The Ministry of Power (MoP) has released a new draft National Electricity Policy (NEP) 2026. The draft NEP 2026 aims to transform the power sector and, once finalised, intends to replace the existing NEP, which was notified in 2005.
According to the draft NEP 2026, the aim is to achieve per capita electricity consumption of 2,000 kWh by 2030 and over 4,000 kWh by 2047. It also aligns with India’s climate commitments, including the reduction of emissions intensity by 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and the achievement of net-zero emissions by 2070.
A major focus area of the draft is renewable energy generation and storage. It intends to achieve renewable energy addition through market-based mechanisms and captive power plants. It also aims to enable the installation of storage by distribution licensees on behalf of small consumers to leverage economies of scale. At the same time, bulk consumers are expected to install storage themselves to support the adoption of distributed renewable energy (DRE) sources.
Additionally, the draft also allows trading of surplus energy from DRE as well as storage by consumers themselves or through aggregators. It promotes market-based deployment of storage, use of emerging battery energy storage system (BESS) technologies, domestic manufacturing of cells, and other components of BESS.
