New Delhi: The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has proposed a redesigning of the Real-Time Market (RTM) timeline. It has floated a discussion paper which has suggested reducing the period between the end of “Revision of Schedule” and actual delivery of power from 75 minutes to 50 minutes. It has also proposed shrinking the RTM bidding window from 15 minutes to 5 minutes and cutting the time between RTM clearing and delivery from 45 minutes to 30 minutes.
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The paper said the aim is to “match the electricity demand & supply more accurately, minimise the forecasting errors in the real-time market and reduce RE Curtailment.”
The paper links the proposal directly to the rise in solar and wind capacity, saying solar capacity has reached 140.60 GW and wind 54.65 GW, as of January 2026. It says higher renewable penetration is increasing grid operation challenges because of the intermittent and variable nature of wind and solar, and that “the instances of RE curtailment are also rising.”
For developers, a shorter RTM timeline could make it easier to align generation with weather-driven swings in output and reduce exposure to deviations. The paper said the change is expected to enable “better forecasting/scheduling of intermittent sources such as wind and solar,” and would help discoms manage portfolios “to avoid DSM charges in the long run.”
At present, the paper said, RTM bidding closes 75 minutes before delivery and the gate closure for RTM occurs 60 minutes before the delivery block. Between gate closure and delivery, a series of sequential tasks takes place involving power exchanges, NLDC, SLDCs and generators, including market clearing, congestion checks, unit commitment, dispatch and ancillary services procurement.
Under the proposed framework, the revision period would end 50 minutes before delivery, after which the RTM bidding window would open. The paper said the market could then run on a compressed sequence: bidding from 23:10 to 23:15, clearing from 23:15 to 23:30, RTM-AS price discovery and TRAS dispatch from 23:30 to 23:45, and preparation time from 23:45 to 00:00 before power is delivered in 15-minute blocks.
The CERC paper argued that the present 75-minute timeline was built around operational constraints highlighted when RTM was introduced in 2020, but added that the market has matured. The paper noted that RTM has been in place for more than five years, that no RTM sessions have been aborted by NLDC except in the initial implementation phase, and that automation such as the National Open Access Registry is now available. It said the “existing 45-minute gap between RTM clearing and the commencement of power delivery can be reduced by 15 minutes,” and argued that with automation, “a 5-minute window would be sufficient” for RTM bidding.
The paper also recalled the Commission’s earlier view that “Automation is a pre-requisite to shortening the time between RTM auction and delivery of power.”
The CERC said that the discussion paper has been floated as it had received several stakeholder submissions where several renewable-linked participants asked for schedule revision closer to actual delivery. The commission said that it received requests from Avaada, NGEL, Sembcorp, Sprng, Tata Power, Torrent, WIPPA, MRPL, SAEL, Ayana and NSEFI, among others, to allow revisions earlier in the current timeline and better reflect weather and grid conditions.
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CERC’s public notice said the discussion paper has been hosted on the commission’s website for comments and suggestions. Stakeholders have been asked to submit comments by May 28.
