Advait Energy Transitions (Advait) has won Karnataka Renewable Energy Development’s (KREDL) auction to integrate 40,000 off-grid or standalone solar pumps in Karnataka under Component B of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) program.

The tender was floated in December 2023.

Advait will integrate 40,000 off-grid standalone solar pumps with SCADA software and provide five years of operation and maintenance of the SCADA platform.

The scope of work also includes designing, deploying, and maintaining a web-based portal and mobile application to facilitate the solar pump integration. Advait will provide cloud services and integrate a payment gateway. It will also integrate remote monitoring devices and a solar energy data management portal.

It will deploy the project within 30 days, with the execution period lasting one year.

The PM-KUSUM program aims to reduce the use of diesel in the agricultural sector and enhance farmers’ incomes. Component B is focused on installing standalone solar pumps of capacities up to 7.5 HP. Central finance assistance of 30% of the benchmark cost or the tender cost of the standalone solar pump, whichever is lower, will be provided. Karnataka government will provide a subsidy of 50%, and the remaining 20% will be the farmer’s contribution. Bank finance may be offered for the farmer’s contribution so that the farmer has to pay only 10% of the cost initially and the remaining up to 10% as a loan.

Over 3.3 million agricultural pumps are installed in Karnataka, of which about 250,000 pumps do not have regular power connections as they are away from the grid infrastructure. Grid-connected agriculture pumps consume more than 35% of the annual electricity in the state. Solarization can reduce the dependence on conventional energy sources supplied by DISCOMs, reducing the burden of subsidies given to agricultural consumers. The Karnataka government ordered the installation of standalone/off-grid solar pumps for agricultural purposes, where the farmer’s wells or borewells are 500 meters away from the grid power supply.

As of October 2024, over 500,000 standalone solar pumps were installed under the PM-KUSUM. Multiple states raised a demand for over 1.3 million solar pumps, and letters of award were issued for approximately 970,000 pumps. A total of 540,499 pumps were installed, meeting 42% of the target. Maharashtra emerged as the top performer with 197,863 installations, followed by Haryana with 136,572 pumps. Rajasthan installed 85,635 pumps, while Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand installed 53,182 and 21,522 pumps, respectively.