The State government is committed to providing nine hours of quality free power to farmers and has approved a proposal to set up 10,000 MW of solar power projects.
A GO issued by the Energy Department on Monday said that the new project aims at switching to solar power which costs less and providing nine hours free power supply to agricultural consumers. The State government will continue to pay the average transmission cost and average distribution cost to the discoms. Further, the government is also committed to paying the balance cost of the power consumption.
Presently, farmers are being supplied nine hours of power supply in two groups. The annual agricultural consumption for 18.37 lakh pumps is about 12,221 MU per year as approved by APERC for 2020-21 financial year. The subsidy bill for agriculture has almost tripled from ₹3,186 crore in 2015-16 to ₹8,534 crore in 2020-21 due to reduction in cross subsidy.
The subsidy requirement for agriculture is further expected to rise due to increase in number of pump sets and increase in power supply. The subsidy support for free power supply is likely to increase from ₹8,900 crore to ₹18,819 crore by 2030-31 due to an increase in new connections.
The State government hence has decided to implement the solar power project and issued operational guidelines for implementation of the scheme.
