Revitalising PM-KUSUM

What is the issue?

The pandemic-induced disruptions, limited buy-in from States and implementation challenges have affected the roll-out of Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM).

What is KUSUM about?

• KUSUM was launched by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in 2019 to provide energy sufficiency and sustainable irrigation access to farmers.
• Objective - Providing financial and water security to farmers.
• The components of the proposed scheme are

1. Component-A: 10,000 MW of Decentralized Ground Mounted Grid Connected Renewable Power Plants.
2. Component-B: Installation of 17.50 lakh standalone Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps.
3. Component-C: Solarisation of 10 Lakh Grid-connected Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps.

To know more about KUSUM scheme, click here

What are the barriers in effective implementation of the scheme?

• Limited awareness about solar pumps among farmers.
• Farmers’ inability to pay their upfront contribution.
• Regulatory, financial, operational and technical challenges.
• Non-initiation of tenders or commissioned projects for solar feeders or grid-connected pumps by some states.
• Covid induced disruptions.

How can the challenges be tackled?

• Extending the scheme’s timeline beyond 2022 would allow discoms to align the scheme with their power purchase planning.
• Create a level playing field for distributed solar plants in par with utility-scale solar which is cheaper and most preferred by discoms.
• Grid-unavailability risks needs to be addressed and tariff determination should be standardised with the removal of waiver of ISTS charges for solar plants.
• Land regulations must be streamlined through inter-departmental coordination reduce delays in converting agricultural lands for solar power generation.
• Innovative solutions like Karnataka’s pilot of a farmer-developer special-purpose vehicle are needed for financing farmers’ contributions.
• Piloting grid-connected solar pumps along with smart meters and smart transformers will be useful for scaling up the scheme.
• The scheme, if implemented successfully, can generate thousands of jobs, reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture, and result in oil import savings.

Source: The Hindu