechanism for doing buyback there is still no final decision has been taken by Sebi so far and I will request my colleague Mr. Vineet to say on this.
Vineet Harlalka
So the CV is still there are tender routies available? So there was a taxation issues in the previous years. Now with the budget the government come up with a revised tax structure. So again buyback become a one of the good options for distributing money to the shareholders. We are definitely considering it and we are also waiting. The draft notice CV had come out from the open market route which they dislodged earlier. So the management is observing all the development and we’ll take a due call considering the benefit of the stakeholders.
Kunal Thanvi
Thank you. Just had a couple of follow up. One was where we are in the IGX IPO process and secondly on you know, coming back to the market coupling like whatever form and shape the current draft talks about, this essentially means that, you know, if that goes through then all the three exchanges, the key of, you know, functionality of them would be collecting bids and submitting it to the grid which will, you know, grid India who will kind of discover the price and then everybody, you know, the trades get aggregated.
Is that right? Understanding?
Satyanarayan Goel
Yeah, yeah. And exchanges will be again doing the physical and financial settlement. All that will be done still by the exchanges. Only the price discovery will be done by the India.
Kunal Thanvi
Okay, okay. And on IGX
Satyanarayan Goel
I think IGX IPO process is. They have initiated the process. So I’m not really fully aware about the exact status of that but I think it is progressing well.
Sumit Kishore
Okay, sure. Thank you. And all the rest.
Satyanarayan Goel
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you very much. Before we take the next question, ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management should be able to address all the questions from the participants in the question queue, we request you to kindly Limit your questions to two per participant. If you have a follow up question, please rejoin the queue. Again, we will take the next question from the line of Praveen Vishesh from PP Affairs Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Good afternoon sir. So my first question was on the coal exchange opportunity we are studying. So here logistics in coal is usually a bottleneck, right? Because in many cases the landed cost of coal for the user increases significantly because of the logistics cost. So from an exchange point of view, more than just price discovery, what are we adding in terms of building efficient logistics network?
Satyanarayan Goel
Yeah, in case of coal there are many challenges. Quantity, quality and the transportation, all these are issues. So we’ll have to work on all these things. I think logistic is definitely a very, very important part of it. So initially what we intend to start is that maybe the buyer will have to make their own arrangement for lifting the coal. We will discover the price, finalize the price and then make arrangement. I mean ensure that the coal is available to him at the point of the right quality and then he will have to make their own arrangement for lifting the coal.
And subsequently when we are able to finalize arrangements with railways for supply of coal to the exchanges also and maybe we can provide that service also.
Unidentified Participant
Got it sir. And so my other question was regarding the clarity that we received regarding coupling. So at least there is some clarity compared to before. So how are the trading participants reacting to what is happening? So I understand from an exchange perspective there can be some changes, but what are the trading participants reacting? And given that, you know, we have been maintaining long term relationships with a lot of these traders and trading participants, how are they reacting to this and what
Satyanarayan Goel
I don’t think there is going to be any change in their working. They will continue to submit their bids to the exchanges and it is only that from the exchange operation, just the price discovery function is being taken. Otherwise rest of the job will continue to be done by the exchanges only.
Unidentified Participant
What initiatives are being taken to ensure that, you know, these relationships would be with our exchange continues.
Satyanarayan Goel
Point is, it is from the last 18 years we are doing only one thing, relationship building with our customers. And we will continue to do that. And that is why we have a strong and customer base with the company. Customer loyalty, that’s our usp.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. And my last question was on the VPPA VPPing. So has there any more momentum or interest picked up on this post? The draft regulations or is the interest still coming from the tech companies?
Satyanarayan Goel
Not significant so far, but let’s see, maybe with the data Centers coming into the market or the multinationals taking some interest in this, something should happen.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you. Thank you for taking my questions.
Satyanarayan Goel
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Ketan Jain from Evander’s Park. Please go ahead.
Sumit Kishore
Thank you. Good afternoon sir. It can help us explain the SEC new SECI tender of contracts for differences. How does it help exchanges and what’s the basic framework?
Satyanarayan Goel
Yeah, as per that contract, a key will contract certain battery capacity at a fixed price. And that gentleman will sell that power in the market. The important part is this. So that battery capacity will be will be selling power in the day ahead market. So exchanges will get that liquidity. That 500 megawatt power for three hours will be available for sale in the exchanges. So that’s the benefit which exchanges will get. And if the sale price is more than their contracted price, maybe there will be some sharing of that profit gain between the SECI and that party who is setting up this capacity.
Sumit Kishore
Understood. So this is a pilot tenders. Do we expect more tenders coming in from this?
Satyanarayan Goel
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean if you look at the European countries there are almost about 50, 60% of the renewable capacity addition is happening through the CFD contracts. Because under the CFD contracts you don’t need any ppa, you don’t have any scheduling issue, you don’t have any payment issues. So they do all this capacity addition to the CFD route. It is for the first time government of India is trying on a pilot basis. I am sure with the success of this project, many, many more projects will come should come and even this will be, this will be also a.
You know this will also be the way for the private investors. If the result of this pilot is positive, maybe they will also set up capacity on merchant basis.
Sumit Kishore
Understood. And if this is only for battery or it’s a technology agnostic, it can be wind as well.
Satyanarayan Goel
This is a F4 battery. What I believe.
Sumit Kishore
Okay sir. And my next question is on what’s your expectations for volume growth in FY27?
Satyanarayan Goel
I think we have been achieving a volume growth of 15 to 20% every year. And this year in fact the demand is also going to be high. So with the new capacity additions and demand increasing, we should be able to maintain this volume growth of 15, 20%. But again everything depends on the demand supply. These are all factors which are outside the exchange control.
Sumit Kishore
Certainly. What is the reason for fall in rec volumes in this year compared to last year? Any specific reason?
Satyanarayan Goel
There is no fall. There is in fact 5% increase in the REC volume.
Sumit Kishore
Okay.
Satyanarayan Goel
Yeah.
Sumit Kishore
Okay, I’ll come back to the queues.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Nitin Shaldekar from Green Capital single family office. Please go ahead.
Sumit Kishore
Good afternoon to the management. This is Nitin Shakta from the Green Capital single family office. My question is more as an investor rather than an analyst. Let’s assume the worst case scenario that the market coupling regulation goes against the company and you lose the legal case. Now obviously as a risk management strategy, you would have decided to have strategies in place in case that were to happen. But is the understanding correct that the price the traders will have more functional reason to prefer iex and maybe the smaller new exchanges like HPX and PXL will be able to attract slightly more volumes and erode market share and might be some margin pressure.
How do you anticipate in case the regulations were to go towards the market decoupling? It’s just clarity from the management once and for all. So at least we can anticipate both sides of the equation. Thank you.
Satyanarayan Goel
Yeah. First of all, as far as market coupling itself is concerned, it won’t be fair to assume that market coupling is going to happen. There are still things under discussions. But when taking your question that yes, in the worst case scenario, if it happens, one is that, you know, customer loyalty is very important and in the last 18 years, as I told earlier, that is what we have been doing. We have been interacting with the customer, understanding their problem, creating products to address that problem, telling them how to use the exchange platform, providing them data analytics, having API system for faster bidding and also financial settlement of the transactions.
So all these things, the value additions which we are doing, I’m sure we will be able to retain our customers and this is something we will continue to do in future also. So with that I’m sure that we should, even after coupling also we should be able to retain significant part of the market share in this dam segment.
Sumit Kishore
Okay. So any potential offset for margin that you have done, that it might have a minor impact on margins might go down because you’ve always been dealing with this situation over the last one one and a half years. So do you expect a margin because the business valuation is already reflecting that the liquidity moat is not there at this point in time in terms of the dominance. So do you think that there might be a slight changes in margin in case the worst case scenario were to come across or is just business as usual and you think that we have to accept it and carry on.
Satyanarayan Goel
I can only give you an example that in case of the termite market, where the liquidity is practically uniform across all three exchanges, the share of all three exchanges is in that same range of, I mean, 40, 50%, 30%, 20% kind of numbers. So in that market, that market is operating for the last four years. And in that market also, the margins are intact. I mean, against 4 paisa, I think the margin is around 3.6, 3.7 paisa. That’s the kind of number. So we don’t expect significant impact on the margin part of it, the transaction fees part.
Sumit Kishore
Okay, thank you, sir. And all the best for the. Thank you. Hope you can retain the dominant position for iex. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Nikonj Bajaj for an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so the question here is iex. Assuming that the guidelines comes into place, the IEX will have to forward the bids to Grid India. Now this would require a lot of software re engineering at your end. That is at iex, the software engineering has to be done. What would be the rough estimate cost and what like for this kind of an uncalled activity,
Satyanarayan Goel
We have our own software team.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And
Satyanarayan Goel
I’m sure our team will be able to do all these things
Unidentified Participant
So it not have an additional cost to the platform. Okay, thank you.
Satyanarayan Goel
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Ravi Purohit from securities Investment Management Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Sumit Kishore
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question, sir. On the market coupling. So, you know, can you just share about, let’s say, rtm? I think this time’s notification said that they would all like to include rtm. But is there anywhere, either in Europe or anywhere else where RTM actually has market coupling? And secondly, India probably has like some 48 sessions in a day, right. Whereas Europe I think at best could do some three sessions in a day or four sessions in a day. If you could kind of just share the operational, you know, how the RTM actually kind of functions and with the, you know, with more and more, you know, intermittent power capacities coming in from solar and wind, which like, which mostly would be working with rtm.
So if you could just kind of help us understand the entire ecosystem on which RTM operates and where are the, you know, where does this and also that, you know, once like the, you know, gate closure happens, the to finalizing the bid price, discovery schedule, everything like what kind of, you know, time latency do you have and how much you Know all of these things will kind of work out. So if you could just kind of highlight some of the issues about rtm it will be helpful.
Satyanarayan Goel
Yeah, first question is that what is the, I mean practice world over in the RTM market we haven’t come across a case where there is a market coupling because the the RTM market the timelines are very tight. And in fact if you look at the CRC order which was issued on 23rd of July 2025, that also says that looking at the tight timelines of the RTM market, they would like to look at the performance of the DAM market and then see whether it is feasible for the RTM market or not.
Sumit Kishore
As
Satyanarayan Goel
Far as this draft like guidelines are concerned, there is just a enabling provision that in the RTM to be done from a dead to be notified in future. If they decide to do something in future, then they can do that part of it.
Unidentified Participant
But
Satyanarayan Goel
There is no such decision as of now
Unidentified Participant
Because
Satyanarayan Goel
In case of RTM the number of times it is to be done is 48 and today it is 15, 15 minutes time block block we are talking about because of the renewable 5 minutes time block. Then in that case instead of the 48 it will be 48 by 2, 3. And the timeline time available for doing all these activities also is very small. There is no slack time in the process. So it is going to be very, very difficult. So I have my own doubts about coupling in the RTM market.
Sumit Kishore
And right now if, suppose there is some issue. So in, let’s say in stock market parlance when there is a trade which go wrong, you know, there is some auction or there’s a settlement happens. And what happens in a power market when an RTM trade kind of does not get through or something happens during that period in current situation. And suppose if were somewhere to kind of add this additional latency period of you know, doing it between three exchanges, giving it to mcu MCO coming back, it just sounds too complicated, right?
As in. Or I don’t know if it is like
Satyanarayan Goel
In case of coupling in the RTM market if out of the three exchanges, if one exchange data do not get aggregated at the, at the place, then you lose significant buy and sell volume and that may lead to, I mean sudden jerk in the price and the volume discovery. So it will definitely have a very, very adverse impact on the market. In case of day ahead market you still have time available because you do only one option a day. In case of RTM we do 48 options in a day. So I’M sure all these things will be considered by the regulator also before taking a final decision on this.
Sumit Kishore
And since the July 25 directions, that notice was issued first by on market coupling and you know, now this again in April. So between then and now, like what has been the kind of count of registered partition depends on our exchange. Have they gone up or have we kind of lost any customers to, you know, we’re
Satyanarayan Goel
Only getting customers, we are only getting customers. They still increasing.
Sumit Kishore
So in the past you used to have customers in the form of discoms or some generators. Right now going forward the next five to three to five years, what kind of customers, you know, would we actually get? As more and more people, you know, take OGL licenses? And also what kind of customers do you kind of, you know, envisage over a period of time now? I mean, historically it used to be only two sets of guys discoms and let’s say maybe some traders and some power generators.
Satyanarayan Goel
In fact, right from the day one, it has been distribution companies, trading companies, generating companies and also industrial consumers
Sumit Kishore
Because
Satyanarayan Goel
Open access consumers also do significant transactions through the exchange platform.
Sumit Kishore
And
Satyanarayan Goel
This industrial consumers, it is not only that they buy power to optimize their cost, but there are also many industrial consumers who have the captive generation. And if their captive generation is not working, then they purchase power from the market to take care of the outage of the unit. And there are cases when the industrial industry production is not up to the 100% and they have surplus power available, they sell that power. So we have more than 5,000 industrial consumers who are using this with us.
And now the renewable generators are also coming to the market. The renewable generators, the battery suppliers. So the number is increasing every day in fact.
Sumit Kishore
Okay, okay. All the best, sir. Thank
Satyanarayan Goel
You.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Lokesh Manik from Vellum. Catherine, please go ahead.
Sumit Kishore
Hi, good afternoon sir. Am I audible?
Satyanarayan Goel
Yes, yes, good afternoon.
Sumit Kishore
So my first question was on the coal exchange. So if you can just give us a sense of what is, what would be the current spot market in India in the coal industry. Just to get an idea of the opportunity size.
Satyanarayan Goel
At present almost about 9, 80 to 90 million ton of coal is being sold through the e auction route which is you can say the supermarket.
Sumit Kishore
And
Satyanarayan Goel
In addition to that, we are also importing almost about 150 million ton of coal for the power generation.
Sumit Kishore
So
Satyanarayan Goel
Increase in the domestic production. That market also should get replaced by the domestic coal market.
Sumit Kishore
The opportunity
Satyanarayan Goel
As of now is big. Let’s see what is the final notification. So
Sumit Kishore
This should be higher than the gas because gas is 12% today at spot and what you just mentioned, this turns out to be about 20, 25% spot in coal import plus E auction. No,
Satyanarayan Goel
No, no, no. That’s a fair
Sumit Kishore
Assessment.
Satyanarayan Goel
What I said is at present it is almost about 15% is in the spot in the case of coal also.
Sumit Kishore
Okay, 15%. Okay. Yeah. Okay, great. So my second question was more a clarification. So as we understand, you know, in new renewable energy act came in, it gave a lot of leeway to CNI customers, especially for open access where earlier thermal buyers were facing a problem where different states have different charges for open access. For green energy, this was sort of relaxed. It was conditioned upon intrastate exchange of power. Do you expect that power also to come onto the exchange now as green, you know, energy comes in, installation increases intrastate without open access hurdles?
Satyanarayan Goel
Yeah, we have already started seeing that happening now. And as a result of that, our volume in the dam market
Sumit Kishore
Is
Satyanarayan Goel
In fact increasing every year. So last year the number I think was about 10 billion units in the case of the data market. And give me a number. Correct,
Sumit Kishore
Correct, correct. Yes,
Satyanarayan Goel
According to you. And this number is increasing. I mean there is an increase of almost about 7% respect to last year. So the green energy participation in the exchange exchanges are increasing.
Sumit Kishore
Okay. And you also have a tailwind coming on that when the, you know, when the renewable energy installation happens, if, if it gets commercialized prior to the timeline, then they can come on the exchange and sell it
Satyanarayan Goel
Before.
Sumit Kishore
So that benefit is also still continuing or you are seeing some slowdown?
Satyanarayan Goel
Yes, it is continuing.
Sumit Kishore
Okay, so that will continue as long as we have good installations coming in on the solar.
Satyanarayan Goel
Definitely. Because they, they get the benefit of. Also if they are selling power in the conventional market, they can get the RFCs. If they are coming in the green market, then they get a premium of the green market.
Sumit Kishore
Understood. So my last question was for the coal exchange. Even MC Access filed an application for coal exchange today. I understand they will be in the, that is the derivatives, we will be in the spot. Do we have any agreement with them similar to the electricity futures?
Satyanarayan Goel
We don’t have any such agreement. But let’s see. I mean we are waiting for the final regulations to come because only after final questions you can really estimate what is going to be the market size and then maybe we’ll see.
Sumit Kishore
Correct, correct, correct. So lastly, how is the electricity futures developing? Are these, have we started to receive some revenue from there in electricity futures.
Satyanarayan Goel
Quantum in. That is not significant.
Sumit Kishore
The
Satyanarayan Goel
Revenue share is not meaningless, meaningful.
Sumit Kishore
Okay. Okay. Got it. That’s it. From my side, sir. Thank you so much.
Satyanarayan Goel
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen. We will take that as a last question for today. And with that concludes the question and answer session. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Aparna Gar for closing. Over to you, ma’. Am.
Aparna Garg
Thank you, everyone. I would like to thank each one of you for being a part of today’s call. We at IEX remain committed to contribute to the development of a sustainable and energy efficient future for India. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you, members of the management, on behalf of Access Capital Limited. That concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. And you may now disconnect your line. Thank you.