The second part of PTC's two-fold mandate; to develop a full fledged, efficient and competitive market mechanism for trading in power results in optimal utilization of the existing resources in the country as also promoting exchange of power with neighbouring countries. In this area, PTC has therefore been an instrumental force in the creation of a commercially vibrant power market in the country.

After its incorporation in April 1999, the Company invested significant organizational energy in identifying patterns of regional power surpluses in the country and the complementary patterns of power deficits. The power demand-supply planning process has conventionally been undertaken in regional silos. While now it may seem like a simple idea to transfer power from a surplus region to a deficit one, actual implementation of the idea at that time turned out to be much more difficult, with major problems in inter-regional connectivity and in co-ordination between different agencies dealing with the five electricity regions of the country.

While some intermittent small volume transactions did take place in the initial periods, it was only in July 2001 that the first trading transaction was carried out on a sustainable basis, almost two years after the company was founded. And in that financial year itself, PTC traded 1617 Million Units (MUs) of electricity worth Rs. 364 Crores! PTC has thereon climbed a steep growth path, going on to trade about 9.8 Billion Units in FY 2007-08 worth about Rs. 3949 Crores.

The first transactions carried out on a sustainable basis involved power being transferred from a surplus power utility to a deficit utility on a 24 hour a day basis. PTC has since constantly endeavoured to understand the customers' needs and has made efforts to structure solutions with minimum time-to-market. Keeping in mind the supply-demand mismatches occurring during any part of the day, power sale solutions have been provided for part of the day. Power bought during different times of the day has also been priced differentially to create drivers for demand side management. As the market has evolved, PTC is able to trade power now even on a day ahead basis.

PTC's demonstration of the concept as well as successful implementation of the same has prompted the inclusion of trading as a distinct licensed activity in the Electricity Act, 2003. It has also prompted many organizations, both public and private to enter the power sector especially in trading operations, bringing in competition and others drivers for efficiency in the sector in a very short time period.