Ministry of Energy has initiated a necessary homework to establish Nepal Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), are nod by Ministry of Finance.
With this plan, the idea to set up a new tariffs and implementing a National Grid Code to govern power sector in the Country has come alive after 16 years since its inception of forming a high level body that would regulate generation and transmission of electricity.
On August 2017, the parliament had endorsed the Electricity Regulatory Commission Bill, now as an Act, presented by the former Energy Minister Janardan Sharma with an acknowledgement with the need of an independent regulatory body to regulate electricity market for its further development.
Ministry of Finance, after the amendment of the financial and liability aspects, the regulations proposed by the Energy Ministry gave an approval allowing the energy ministry to seek further counsel from other ministries prior to formation of NERC.
As per Ghimire, the regulator after its inception will develop a National Grid Code to begin the power entities in the Country.
Moreover, the Commission is said to administer the power purchase agreements, fix tariffs and transmission-network charges and initiate license-compliance monitoring in the beginning and work for creating a competitive market in power sector later on.
“The Ministry will soon call upon applications from interested candidates to take up the posts of Chairman and other members of the Commision,” Ghimire said.
The Commission will have one chair, and four members and the appointments are said to be made on the basis of principle of proportional inclusion.
Earlier, an Energy Crisis Prevention Action Plan was issued by the government on February 18, 2016 incorporating a provision on the formation of a high-level Electricity Regulation Commission.
