The PM-KUSUM C project at Chickballapur district. It is an initiative that solarises existing grid-connected agricultural waterpumps to provide farmers with reliable daytime electricity and zero power disruptions.

Special Arrangement

Narayan Swamy, a farmer from Nallimaradahalli, in Chickballapur district, has given his 40-acre farm land on lease to a private firm for establishing solar panels under PM-KUSUM C project. The power generated from this project provides power to agricultural waterpumps instead of relying on Bescom for power supply that gets disrupted owing to overload and other infrastructural issues.

The PM-KUSUM C project is a ‘Government of India’ initiative that solarises existing grid-connected agricultural waterpumps to provide farmers with reliable daytime electricity and zero power disruptions.

Once a mango orchard

Speaking to , Mr. Narayan Swamy said: “Earlier, I cultivated mangoes along with other fruits on the farm. When the yield started reducing, I felt leasing it was the next best step instead of selling it to a real estate firm. While I get lease amount of ₹60,000 per acre for the next 25 years, thousands of farmers are benefitted from the power generated.”

According to Bescom officials, the Nallimaradahalli sub-station provides power to 3,000 farmers’ water pumpsets in surrounding 27 villages.

visited some of the major project sites of PM-KUSUM C in Bengaluru Rural and Chickballapur region. While Nallimaradahalli 66 kV sub-station in Chickballapur has a capacity of generating 13 MW power, another project, Kundana, generates 3 MW covering 37 villages and powers pumpsets of 797 farmers. Similarly, the Devanahalli project generates 13 MW that covers 68 villages powering 2,811 pumpsets.

N. Shivashankar, MD, Bescom, said PM-KUSUM C allows farmers to use electricity drawn from solar power during the day without power interuption or voltage issues to supply borewell water to their fields. Drawing power from distant hydro or thermal power projects leads to overloading of transmission lines, resulting in frequent power cuts.

Mr. Shivashankar said it required three-and-a-half acres of land to install solar panels to generate one MW. “The minimum price fixed for one acre is ₹25,000, but if it is a private land, then farmers can negotiate as per the land rates of the particular region, proximity to the sub-stations and other factors,” he said

Providing the overall data, he said: “The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has sanctioned 2.62 lakh agricultural pumpsets for solarisation in Bescom, followed by an additional sanction for 60,000 agricultural pumpsets. Of these, Bescom has already executed Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) for projects with a total capacity of 1,159.1 MW, covering 2,79,043 agricultural pump sets.”

He said the project has been carried out in many government-owned lands, while urging gram panchayats to come forward in identifying such government lands within villages for the project.

Similarly, the Kundan and Devanahalli projects are built on Hooganawadi lake, which falls under the Minor Irrigation Department. The private player, Mega Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd. (MIEL), pays prescribed lease amount to the Irrigation Department.

Mr. Shivashankar explained that solar panels are installed at higher levels so that when it rains and the lake overflows, the water does not damage the panels.

Deemed forest land

In order to implement more PM-KUSUM C projects, Mr. Shivashankar also highlighted that Bescom is likely to use portions of deemed forest land in Chickballapur district for the benefit of farmers.

He said around 20,000 hectares had been earmarked as deemed forest land in Chickballapur district. And the district administration is likely to take back 11,000 to 12,000 hectares of this deemed forest land after the survey is completed in the next three months. Of this, around 10,000 acres is a lake or tank bed. The remaining area will be used for various projects in the State to generate revenue and PM-KUSUM C project will be one of them.”