Energetica India - June 2020

SOLAR POWER Solar Pumps to Give a Renewed Push to Off-Grid Infrastructure India is one of the frontrunners for solar pumps in the world along with countries in the Middle East and Africa. They have vast potential to address water related challenges such as availability and supply in agriculture and off-grid areas.Considering that such renewable solutions are expected to scale in the next couple of years, modernization of the grid network is going to become the norm in order to successfully match the capacity. 26 energetica INDIA- June_2020 Rangarajan Ramaswamy Senior Vice President, Water Utility Export Grundfos Life Link & Solar, Grundfos India. In order to promote large scale adoption of renewable energy, the government of India has set ambitious targets to reach 175 GW of renewable capacity by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030. These goals are set to drastically redefine the country’s energy landscape. Solar energy solutions have been signifi - cantly contributing to these targets over the years. However, the COVID-19 pan- demic has had a severe impact on the solar target of achieving 100 GW capac- ity by 2022. According to a report, the country is on course to achieve only 65 GW of solar capacity by 2022. Several factors such as inadequate infrastruc- ture, investments and policies are cur- rently hindering growth. Need for modernization of grid infrastructure Grid modernization has become a key prerequisite to accelerate renewable en- ergy capacity and achieve set targets. While renewable energy source is abundant in the country, it is not even- ly spread to ensure equal distribution. Grid based infrastructure plays a critical role in such situations and can be set up along with the renewable project. Indian grids are currently unable to man- age its current capacity with frequent load shedding, power outages and frequency drifts. Additionally, the trans- mission systems are failing to match the increased solar power generation. The National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM) has been pioneering smart grid pro- grams to overcome existing challenges. There has been an investment of INR 980 crore with a budgetary support of INR 338 crore. Currently, there are 14 smart grid pilot projects designed to identify gaps and build grid-based infra- structure. Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, New Delhi and Bihar have already installed smart meters around 9.84 lakh, 1.23 lakh, 57,000 and 28,000 respectively. Role of solar pumps in off-grid areas The majority of pumps used today are either grid based or run on diesel. How- ever, the rising price of diesel, its en- vironmental implications and frequent power failures requires the adoption of renewable solutions in rural or off-grid areas. Considering India’s tropical nature, so - lar pumps can be employed to provide reliable water supply for irrigation and ancillary activities in such remote loca- tions. This shift ensures in an increase in sustainability while improving cost and operational efficiency. Technology driven solar solutions ensure that farm- ers can operate these pumps without frequent downtime or maintenance re- quirements. In line with the this, the government of India launched the PM-KUSUM scheme in 2018 to distribute 17.5 lakh solar pumps and solarize existing pump sets. According to the latest union budget announcement, the KUSUM scheme is expected to further cover 20 lakh farm- ers. As on 2019, 181,000 solar pumps have been set up to improve power connectivity in off-grid areas. The latest guidelines by MNRE also states that the KUSUM scheme aims at solarizing 1 mil- lion grid-connected solar pumps with an individual capacity of 7.5 HP. Conventionally, solar pumps were con- sidered to be an expensive alternative. However, the government has provided