Introduction

The British Embassy Kathmandu-funded, 4.5-year Nepal Renewable Energy Programme (NREP) is a Government of Nepal programme. It is designed to increase private sector investment to develop distributed renewable energy (RE) markets, primarily in commercial, institutional, and industrial market sectors; increase universal energy access, and a corresponding higher quality of life, to Nepali citizens living in remote regions and facilitate a policy, planning, legal construct, and regulatory environment conducive to both enabling and sustaining progress in RE market development and universal energy access.

NREP operates in Provinces Madhesh, Lumbini, and Karnali.  The Programme is implemented by the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) and a consortium led by DAI Global.

Measurable goals of the Programme include:

• Increase in installed capacity of RE by 16 MW
• Provision of RE to 95,000 households, 500 small businesses, and 200 schools and health centres
• Leveraging of £37.2m of private and public sector investment in RE
• Strengthened institutional and policy reforms and improved compliance mechanisms—across Federal, Provincial, and Local governments
• Avoided greenhouse gas emissions, e.g., by reducing imported energy during Nepal’s dry season, imported LPG for cooking, and imported diesel for back-up generators

NREP adopts two support modalities which includes financial assistance in the form of a GBP 9.3M Sustainable Energy Challenge Fund with awards based on Viability Gap Funding designed to make marginally feasible projects feasible and bankable; and technical assistance in the form of RE project assessment, financing, Challenge Fund application assistance, and project transaction shaping.