Indian Electricity Market: Analysis of Competition and Market Power in Wholesale Electricity Market in India

As a part of electricity sector reforms in India, various initiatives have been taken to bring competition in the wholesale electricity market in India (WEMI). As electricity has characteristics of extremely variable price-inelastic demand, considerable short-run capacity constraints and unusually costly storage, firms with very small market shares may have significant market power. The wholesale electricity markets are more susceptible to exercise of market power due to large generation capacities normally owned by small number of firms and concentrated ownership in small geographic areas within the region. For measuring competition and market power in WEMI, concentration ratio, HH index, supply margin assessment, residual supply index and lerner index have been used. The prices of electricity trading through power exchange, UI and bilateral contracts have also been analysed to examine the possibility of exercise of market power in WEMI. The results of the study indicate possibility of existence of market power and its exercise to increase the electricity prices in WEMI. The study suggests various policy recommendations to increase the competition and curb market power in WEMI.