Power Ministry asks States to shift agricultural load to solar hours

The union Power Ministry has asked States to develop a plan to optimize the mix of solar and non-solar hours power.

Hyderabad: The union Power Ministry and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has asked States to shift the agricultural load to solar hours and supply power to farmers through separation of agricultural feeders during the daytime.

The union Power Ministry has asked States to develop a plan to optimize the mix of solar and non-solar hours power. It has also asked the States to go for pumped storage plants (PSP) as round-the-clock renewable energy pumped storage is cheaper.

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According to State Energy Department officials, shifting the agricultural load to solar hours could reduce the power purchase costs of discoms and reduce their losses as such costs at peak times were greater than non-peak hours.

“If we shift the agricultural load to the daytime, we can utilise the maximum amount of solar energy going into the grid. This will also ensure that we can reduce the load on fossil fuels and less dependency on the need for extra battery storage systems. It will certainly be helpful to the distribution companies as evening and morning are usually the peak times,” officials said.

Agriculture demand constitutes around 27 percent of the State’s total electricity demand and since it was supplied free of cost to the farmers, State-run power utilities were facing financial burden and if the agricultural load was shifted to solar hours it could reduce the operation cost substantially, Discom officials said.

States such as Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka have already started giving additional solar energy for irrigation during the day, the officials said. “DISCOMs are facing, and will continue to face, even more financial problems as rural electricity demand is rising. This will further lead to distribution companies incurring losses. The State can save money by shifting agricultural power load to solar as it is much cheaper than their average cost of supply,” officials added.

The Centre is encouraging farmers to go for solar water pumps (SWP) for agriculture purposes as it would be much cheaper than diesel motors and environmental friendly, the official said, adding that by 2030, the shift to SWPs and grid-connected solar power plants will enable 40-50 gW of agricultural load to be shifted from night to day, aiding farmers with reliable daytime electricity.