Maha: First solar park starts power generation for farmers

MUMBAI — The first solar park of 3 MW capacity under the MahaYuti government’s ambitious Mukhyamantri Saur Krishi Vahini Yojana (MSKVY) 2.0 has been activated in Dhondalgaon village in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district.

Nearly 1,753 farmers will get 12 hours of uninterrupted power supply during day time from this project.

The solar energy project which started power generation on Thursday is developed on 13-acre public land at Dhondalgaon about 3 km from the electricity substation of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL).

The power utility had given a letter of award to Megha Engineering on March 7 this year and a power purchase agreement was signed on May 17. MSEDCL sources said that the company commissioned the project much ahead of the 18-month schedule, adding, that MSEDCL said that the project was developed and activated within four and a half months of the power purchase agreement.

“In Maharashtra power is supplied in shifts during day and night to agriculture pumps and there is decade-old demand to provide only daytime power to pumps. MSKVY 2.0 was launched to solve this problem,” sources in MSEDCL said.

They added that under this scheme electricity is generated using solar energy to run agriculture pumps, adding, that solar power generation projects are being developed at multiple locations in the state to develop decentralised solar power projects.

The sources said that apart from solving the problem of farmers getting daytime supply, these projects are also useful in reducing the burden of cross-subsidy on the industry as electricity will be available at a cheaper rate.

“It is connected to the 33 KV substation of Dhondalgaon and will be useful to provide daytime power supply to 1,753 agriculture pumps connected to five electric feeders. Farmers in Dhondalgaon, Nalegaon, Amanatpurwadi and Sanjapurwadi will benefit from this project,” said Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of MSEDCL Lokesh Chandra.

He added that this scheme is the largest distributed renewable energy project in the world, adding, that the solar power generation at Dhondalgaon is the beginning of various solar projects being developed as per a letter of awards given in March this year to develop solar projects of 9,200 MW capacity.

“Total capacity will be achieved in stages by December 2025,” Lokesh said.

The state government has set a target of the development of 9,200 MW of solar energy projects under the Mukhyamantri Saur Krishi Vahini Yojana 2.0 (MSKVY 2.0) to provide daytime and reliable power supply to farmers for irrigation.

Deputy Chief Minister and Energy Minister Devendra Fadnavis after taking charge on June 30, 2022, had declared ‘Mission 2025’ to solarise at least 30 per cent of agriculture feeders by December 2025.

After the implementation of MSKVY 2.0 was accelerated, the Deputy Chief Minister in March this year issued letters of award to 95 entities for the installation of solar plants to generate 9,200 MW of power creating 25,000 jobs in Maharashtra.

Some of the prominent developers included Reliance Industries, Megha Engineering, Avaada, SJVN Green and Torrent Power.

State Cabinet has recently approved the expansion of MSKVY 2.0 to increase capacity by 7,000 MW and take it to 16,000 MW to provide daytime power to 100 per cent agriculture pumps.

(Sanjay Jog can be contacted at sanjay.j@ians.in)