National Electricity Policy, 2005 (India)

The National Electricity Policy was formulated in accordance with the Electricity Act 2003 requires the Central Government to formulate the National Electricity Policy in consultation with Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and State Governments. It aims at laying guidelines for accelerated development of the power sector, providing supply of electricity to all areas and protecting interests of consumers and other stakeholders keeping in view availability of energy resources, technology available to exploit these resources, economics of generation using different resources, and energy security issues. 

The National Electricity Policy aims at achieving the objectives: 

1. Access to electricity for all households in the next five years
2. Availability of power with demand being fully met by 2012, overcoming energy and peaking shortages and with adequate spinning reserve available
3. Supply of reliable and quality power of specified standards in an efficient manner and at reasonable rates
4. Per capita availability of electricity to be increased to over 1000 units by 2012
5. Minimum lifeline consumption of 1 unit/household/day as a merit good by year 2012 
6. Financial turnaround and commercial viability of electricity sector, and 
7. Protection of consumers’ interests. 

The policy seeks to address the issues of rural electrification, generation, transmission, distribution, recovery of cost of services and targeted subsidies, technology development and research and development, competition aimed at consumer benefits, financing power sector programmes including private sector participation, energy conservation, environmental issues, training and human resource development, cogeneration and non-conventional energy sources, protection of consumer interests and quality standards.