Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Support our Journalism

9th Anniversary: Free Tote & Mug

PM-KUSUM isn’t an election freebie. It gives farmers a role in energy security

The scheme converts subsidy into productive rural assets. Rajasthan’s record suggests why institutional continuity matters as much as geography.

Most subsidies end when the money is spent. But Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyaan, or PM-KUSUM, begins there. It converts public support into solar pumps and decentralised plants that can lower farmers’ energy costs, create income, and add clean power near demand. More than a welfare programme, it is an investment in rural energy capital.

India’s farmers have long sustained food security. PM-KUSUM gives them a role in energy security, too, as producers, land lessors, and users of local solar power. It lets them harvest sunlight.

As an energy and infrastructure lawyer for public utilities and State entities, I have seen this reform through policy, regulation, contracts, and implementation. Few schemes unite them so directly.

Why distributed power matters now

The Central Electricity Authority’s 20th Electric Power Survey, published in November 2022, projects peak demand rising from 277.2 GW in 2026-27 to 366.4 GW in 2031-32. New loads, from AI data centres to electric mobility, make reliable capacity more urgent. The government estimates the data centre demand alone at about 17 GW by 2031-32. Large stations remain essential, but so does the need to generate energy close to agricultural loads.

PM-KUSUM’s architecture reflects that logic. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE) Comprehensive Guidelines, dated 17 January 2024, provide for decentralised plants of 500 kW to 2 MW under Component A; standalone solar irrigation pumps under Component B; and individual pump or feeder-level solarisation under Component C. Where an individual grid-connected pump is solarised, the farmer can use the power for irrigation and sell eligible surplus to........

© ThePrint