NEW DELHI, June 5: The big ticket Rs 1.4 lakh crore KUSUM scheme to promote the use of solar power among farmers will be implemented from next month, Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh said today.
Recounting the Government’s achievements in the last 4 years, he exuded confidence that 4 crore families targeted under the SAUBHAGYA scheme would get electricity connections by December, ahead of the March 2019 deadline.
“The KUSUM (Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahaabhiyan) will be implemented in July. Under this scheme farmers would be provided with solar water pumps,” the Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy said at a press conference.
Under the scheme, the Government has planned to provide 27.5 lakh solar pumps (17.50 lakh standalone + 10 Lakh Grid-connected).
It will help farmers install total 10 GW of Solar Power Plants of intermediate capacity of 0.5 to 2 MW each. It also envisages 50,000 Grid-connected tube-wells/lift irrigation and drinking water projects.
Singh also gave assurance about bringing the hydro power policy and expressed hope to roll out the Rs 16,000 crore plan for beleaguered hydro power capacities in the country.
A senior official said that both big ticket programmes are at advance stages of approval by the Union Cabinet and may get go ahead in July this year.
On the stressed assets he informed that a consortium of lender led by State Bank of India has short listed 11 such plants with over 12GW under Samhadhan or the Scheme of Asset Management and Debt Change Structure to sell or takeover these plants to avoid liquidation.
On the achievements of his Government, Singh said: “Last four years have been path breaking. You compare it with what happened in last 48 years. I asked my ministries to compare the 48 years and our 4 years. The comparison was an eye opener.”
He said: “In the 48 years before 2014, the pace of capacity addition in generation was about 4,800 MW per year. In our 48 months, the pace of capacity addition was about 24000 MW per year. That is 4.8 times more. We added One lakh MW of generation capacity in four years.”
Talking about transmission capacity, he said, “We added one lakh circuit kilometer (CKM) of inter-state transmission lines (excluding intra state). The capacity addition was 3.5 to 4 times more. Till 2014 the pace of capacity addition of transmission lines was only four thousand few hundred CKM. In the (BJP ruled) 48 month, it was 25,000 ckm per year.
Singh also said that during the past four year of BJP rule, India has emerged as one nation, one grid and one market (price).
India’ renewable energy capacity, he said, has been doubled to 70 GW in last four years and it is poised to over-achieve the target of 175 GW of renewable capacity by 2022, at 225 GW.
New and Renewable Energy Secretary Anand Kumar said that as much as 61 GW capacity would be auctioned during 2018-19, which includes 34 GW of Solar, 10 GW of wind, 10 GW of manufacturing linked solar, 4 GW of solar wind hybrid, one GW of offshore wind and one GW of floating solar.
He informed 0.5GW of small hydro (up 25 MW) and 0.5 GW of bio mass energy capacities would also be auctioned in the current fiscal only and thus there would over achievement of 175 GW of targetted clean energy capacity by 2022.
On the UDAY scheme for revival of debt laden discoms, the Ministry said that more than Rs 20,000 crore interest cost is saved by discoms under the scheme whereas aggregate technical and commercial losses have been reduced in 17 states within one year of operation.
Besides it said that the scheme helped the discoms to bridge revenue gaps by 33 per cent in one year of operation and India’s rank improved to 29 in 2018 from 111 in 2014 on World Bank’s Ease of Getting Electricity Ranking.
The Ministry stated that SRISTI (Sustainable Rooftop Implementation for Solar Transfiguration of India) – new scheme for solar rooftop is being formulated.
It also informed that the round the clock renewables policy has been finalised by the Ministry. (PTI)
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