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India Releases Draft National Electricity Policy 2026 for Public Consultation

It sets explicit consumption targets to align power‑sector expansion with national climate goals.

Overview

  • The draft mandates decentralized resource adequacy planning by DISCOMs and SLDCs, with the Central Electricity Authority consolidating a national plan to ensure capacity sufficiency.
  • Renewable growth is to be driven by market-based mechanisms and expanded storage, including utility-installed systems for small consumers and customer-owned storage for bulk users.
  • Grid and transmission measures include Right of Way compensation, advanced technologies, tariff parity for new renewable capacity by 2030, utilization‑based connectivity allocation, and functional unbundling of state operations.
  • Distribution reforms target single‑digit AT&C losses, shared networks under a proposed Distribution System Operator, and N‑1 transformer‑level redundancy in cities over 1 million residents by 2032.
  • The draft advances low‑carbon firming with a 100 GW nuclear goal by 2047 and accelerated storage‑based hydro, alongside tariff indexation, reduced industrial cross‑subsidies, and a cybersecurity regime requiring domestic data storage and real‑time visibility of distributed resources.