{"id":137876,"date":"2021-09-28T19:54:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T14:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=137876"},"modified":"2021-10-01T18:55:47","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T13:25:47","slug":"revitalising-pm-kusum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/revitalising-pm-kusum\/","title":{"rendered":"Revitalising\u00a0PM-KUSUM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Synopsis:\u00a0<\/strong>There is a need to unlock the PM KUSUM scheme promises in many ways.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The Union Minister of Power, New and Renewable Energy recently reviewed the progress of the PM-KUSUM scheme<\/strong> and reaffirmed the government\u2019s commitment to accelerating solar pump adoption.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About the PM \u2013 KUSUM Scheme<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha\u00a0evam\u00a0Utthaan\u00a0Mahabhiyan\u00a0(PM-Kusum) scheme was launched in 2019. It aims to help farmers access reliable day-time solar power for irrigation, reduce power subsidies, and decarbonise agriculture<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more<\/span><\/b>:\u00a0<\/span>PM \u2013 KUSUM Scheme<\/span><\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
About the performance of the Scheme<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

PM-KUSUM provides farmers with incentives to install solar power pumps and plants in their fields.\u00a0They can use one of three deployment models: off-grid solar pumps,\u00a0solarised\u00a0agricultural feeders, or grid-connected pumps.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Off-grid pumps have been the most popular option for farmers. So far nearly 2,80,000 systems deployed. But this falls<\/span>\u00a0far short of the scheme\u2019s target\u00a0<\/span><\/b>of two million by 2022.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the challenges associated with the PM-KUSUM Scheme?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Limited awareness and Farmer\u2019s inability<\/span><\/b>: Farmers have limited awareness about solar pumps. Further,\u00a0many\u00a0farmers struggle to pay 30-40% of upfront costs in compliance with scheme requirements. Apart from that,\u00a0Farmers\u00a0cannot access bank loans without collateral.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Issues associated with\u00a0solarised\u00a0agricultural feeders and grid-connected pumps<\/span><\/b>: Farmers fail to adopt these due to regulatory, financial, operational and technical challenges. For instance, Only a handful of states has initiated tenders or commissioned projects for solar feeders or grid-connected pumps.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Challenges with\u00a0Discoms<\/span><\/b>:\u00a0Selling surplus power to\u00a0discoms\u00a0is one of the main attractions of grid-connected models.\u00a0But,\u00a0most Indian\u00a0discoms\u00a0have a surplus of contracted generation capacity and are wary of procuring more power in the short term. So, the\u00a0discoms\u00a0show very less interest<\/strong> to buy excess power generated under the scheme.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Further, the grid-connected model requires pumps to be metered and billed for accounting purposes, but it suffers from a lack of trust between farmers and discoms.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How to improve the performance of the PM-KUSUM Scheme?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

First, extend the scheme\u2019s timelines<\/span><\/b>:\u00a0\u00a0Extending PM-KUSUM\u2019s timelines beyond 2022 would allow\u00a0discoms\u00a0to align the scheme with their power purchase planning.\u00a0Further, adopting solutions like smart meters and smart transformers and engaging with farmers can build trust between\u00a0discoms\u00a0and farmers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, create a level playing field for distributed solar plants<\/span><\/b>: At present, discoms often find utility-scale solar cheaper than distributed solar (under the scheme) due to the latter\u2019s higher costs and the loss of locational advantage due to waived inter-State transmission system (ISTS) charges. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To tackle the bias against distributed solar, India needs to standardise tariff determination to reflect the higher costs of distributed power plants and do away with the waiver of ISTS charges for solar plants.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Third, streamline land regulations<\/span><\/b>: Inter-departmental coordination has to be made to streamline land regulations in India. Further, it will also help in reducing delays in leasing or converting agricultural lands for non-agricultural purposes such as solar power generation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fourth,\u00a0support innovative solutions<\/span><\/b>: To address the farmer\u2019s inability to pay the upfront cost, India needs to develop innovative and out-of-the-box solutions. For example, India can implement Karnataka\u2019s pilot project of a farmer-developer special-purpose vehicle to help farmers install solar power plants on their farms.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fifth,\u00a0extensively pilot grid-connected solar pumps<\/span><\/b>:\u00a0\u00a0India has to pilot the\u00a0solar pumps\u00a0in\u00a0different\u00a0agro-economic contexts. This will be critical to developing a strategy to scale it up.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In conclusion, the KUSUM scheme, if implemented successfully, can generate thousands of jobs, reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture, and result in oil import savings.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0<\/span><\/b>This post is based on the article\u00a0\u201c<\/span>Revitalising\u00a0PM-KUSUM<\/span><\/b>\u201d posted in <\/span>The\u00a0Hindu\u00a0<\/span><\/b>on\u00a0<\/span>28<\/span><\/b>th<\/span><\/b>\u00a0September 2021<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synopsis:\u00a0There is a need to unlock the PM KUSUM scheme promises in many ways. Introduction\u00a0 The Union Minister of Power, New and Renewable Energy recently reviewed the progress of the PM-KUSUM scheme and reaffirmed the government\u2019s commitment to accelerating solar pump adoption.\u00a0 About the PM \u2013 KUSUM Scheme\u00a0 Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha\u00a0evam\u00a0Utthaan\u00a0Mahabhiyan\u00a0(PM-Kusum) scheme was… Continue reading Revitalising\u00a0PM-KUSUM<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5480,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[9007,768,216,10047,3222,3234],"class_list":["post-137876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-agriculture-sector","tag-energy","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-pm-kusum","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar-power","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}