Performance Guarantee in KUSUM-A Scheme Reduced

• 26 May 2022

Why in News?

• On May 25, 2022, Madhya Pradesh's Minister of New and Renewable Energy Hardeep Singh Dang said that the performance guarantee in Pradhan Mantri Kisan urja suraksha utthan mahabhiyaan (KUSUM-A) has now been reduced from Rs 5 lakh per MW to Rs lakh.

Key Points

• This information was given by Hardeep Singh Dang while distributing letters of awards to 71 farmers of KUSUM-'A' at Urja Bhawan. In the programme, sale-purchase contracts (PPAs) were also exchanged between the 6 developers of Madhya Pradesh Power Management Company.
• The minister said that under the 'Mukhyamantri Solar Pump Yojana', the work of installing solar pumps on the fields of 1,000 farmers, where there is no availability of electricity, is being taken up on priority.
• A target of installing solar pumps on the fields of 50,000 farmers in the state is being set. This will save the cost of electricity and diesel and get 8 hours of electricity and other works of the farmers will also be able to be completed easily.
• The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Utthan Mahabhyan (KUSUM-A') scheme has been implemented by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) since 2019, under which a grant of up to 60 per cent is given for solarization of agricultural pumps. The scheme is being implemented by the state government departments, in which the farmers have to deposit only the remaining 40 per cent to the department.