Government, Tata Consultancy to start energy exchange

New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS) The government and information technology major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have incorporated a joint venture company to set up an energy exchange.

The company, to be called National Power Exchange Ltd, will operate the power exchange at the national level. The government will be represented by three state-owned power sector companies - National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC), National Hydel POwer Corp (NHPC) and Power Finance Corp (PFC).

TCS, part of the Tata Group, will hold a majority stake of 50.02 percent in the company with the three power utilities owning 16.67 percent equity each.

Initially, the four partners will invest Rs.500 million (Rs.50 crore), the government said in a statement Friday.

The four companies signed the joint venture agreement in September after filing an application with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) earlier.

The proposed exchange will rival the two power exchanges already functional in India - the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange of India (PXI).

IEX, which is promoted by the Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) and PTC India, had started operations in June. PXI, a joint venture between the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) and National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX), started operations in October.