State discoms & CEA asked to comment on National Electricity Policy
The new policy aims to achieve four goals: decarbonisation and energy transition, resilient and flexible grid; financial viability; and developing a customer-centric strategy. To prepare and approve the NEP, the government established an Expert Committee in April 2021, which was headed by Gireesh Pradhan, a former CERC chair. In October 2021, the panel had delivered the NEP draft.
Before finalising the draft of the new policy, the committee had undertaken extensive discussions with a variety of stakeholders, including CPSUs, financial institutions, industry groups, state governments, TERI, and BEE. A new electricity policy had also been advocated by the Seventeenth Loksabha's Standing Committee on Energy for 2021-2022. In a letter to the discoms, the ministry wrote, “Accordingly, 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 Electricity Act.”