KUSUM Scheme

KUSUM Scheme

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) Yojana was launched by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Government of India to increase the income of farmers and provide sources for irrigation and de-dieselising the agricultural sector by installation of solar pumps and grid connected solar and other renewable power plants.

The scheme plans to set up 30.8 GW of solar capacity by December 31, 2022 through financial assistance of INR 340.35 billion (USD 4.65 billion).

Components of KUSUM Scheme

The Scheme consists of three components:

1. Component A: 10,000 MW of grid connected ground mounted solar power plants of individual plant size up to 2 MW.
2. Component B: Installation of 2 million standalone Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps.
3. Component C: Solarisation of 1.5 million Grid-connected Agriculture Pumps of individual pump capacity up to 7.5 HP.

Details of KUSUM Scheme

Under Kusum Scheme, a group of farmers, individual farmer, panchayats, and cooperatives can apply to install solar pumps.

The total cost included in this scheme is divided into three categories in which the government will help the farmers as follows.

1. The government will provide 60% subsidy to the farmers.
2. 30% of the cost will be given by the government in the form of loan.
3. Only 10% of the total cost of the project had to be paid by the farmers.

Farmers can also sell electricity produced from solar panels. The farmers can start a new business with the money they received after selling electricity. The state electricity distribution companies, also called, DISCOMS will buy the additional solar power produced by the farmers on barren lands.

10000 Mega Watts Solar plants will be setup on the lands that are barren.

Tube wells and existing pumps of the government will be upgraded to run on solar power.

Benefits of KUSUM Scheme

1. Existing diesel pumps will be replaced and upgraded to run on solar energy this will lead to de-dieseling of the agricultural sector in India.
2. It will provide stimulation to the emerging green economy in India.
3. Even the farmers with barren lands get benefitted by this scheme by selling the electricity that is generated by the solar plants that are stationed on their barren lands.
4. Transmission losses of DISCOMS will be under control as they purchased the extra power produced by the farmers with the help of solar power plants.
5. Subsidy burden of electricity on DISCOMS in the sector of agriculture will be decreased to a large extent.
6. Decentralization of the production of solar power will be done.
7. The solar pumps will save the expenditure incurred on diesel for running diesel pump and also prevent harmful pollution came out from running diesel pump.

The major drawback of this scheme is this, as the scheme focuses on pumps of 3 HP and higher capacities there has been the relative omission of small and marginal farmers, as nearly 85% of them are small & marginal farmers. Due to this Solar pumps are not reaching to the majority of the farmers.

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