The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan scheme in the year 2019 in order to support the farmers with the installation of solar pumps, grid-connected solar and other types of renewable power plants across the country.
The main motive behind the PM-KUSUM scheme is to ensure energy security for the farmers in India. It also intends to honour India’s commitment to raising the share of installed electric power ca[acity from non-fossil fuel sources to 40% as part of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, INDCs by the year 2030.
The scheme plans to add solar and other renewable capacities of 25,750 MW by 2022 with the central financial aid of Rs 34,422 crore, which includes service charges to the implementing agencies. The scheme is valid till the 31st of December, 2022.
Benefits of PM-KUSUM
The PM-KUSUM scheme will provide a continuous and stable source of income to the rural landowners by utilisation of their dry or uncultivable land. Moreover, in the case of cultivated fields being selected to set up solar power projects, the farmers can continue to cultivate and grow their crops as the solar panels will be set up above a minimum height.
This scheme will also make sure that sufficient solar or other renewable energy-based power is available for feeding agriculture pump-set loads and rural load centres that require power generation primarily during the daytime. Due to the location of these power plants being close to agriculture loads or electrical substations in a decentralised way, they would reduce transmission losses for STUs and Discoms
The PM-KUSUM scheme will also support the Discoms to achieve the Renewable Purchase Obligation or RPO target. Expenses incurred on diesel for running diesel pumps can also be saved by using solar pumps. This will help farmers with a reliable source of irrigation through solar pumps and prevent harmful pollution from running diesel pumps.
Components of PM-KUSUM
The Pradhan Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan scheme consists of the following three components:
- Component A
This component consists of 10,000 MW of decentralised ground-mounted grid-connected renewable power plants of individual plant size up to 2 MW
- Component B
This component includes the installation of 17.50 lakh standalone solar-powered agriculture pumps of up to 7.5 HP individual pump capacity
- Component C
This component includes the solarisation of 10 lakh grid-connected agriculture pumps of individual pump capacity up to 7.5 HP
Implementing Agencies
The different implementing agencies for the different components of the PM-KUSUM scheme are stated below:
- For Component A
Discom are implementation agencies
- For Component B
Discoms, the agricultural department, minor irrigation department or any other department designated by the state government will be the agencies of implementation
- For Component C
Discoms, GENCO or Power Generating Companies or any other department designated by the state government will be the agencies of implementation
Each state will be responsible for nominating the implementation agencies in their respective state for each of the three components of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan