Electricity Act,2003 provides that the Central Electricity Authority shall perform such functions and duties as the Central Government may prescribe or direct, inter-alia, to promote measures for advancing the skill of persons engaged in the electricity industry and promote research in matters affecting the generation, transmission, distribution and training of electricity.

A National Training Policy for the Power Sector has been formulated. The salient features of the Policy are as under

• All organizations should adopt a formal written training policy to ensure training for all personnel for a minimum period of one week annually.
• A comprehensive training plan should be formulated by each power utility based on periodic training needs analysis
• A minimum of 1.5% of the salary budget of the organization may be allocated for training to begin with – this should gradually be increased to 5% of the salary budget
• Networking amongst various organizations under the Ministry and other reputed institutes should be done for optimal use of training infrastructure and intellectual resources.
• Induction level training should be made mandatory for transmission & distribution (T&D) personnel similar to the generation personnel
• Adequate infrastructure for training including hydro power, transmission and distribution and non-conventional energy should be developed
• Simulator training at suitable intervals should be made mandatory for operation staff of the power plants.

The policy emphasizes the idea that money spent on training is an investment – not and expenditure. The National Training Policy (NTP) also highlights the need for planning for training as an integrated Human Resource Development (HRD) activity with a commitment to imparting training for all in the power sector at entry level as well as in-service.