Draft National Electricity Policy bets on tech & skills to drive energy goals

New Delhi: The draft National Electricity Policy has placed technology deployment and skill development at the heart of India's push for energy security and self-reliance and suggests developing or acquiring technologies for equipment, materials, and components.

The government plans to support the development or acquisition of such technologies through foreign direct investment and government-to-government partnerships if needed.

"A comprehensive and forward-looking approach to technology development, indigenisation, and innovation in the power sector is essential," the policy stated.


Deeper collaboration between industry and academia has also been suggested.

Power utilities will be encouraged to partner with domestic and global firms to develop technologies of 'national importance' that are owned by Indian entities, the power ministry proposed.

Utilities are expected to adopt artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality across asset management, grid planning and workforce training.

Smart grid technologies will be expanded to support distributed renewables, demand-side management and emerging applications such as vehicle-to-grid systems.

The draft proposes a dedicated funding mechanism for power sector research and development, along with new testing infrastructure. On the digital front, Grid-India and state load dispatch centres are expected to transition to indigenously developed Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems by 2030.