Who gets despatched, at what cost, in every state
Click a state to see its merit-order stack — every generator ranked by variable cost, the must-run block, and the marginal unit that sets the price of the last MW. Then read how SCED re-optimises the national stack and where the flexibility gap a battery monetises sits.
Costliest marginal unit → cheapest
Contracted capacity by variable-cost band (six reference states)
Maharashtra
FY25-26 reference stack · indicativeMarginal cost
₹5.5–9
Must-run block
16.3 GW
Marginal unit
Uran gas
Why MOD struggles here: Largest, most heterogeneous stack (MAHAGENCO, three big IPPs, central share, Mumbai licensees). Pilot showed MOD vs LP diverge most on day-changeover, ramp limits and intra-state congestion; old MAHAGENCO units kept on at tech-min; ~12 GW RE now inverts the daytime stack.
Vidura · today's read
Gujarat sits atop today's cost stack with gas peakers at Dhuvaran/Hazira setting a reference marginal cost near ₹6.5/kWh, followed by Rajasthan's Dholpur gas (~₹6.0) and Maharashtra's Uran gas (~₹5.5) — these are indicative reference values, not confirmed real-time SCED outputs. Karnataka, UP and WB show cheaper coal-based marginal units (₹4.3-4.5), suggesting less pressure on daytime prices there. Most other states (TN, TS, AP, MP, DL, PB, HR, OD, CG, BR, JH, KL, AS, UK, HP, GA) lack marginal-unit data today, so no view is offered for them.
Midday inversion risk is highest in the gas-marginal states — MH, GJ, RJ — where solar saturation typically pushes must-run RE and baseload coal to the margin, forcing gas peakers off and coal units toward technical minimum; expect price compression or negative signals around midday there. Coal-marginal states (KA, UP, WB) are comparatively less prone to inversion today given lower-cost thermal cushions, though local RE penetration could still trigger localized curtailment.
For BESS operators, the implied spread is best in GJ and RJ: charge during midday trough (near zero/low reference cost) and discharge into evening peak where marginal cost reverts to the ₹6-6.5 gas band — a spread potentially exceeding ₹5-6/kWh. MH offers a moderate spread (~₹5/kWh ceiling). KA, UP, WB spreads look thinner given lower peak marginal costs (~₹4.3-4.5), so arbitrage economics are less attractive there today.
Midday inversion + evening gas band = the BESS spread. Size it against your state's ToD windows.
Live figures are parsed from MERIT (meritindia.in) when the portal allows automated access; otherwise the last successful snapshot or the FY25-26 reference stack (published tariff-order ballparks) is shown and labelled as such.