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Electricity is one of the main infrastructural requirements to support basic human needs to bring improvement in the quality of life of people in rural areas and also for agricultural and industrial development. According to the 2001 census, about 43.5 per cent of the rural households have been provided with electricity connections. This has gone up from 30.5 per cent at the time of the 1991 census. As per the CEA Report of October, 2004 - 90,344 census villages in the country are yet to be electrified. In addition, there is a large number of unelectrified hamlets of already electrified census villages. The vast majority of rural population has thus no access to electricity and is dependent on kerosene lamps and lanterns for a basic requirement such as lighting. The Government has decided to electrify all households in the country by 2009 as per the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP).
It had been earlier estimated that there are about 18,000 unelectrified villages in remote and difficult areas such as forests, hills, deserts and islands. It was decided that such remote villages, which cannot be electrified by conventional grid-extension, should be electrified by decentralized generation using non-conventional energy sources. The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources has been implementing a programme since 2001-02 for electrification of such remote unelectrified census villages & unelectrified remote hamlets of already electrified census villages through non-conventional energy systems.
Though the number of remote villages which cannot be electrified through extension of the conventional-grid was earlier estimated to be 18,000, the names and locations of these villages were not readily available with any agency. The Ministry, therefore, undertook the task of identification of such remote villages and compilation of their lists through the State agencies. The effort is still continuing. The Ministry has already received tentative lists of 24,418 remote census villages in 24 States / UTs.
The Remote Village being Electrification programme is implemented mainly through the State Nodal Agencies for Renewable Energy, Power Departments, Electricity Boards, Corporate Entities for power generation, transmission and distribution set up by the Central or State Governments. A remote village is deemed to be electrified if at least 10 per cent of the households are provided with lighting facility. In addition, energy may also be provided for community facilities, pumping for drinking water supply or irrigation, as well as for economic and income generating activities in the village. Wherever feasible, electrification would preferably be carried out by installation of a power plant with local distribution through a mini grid.
Under the programme, support is provided for setting up projects based on non-conventional energy sources like solar energy, biomass energy, small hydro power, biofuels, etc. for electrification of remote villages and hamlets (which are not likely to be electrified through grid-extension by 2012). The Ministry supports such projects by providing technical guidance and financial assistance for meeting up to 90 per cent of the project costs (subject to certain cost bench marks for different technologies) and for their comprehensive maintenance for periods up to 10 years. In addition, support is provided for activities like surveys and studies aimed at identifying unelectrified villages and preparation of project reports, provision for renovation and expansion of power plants, intensification of household coverage, training, development of maintenance services, business meets and awareness promotion activities.
To ensure effective operation, maintenance and sustainability of the projects, efforts are made to secure the participation of the local community from inception. Appropriate arrangements are made for long term operation and maintenance with a view to provide dependable electricity supply for various needs in remote villages and hamlets. To ensure sustainability of the projects, revenue generation from beneficiaries is made mandatory through collection of user charges upfront and / or on annual / monthly basis.
Under the programme, 1744 remote villages and 572 remote hamlets have been electrified as on 31st December, 2004 and projects were under implementation in 1,350 remote villages and 724 hamlets. Projects have been completed under this programme or are under implementation in 23 states i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharasthra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Orissa, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamilnadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, It is planned to undertake projects in 2,000 remote villages and hamlets during 2005-06.
Village Energy Security Programme
The Ministry has evolved a concept of providing energy security in all villages of the country through biomass and other renewable energy sources and has also prepared an outline plan for this purpose. The aim is to go beyond electrification per se and meet the total energy needs of the households for cooking, lighting, motive power and electricity. With the recent developments in biomass conversion technologies for energy generation, it is now possible to deploy various biomass-based systems to meet almost all energy requirements of villages including electricity generation in an efficient, reliable and cost effective manner.
To begin with, the Ministry plans to take up a limited number of test projects in different States to demonstrate the concept, provide operational experience and test different institutional structures. In the test projects, the focus would be on utilization of available biomass resources and their production through plantations of fast growing tree species and oil bearing trees raised by the local community. The energy production system could comprise biogas plants based on dung or leafy biomass, biomass gasifiers coupled to 100 per cent producer gas engines and pump sets to be run on bio-fuels instead of diesel. The projects would be implemented by DRDAs, forestry departments, gram panchayats and NGOs with overall coordination and monitoring by the State Nodal Agencies. The test projects are likely to be followed up with an operational programme extending to the remote villages to be covered by this Ministry, as also the forest fringe villages.
*Inputs from Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources
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