The Nepal Renewable Energy Program (NREP) is a Government of Nepal program funded by the British Embassy-Kathmandu (BE-K) aiming to transformational change in Sustainable Energy development in Nepal through increased private investment resulting in low-carbon economic growth and sustainable energy access for all. NREP operates in three Provinces: Madhesh, Lumbini, and Karnali. The Program is implemented by the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) with Technical Assistance from the DAI Global UK Consortium— including DAI, Winrock International, Policy Entrepreneurs Inc., and Samriddha Pahad.
Briefly, NREP has been designed to increase private sector investment to develop distributed renewable energy markets, primarily in commercial, institutional, and industrial market sectors; increase universal energy access, and a corresponding higher quality of life, for 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 has also supported the design and implementation of the viability gap-based fund called the Sustainable Energy Challenge Fund (SECF) to increase private sector investment to develop distributed renewable energy markets. The SECF is embedded with Central Renewable Energy Fund (CREF) the financial mechanism of AEPC. SECF provides both financial and technical assistance to distributed sustainable energy projects to ensure their financial viability and sustainable operation. The SECF is designed to attract private sector investments into the RE sector either in the form of equity or credit. SECF will de-risk investments into near commercial viability from the projects. NREP invites qualified individuals or consulting firms to submit their proposals on e-cooking monitoring, i.e. to study and understand the processes, impacts, and challenges of a market-based approach to electric cooking (e-cooking).