Energy Transition in Agriculture in Maharashtra
In 2022, the agriculture sector in Maharashtra is estimated to have consumed about 36253 GWh of electricity[1]. The average tariffs for unmetered pumpsets and metered pumpsets are between ? 4.55 per kWh and ? 3.72 per kWh[2]. Mahadiscom supplies a fair fraction of the electricity from fossil fuels. However, under the PMKUSUM and MKSVY the Centre and State have decided to solarise the agriculture sector. This is because the electrical subsidies to the agricultural sector have become burdensome. The price of electricity from fossil fuels have been increasing. But the demand for subsidy continues to be present.
With solarisation, the prices can be controlled during the PPA tenure. PMKUSUM and MKSVY help in achieving the twin purpose of maintaining the prices while also transitioning away from fossil fuels.
Let’s assume the specific yield of solar generation is at 1450kWh/kWp in Maharashtra. Given the above consumption, we can calculate that the solar capacity needed to satisfy this demand is 25GW.
In 2022, the Maharashtra State government released a tender inviting developers to install solar power plants under the MSKVY scheme. In that, Mahadiscom released a list of substations with capacities for solar power plant[3].
In figure 1 below we show that the current thermal power plants are in the eastern districts of Maharashtra. And in figure 2 we show that the majority of RE power has been installed in the western districts. This shows a clear transition from fossil to RE power. This also demonstrates that there is a marked geographical shift in the energy installations.
?
The MSKVY lists out the solar PV capacity in various substations across all the districts. But what is the Agriculture consumption in each district? In fig. 3 below we show electricity consumed in million units in agricultural sector across all the districts.
?We have taken data from 2019-20 instead of 2020-21, because it was the year of the pandemic, and the figures may not reflect the norm. Fig. 3 shows that the districts such as Solapur, Ahmadnagar, Pune and Nashik are the major consumers of electricity in the agricultural sector. It is also evident that eastern districts of Maharashtra, consume less electricity for agricultural purposes. In that year the agricultural sector consumed a total of 26,818 MU.
From figure 4 we notice that a large fraction of capacity is again focused on the western districts. We calculate that the available capacity for solarisation of agri feeders is about 16.5GW. At 1450kWh/kWp of specific yield we estimate the solar capacity could provide about 23,900 MU of electricity.
Recall that in 2022, Maharashtra’s agriculture sector consumed about 36,250 million units. With 100% solarisation of the agri-feeders, Maharashtra would only be supplying about 65% of the demand.
This indicates that there are at least 2 opportunities in making the agri sector fully solarised:
领英推荐
?
A more granular reading of the figure 4 with figure 1 indicates that the transition to renewable power, is biased towards the western districts. The eastern districts must, therefore, adapt to this evolving dynamic. But is the focus of RE power in the Western districts really a bad thing? Can we confidently claim that this transition is unjust? What are the alternative opportunities for the eastern districts in this new reality?
We shall explore this in the later chapters of Saturday Spectrum.
But next week, we shall explore the energy intensity of each district vis-à-vis each economic sector.
1] https://desagri.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Agricultural-Statistics-at-a-Glance-2022.pdf, table 3.18(b)
[2] https://bankofmaharashtra.in/writereaddata/documentlibrary/aa34ac25-3ec5-4101-bc09-902a634fbb1e.pdf, table 9.8
With about 2 decades of advisory and engineering experience in over 30+GW of renewables, Arbutus Consultants Pvt Ltd. could be your partner of choice in your renewable energy journey. Please reach out to us at [email protected] to find out how we may be of assistance.
International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iFOREST) Mandvi Singh Sujay Dhanagare Rochak Jain Srestha Banerjee Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) IEEFA Asia Pacific Vibhuti Garg Subrahmanyam Pulipaka NSEFI - National Solar Energy Federation of India
#energytransition #agripv #agrivoltaics #energyefficiency #sustainableagriculture #solapv #pmkusum #mskvy #maharashtra