Indian Electricity Market: Merit Order, Marginal Pricing and Market Design for Energy Transition

India’s power sector stands at a structural turning point. While the country has built one of the world’s largest synchronized electricity grids and rapidly expanded renewable energy capacity, the economic and institutional architecture governing dispatch, pricing, and markets remains rooted in legacy frameworks.
This book provides a rigorous and policy-relevant examination of India’s electricity markets through the lens of merit order dispatch, marginal pricing, and evolving market design.
It systematically analyzes:

• The limitations of contract-driven dispatch in a modern grid

• The transition from regulated tariffs to market-based mechanisms such as SCED and MBED

• The economics of renewable energy integration and its impact on price formation

• Structural distortions arising from DISCOM finances, transmission constraints, and policy interventions

• The emerging role of storage, flexibility, and capacity mechanisms in a renewable-dominated system

Bridging engineering realities, economic theory, and regulatory frameworks, the book offers a coherent framework to understand how electricity markets actually function—and how they must evolve to support India’s clean energy transition.

This is essential reading for policymakers, regulators, power sector professionals, researchers, and serious students of electricity market design.Key Features

• Clear conceptual explanation of merit order and marginal pricing

• Deep analysis of SCED and MBED reforms

• Practical insights into DISCOM behaviour and market distortions

• Integration of renewable economics with market design

• Forward-looking perspective on storage, flexibility, and capacity adequacy