Rural Energy security in India: reality checks

 

 

 

Bikramjit Sinha and Indranil Biswas

 

The Indian economy is growing steadily and every Indian is proud of that. And the most important resource required to maintain or accelerate this growth is energy. In fact, energy is the very basis of life; insufficiency of it brings economic stagnation by lowering optimum productivity. Energy sufficiency or energy security, therefore, is the most talked about topic everywhere, starting from each and every street and lane to the country’s highest institution -- the parliament -- and among the academicians, intellectuals, bureaucrats, executives and politicians. There is no denying the fact that access to a steady supply of sufficient and clean energy is critical for the all round development of everyone, irrespective of their social and/or economic status and geographic location.

However, to have an effective approach in addressing the issue one needs to differentiate between the energy security of rural and urban areas, because energy dynamics of both the areas are quite different. Energy security perhaps is more important for the rural people because they are very vulnerable, marginalized and lack access to most of the basic resources. Majority of rural households depend on traditional fuels like fuelwood to meet most of their energy requirements, supplemented by small amounts of kerosene and electricity for lighting (Cecelski et al., 1979).

 

Some hard facts of energy scenario in rural India

 

 

Fig 1: Percentage of schools in rural areas

Source: http://www.dise.in/downloads/AnaReport2006-07/School Related Indicators.pdf

 

 

Therefore, there needs to be a paradigm shift especially:

 

Pattern Of Energy Consumption in Rural areas

In rural areas, power is consumed in three main ways:

  1. Domestic consumption
    • For cooking
    • For lightening
  2. Industrial consumption
    • For Micro Small and Medium Enterprises
    • For Big Industry
  3. On-farm energy consumption
    • Energy consumption for farming
Consumption of energy in Rural India for cooking:

Different types of energy sources are used for cooking in rural India:

 

 

Fig 2: Consumption of firewood for domestic cooking across major states of India

Source: NSSO report no. 511, 61st Round, 2004-05

 

 

In rural India, firewood and chips continued to be the most important source of cooking energy. As on 2004-05, around 75% of the rural households are using firewood and chips for cooking. But the positive signal is the decrease in the number of households using firewood and chips for cooking by around 1% during the period 1999-2005.

The next important sources of energy in rural India are dung cake and LPG. Both these sources of energy are used by around 9% of the rural households in 2004-05. Nationally, use of LPG has increased by around 3 percentage points during 1999-2005; Punjab recorded 14% increase in the use of LPG during the same period and is the highest among all states.

 

 

Fig 3: Consumption of dung cake and LPG for domestic cooking rural India
Source: NSSO report no. 511, 61st Round, 2004-05

 

 

If we consider the source of energy used for cooking according to social group, it is apparent that use of firewood and chips is highest among the rural Scheduled Tribes, around 90% of the households in this category use firewood and chips for cooking.

 

 

Fig 4: Break-up of households (per 1000) of each social group by primary source of energy used for cooking in Rural India

Source: NSSO report no. 511, 61st Round, 2004-05

 

 

Consumption of energy in Rural India for lighting:

 

Fig 5: Distribution of households (per 1000) in different employment classes by primary source of energy used for lighting

Source: NSSO report no. 511, 61st Round, 2004-05

 

 

 

 

Fig 6: Distribution of households (per 1000) in each MPCE class by primary source of energy used for lighting (MPCE: Monthly per Capita Expenditure)

Source: NSSO report no. 511, 61st Round, 2004-05

 

 

These two graphs (above) represent the status of consumption of energy for lightning in rural India:

 

 

Consumption of energy in Rural MSMEs

As the micro and small enterprises are major part of Indian economy, we must investigate their status w.r.t. consumption of energy in rural areas. There are two types of MSME units in India:-

Approximately 46% of un-registered and 35% of registered rural MSME have no access to power. Most of the remaining registered and un-registered units use electricity as a production input. The application of non-conventional energy (0.64-0.65%) in rural MSMEs is very meager.

 

 

Fig 7: Sources of Energy for Indian Rural MSMEs

Source: MSME 3rd Census, 2001-02

 

 

Consumption of energy in Agriculture (~rural):

‘Agriculture’ is considered to be synonymous with ‘rural’, especially in countries like India where agricultural mechanization is not so much advanced. It is commonly believed that agriculture is one of the main power consumption areas in rural India. Agriculture consumes power both in the animate and non-animate forms.

The percentage of mechanical and electrical power used in agriculture increased from 40% to 84% during the years 1971-2003. It is also notable that in the first five year plan, power consumption in Indian agriculture was 316 GWh (3.97% percentage of total power consumption in India). In 2005 total power consumption in agriculture stood 88,555 GWh, which is approximately 22.93% of total energy consumption in India . Gujarat (46%), Andhra Pradesh (43%) and Haryana (45%) are the leading states regarding electricity power consumption in Agriculture (TERI energy data directory & yearbook, 2005, P: 240).

 

 

Government Policies and Initiatives

National Rural Electrification Policies, 2006 (http://mnes.nic.in/):   Goals include provision of access to electricity to all households by the year 2009, at reasonable rates, and minimum lifeline consumption of 1 unit/household/day.

For villages where grid connectivity would not be feasible or nor cost effective, off-grid solutions based on stand-alone systems may be taken. Where these also are not feasible, alternative isolated lighting technologies like solar photovoltaic may be adopted. However, such remote villages may not be designated as electrified.

State government should, within 6 months, prepare and notify a rural electrification plan, which should map and detail the electrification delivery mechanism. The plan may be linked to integrated district development plans. The plan should also be intimated to the appropriate commission.

Gram panchayats shall issue the first certificate at the time of the village becoming eligible for declaration as electrified. Subsequently, the Gram Panchayat shall certify and confirm the electrified status of the village as on 31st March each year.

Integrated Rural Energy Programme (Department of renewable energy http://www.hareda.gov.in/rural.html)

It is a scheme which aims to promote the application of Renewable Energy technologies for cooking, heating and lighting in the rural sector. This scheme is being implemented on 50:50 cost sharing basis between state and centre.

Objectives: To provide for minimum domestic energy needs for cooking, heating and lighting purposes to rural people in selected village clusters in each District, with focus on renewable energy:

  1. To provide the most cost effective mix of various sources and options for meeting the requirements of sustainable agriculture and rural development with due environmental considerations and focus on renewable energy;
  2. To ensure people’s participation in the planning and implementation of IREP plans and projects through the involvement of panchayats, voluntary organizations and institutions at the micro level; and
  3. To develop and strengthen mechanisms and coordination arrangements for linking micro level planning and implementation for rural energy with National and State level planning and programmes for energy and economic development so as to ensure regular and planned flow of energy inputs for meeting the requirements of various end users in IREP districts.

 

Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC)

Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) was incorporated on July 25, 1969 under the Companies Act 1956. REC is a wholly Government of India owned Public Sector Enterprise with a net worth of Rs. 5368 Crore. Its main objective is to finance and promote rural electrification projects all over the country. It provides financial assistance to State Electricity Boards, State Government Departments and Rural Electric Cooperatives for rural electrification projects. REC provides loan assistance to SEBs/State Power Utilities for investments in rural electrification schemes through its Corporate Office located at New Delhi and 17 field units (Project Offices), which are located in most of the States. The Project Offices in the States coordinate the programmes of REC’s financing with the concerned SEBs/State Power Utilities and facilitate in formulation of schemes, loan sanction and disbursement and implementation of schemes by the concerned SEBs/State Power Utilities.

 

 

Sources Of Rural Energy

Agri-waste may take lead to fulfill the rural energy requirement:

Agriculture produces a great deal of waste as a by-product. It can be animal faeces, or the discarded plant husks thrown away when rice, grains or maize etc. are harvested. This agricultural waste can be successfully used as cooking gas or feedstock for electricity, to reduce the burden of energy requirement in rural India. India is predominantly an agricultural country and a huge quantity of biomass is available throughout the year. Approximately, 350 million tons of agricultural waste is produced every year which has a potential of generating 17,000 MWe of power and can eventually save roughly an amount of Rs. 20,000 crores every year. It has been estimated that this power potential has increased with an annual growth rate of around 8.75% during the period 1998-2003 (http://cgpl.iisc.ernet.in). This growth trend is expected to continue in the years to come because of the anticipated agricultural intensification.

 

 

Fig 8: Major biomass generating crops and its power potential in India

Source: http://cgpl.iisc.ernet.in

 

 

Of the total power potential from agricultural waste, only 656.6 MW has been harnessed as on 30.09.2008 (Source: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy). So, lots of sincere efforts have to be put in to harness the full power potential of agri-waste.

While setting up agri-waste based biogas plants, it has to be ensured that there is continuous supply of feedstock material. The above figure gives an idea of the location as well as the capacity of the biogas plants to be set up. For example, as paddy, cotton and wheat are the major residue generating crops, large agri-waste based biogas plants should be set up in the areas growing these crops. In terms of residue, stalks constitute major part of the biomass residue generated in India.

 

 

 

Case study of generation of electricity from agri-waste

 

A 10-15 MW agri-waste based power project has been set up jointly by Punjab Biomass Power, Bermaco Energy, Archean Granites and Gammon Infrastructure projects Limited in Punjab. The project uses locally available agricultural waste such as rice straw and sugar cane trash for fuel. The total annual fuel requirement is around 120,000 tonnes of biomass, all of which will be sourced locally. Punjab has about 20 million acres under paddy yielding 100 million tonnes of rice straw. As rice straw is a poor fodder and fuel, farmers burn it in the fields and make way for the Rabi wheat crop. But now these wastes are being used for generating electricity. The project is expected to provide additional income to 15,000 farmers from the sale of agri waste. The project will be a major milestone in environment protection - converting agricultural waste to energy. Secondly, it will reduce the release of smoke and other pollutants caused by burning 100 million tonnes of wastes which could used for earning carbon credits.

 

 

 

Note: There are several other initiatives on utilizing agri-waste for generating electricity, mostly on a bigger scale. The requirement at the moment is perhaps the village level initiatives. The waste generated from the villages should be returned to them in the form of cooking and lighting fuel at the best affordable price. The initiatives should be in a PPP mode, highly subsidized by the government and lastly with full community participation.

Experts opine that to run a 1MW gasifier/power plant, 12500 MT of crop residues are needed for 350 days operative in a year. Further, plants of very small size, 20-150KW for instance are not economical as both unit cost and maintenance cost are high. Thus, only 200KW size plant seems viable. In this context, the rich experience of West Bengal Rural Energy Development Agency (WBREDA) in solar and biomass energy development especially in the Sunderban delta is worth emulating.

 

Other biomass based energy:

Biomass based energy generation has a good potential for our country because of the rich biodiversity and a huge population. The potential sources of biomass energy are:

The Government of India through the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sources is implementing a lot schemes to exploit the potential of different types of renewable energy sources. Though details of the achievements are not available it can be said that achievements under the off-grid/distributed renewable, remote village electrification and decentralization energy systems are of relevance to rural energy security.

 

Table 1: Status of energy generation from renewable sources in India

No.

Sources / Systems

Achievement

 (as on 30.09.2008)

A. Grid-interactive renewable power

1.

Biomass Power (Agro residues)

656.60 MW

2.

Wind Power

9521.80 MW

3.

Small Hydro Power (up to 25 MW)

2220.99 MW

4.

Cogeneration-bagasse

993.83 MW

5.

Waste to Energy

55.75 MW

6.

Solar Power

2.12 MW

 

Sub Total (in MW) (A)

13,450.59 MW

B. Off-grid/Distributed Renewable Power (including Captive/CHP plants)

7.

Biomass Power / Cogen.(non-bagasse)

136.70 MW

8.

Biomass Gasifier

102.21 MWeq

9.

Waste-to- Energy

31.07 MWeq

10.

Solar PV Power Plants and Street Lights

8.01 MWp

11.

Aero-Generators/Hybrid Systems

0.72 MW

 

Sub Total (B)

278.71 MWeq

C. Remote Village Electrification

4237 villages +1142 hamlets

D. Decentralized Energy Systems

12.

Family Type Biogas Plants

40.32 lakh

13.

Home Lighting System

4,34,692 nos.

14.

Solar Lantern

6,97,419 nos.

15.

SPV Pumps

7,148 nos.

16.

Solar Water Heating - Collector Area

2.45 Mln. sq.m.

17.

Solar Cookers

6.37 lakh

18.

Wind Pumps

1342 nos.

MWe = Megawatt equivalent; MW = Megawatt; kW = kilowatt; kWp = kilowatt peak; sq. m. = square meter

 

Source: http://mnes.nic.in/achievements.htm

 

 

Of the above mentioned biomass energy sources, considerable achievements have made in generating power from non-edible oil producing plants and cogeneration bagasse (994 MW). But more efforts are needed to explore potentiality of indigenous non-edible oil producing trees for production of biofuel and bio-ethanol.

Virtually, no major initiative has been taken to harness the energy potential of wood biomass, forest litter biomass, bamboo energy, domestic waste and market waste, though some small scale take ups are reported from different parts of the country. This may due to the non-availability of feasible technologies particularly for the generation of energy from wood biomass.

 

Solar Energy:

Solar energy is the cleanest source of energy available. The government of India has taken many initiatives to harness this vast source of energy. The achievements in utilization of solar power are Solar Lantern-6.97 lakhs, solar pumps-7148 numbers and Solar Cooker-6.37 lakhs and around 2.45 million square metre solar water heating collector areas. This exploitation is very less in comparison to the estimated potential of the solar energy. One of the issues that need immediate and serious attention is the improvement of efficiency and reduction of cost of solar energy devices and most importantly the search for alternative materials/devices of trapping solar energy.

The plus point with solar energy is its, perennial natural source and non-polluting nature. However, generation of power depends upon the intensity of light which is influenced by weather and it requires huge initial investment. In this regard it is worth mentioning here that US scientists are working on Sahara desert as a source of unlimited energy. Like wise India can focus on the Thar Desert for meeting her energy requirements.

 

Wind Energy:

The present installed capacity of wind power under the grid-interactive power system is around 9522 MW. In addition, 1342 numbers of wind pumps have been installed. This installed capacity is comparatively very less than the estimated potential of about 45,000 MW. The initial investment for wind power generation is also very high. However, small scale community level wind turbines can be set up with government subsidy for the use of rural people.

 

Micro-hydel Systems:

Small hydro power projects are very viable especially in hilly areas like the North East, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand where the natural downward flow of water can be easily trapped for generating power. The installed capacity of small hydro power projects of up to 25 MW capacities is around 2,221 MW. However, hydro power projects of smaller capacity (up to 3MW) which are more easy and handy in operation have been installed for only for about 240 MW. For the benefit of rural and remote areas there should be more projects of this kind. It is pertinent to mention here that the estimated potential of Small Hydro Power in the country is about 15,000 MW.

 

Case study on Community-based Rural Micro Hydro Project, Kerala, India -- an integrated solution for rural energy requirements

In addition to the government initiatives, a lot of NGOs are also implementing Small Micro-hydel projects for providing energy solutions to the rural people. Take the example of Mallanadu Development Society, which implemented a Community based rural micro-hydro project in Tulappaly village, Kerala with a grant of $26,883 under the Special Grant Programme of UNDP. The project was able provide energy solutions to 161 consumers (146 domestic, 10 shops, 5 institutions) at a minimum cost of $2 per month per connection (http://sgp.undp.org/download/SGP_India1.pdf). This project also highlights that, rural energy requirement does not mean only domestic consumption, it also includes shops (MSMEs), institutions etc.

 

 

The Way Ahead

It is apparent from the foregoing deliberations that access to sufficient clean energy is essential to empower individuals for maintaining sustained economic growth. But there is a stark difference between the energy requirements of rural and urban areas. It is also evident that even after a handful of initiatives from the government side; there is still a gloomy scenario of energy sufficiency in the rural areas. To cover up the gaps of energy requirements of all the rural sectors like domestic consumption, agriculture, small scale industries (MSMEs) etc., demand-driven S&T interventions are essential to provide sufficient and clean energy to the rural people. Nevertheless, all the initiatives should involve full community participation to ensure the success of the endeavors.

To ensure energy security in rural areas, a decentralized strategy is perhaps needed with emphasis on the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suggested Readings

 

 

 

 

 

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