Centre finalizes draft electricity policy, seeks comments from states

In a letter to states and the CEA, the ministry noted that the standing committee on energy had recommended for a new electricity policy and an expert committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Gireesh Pradhan, Ex-Chairperson, CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission) to prepare and recommend National Electricity Policy (NEP), 2021. The expert panel submitted the draft policy on 4 October, 2021

“The draft NEP has been finalised for circulating it to seek views/comments from all stakeholders especially from CEA and states in accordance with the provision of the Act,“ it said.

The new draft policy comes in the backdrop of the government’s energy transition plans, wherein the government plans achieve an installed renewable energy capacity of 500 GW by 2030 and net zero carbon neutrality by 2070.

The vision for the new policy would be: “A financially viable and environmentally sustainable power sector furthering energy security and providing reliable 24×7 power at a reasonable price.”

The letter noted that the objectives were of the policy identified by the expert committee are decarbonization & energy transition, resilient and flexible grid, financial viability of the power sector and consumer centric approach.

It said that the expert committee held detailed and extensive deliberations with various stakeholders including CPSUs, financial institutions, industry associations, state governments, TERI, BEE, CEEW among others.

Government has come up with slew of reform measures for the power sector in the past couple of years. The power ministry also introduced the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 in the parliament last August before it was sent to the standing committee for a review.

The ministry also rolled out the revamped distribution sector scheme to improve the efficiency and financial viability of the power distribution sector and taken strict measures to curb dues to discoms and power generation companies.

The objective of enhancing financial viability of the power sector is in the same lines. The government aims to bring the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of discoms down to 12-15% by 2024-25 from 17% in FY22.