NSE Electricity Futures emerging as benchmark for India's power market

National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) on Tuesday said its Electricity Futures contracts are increasingly serving as a benchmark for price discovery in India's power market.

In a recent reverse auction conducted by a major utility for the procurement of 50 million units (MUs) of Round-The-Clock (RTC) power for delivery between November 5 and November 30, 2025, the price discovered in the Term-Ahead Market (TAM) stood at Rs 3,231–3,233 per megawatt-hour (MWh). This was closely aligned with the NSE Electricity Monthly Futures (ELECMBL) November 2025 contract, which closed at Rs 3,236 per MWh on October 31, 2025.

The convergence between physical and futures market prices underscores the growing integration and maturity of India's power trading ecosystem. The NSE Electricity Futures contract has emerged as a credible forward price indicator, aiding market participants in making informed procurement and hedging decisions.

Market participants are increasingly using the NSE's electricity futures -- which represent a unified, volume-weighted average price across all three exchanges and encompass all Day-Ahead Market (DAM) segments, including conventional, green and high-priced power -- as a reference benchmark for physical TAM transactions.

This alignment between auction prices and futures contracts signals a shift toward greater transparency and efficiency in price discovery across India's electricity market. By linking the physical and futures markets, the system enables better alignment of short-term trading decisions with long-term price expectations.

NSE stated that its electricity derivatives have strengthened transparency, improved risk management and established a unified benchmark for price discovery. The exchange reiterated its commitment to enhancing market depth and efficiency in line with the national vision of "One Nation, One Grid, One Price."