The Agriculture Demand Side Management (Ag-DSM) scheme of BEE was initiated during XI plan and is being implemented to the present. The objective of the program is to reduce the energy intensity of agriculture pumping sector by carrying out efficiency up gradation of agricultural pump sets. It is estimated that there are about 19 million pumpsets, and 2.5 to 5 lakh new pumpsets are being added every year. Unfortunately, these pumpsets are inefficient, largely because farmers have no incentive to invest in higher cost, higher efficiency pumpsets due to low electricity tariffs for agriculture consumers. This has resulted in increased annual subsidy burden on State governments which has grown to more than Rs. 65,000 crore per annum. Studies reveal that about 30%-40% energy savings is possible in agriculture sector by adoption of Energy Efficient Star Labelled Pump Sets.
Ag DSM scheme of BEE was initiated during XI plan in eleven DISCOMs of selected eight states (Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka) which were agriculturally intensive and accounted for more than 70% of electricity consumption in this sector.Under this scheme, 11 Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) were prepared in 8 states covering about 20,000 pump sets connected on 87 feeders and indicating saving potential of 97 million units.
In the XII plan, the approach for achieving sustainable energy efficiency was widespread replication through regulatory mechanism which will be coupled with the subsidy provided by the GoI for bridging the EEPS pump sets higher cost, capacity building of all stakeholders, few demonstration projects in rural drinking water pumping systems and strategic approach for dissemination of results.
