Off-Grid RE Power Electrified 2,762 Indian Villages: Govt 

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In its latest statement before the Lok Sabha, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said that 2,762 villages in India were electrified with off-grid renewable energy solutions. The announcement comes less than a fortnight after a report in The Washington Post flagged the ‘failure’ of India’s mini-grids or off grid energy set up, that has subsequently been hotly denied by key stakeholders. 

Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy RK Singh told the House that the electrification of such villages was done with renewable sources like solar under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) scheme. It was meant to provide energy access to hard-to-reach areas.

“In December 2014, the Government of India launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) for various rural electrification works across the country. The Scheme has a Decentralized Distributed Generation (DDG) component for providing electricity access to the un-electrified villages/habitations where grid connectivity is neither feasible or nor cost-effective. Under DDUGJY, a total of 2762 villages were electrified through off-grid mode including solar energy,” the minister said in his written reply before the House. 

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According to the details shared by the minister, a total of 15 Indian states saw the installation of off-grid renewable solutions for electrification under the DDUGY scheme. The highest such interventions were made in Arunachal Pradesh (555 villages). It was followed by Chhattisgarh (473), Odisha (399) and Assam (394). 

The minister said that both DDUGJY and Saubhagya schemes are closed now. “A total of around 4.70 lakh households were reported electrified through solar-based standalone systems under these schemes. In October 2017, the Government of India launched Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – “Saubhagya” with the aim of achieving universal household electrification by providing last-mile grid connectivity and electricity connections to all households in rural and all poor households in urban areas across the country with the provision of solar based standalone systems to un-electrified households where grid extension is neither feasible nor cost-effective,” the minister said. 

Rural electrification in India with renewable power. Source: Lok Sabha

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