Remote Village Lighting Programme

                                             List of remote un electrified census villages not covered in RGGVY

Remote Village Electrification Programme

BACKGROUND

The Remote Village Electrification Programme of the Ministry was initiated for electrification through renewable energy sources of those unelectrified remote census villages and remote unelectrified hamlets of electrified census villages where grid connectivity is either not feasible or not cost effective.

 Around 3330 unelectrified census villages and 830 unelectrified hamlets of electrified villages have so far been provided with basic electricity facilities.  System installation work is currently going on in 1670 remote villages and 630 remote hamlets.  State-wise details of projects sanctioned and completed are given in the table-1.

                Table-1 Physical Progress of implementation of Remote Village Electrification Programme

S. No.

State

Total Villages Sanctioned since 2001

Villages Completed upto July 07

On going villages

Total hamlets sanctioned

Hamlets completed upto July 2007

1.

Arunachal Pradesh

297

222

75

1

 

2.

Assam

501

55

446

 

 

3.

Chhattisgarh

368

325

43

 

 

4.

Gujarat

38

38

 

 

 

5.

Haryana

 

 

 

194

45

6.

Himachal Pradesh

21

1

20

1

 

7.

Jammu & Kashmir

140

117

23

 

 

8.

Jharkhand

469

348

121

 

 

9.

Karnataka

20

16*

-

 

 

10.

Kerala

 

 

 

558

558

11.

Madhya Pradesh

199

30

150*

 

 

12.

Maharashtra

271

120

148*

 

 

13.

Manipur

191

134

57

 

 

14.

Meghalaya

97

25

72

 

 

15.

Mizoram

20

20

 

 

 

16.

Nagaland

3

 

3

 

 

17.

Orissa

215

18

197

 

 

18.

Rajasthan

327

218

85*

 

 

19.

Sikkim

 

 

 

13

13

20.

Tamil Nadu

 

 

 

152

 

21.

Tripura

62

58

4

488

178

22.

Uttaranchal

593

396

144*

53

34

23.

Uttar Pradesh

250

20

77*

 

 

24.

West Bengal

1177

1171

6

9

2

 

Total

5259

3332

1675

1468

830

Notes 

1.                 19 projects in Madhya Pradesh, 3 in Maharashtra, 24 in Rajasthan, 4 in Karnataka, 53 in Uttaranchal and 153 in UP have been cancelled by the state governments as they were taken up for grid electrification.

2.                  Out of the villages taken up for electrification through renewable energy, 296 are being/have been covered through distributed generation technologies of biomass gasification and small hydro.  Balance 6431 are being/have been covered through solar photovoltaic technologies.

New and Renewable  Energy Technologies For Electrification Of Villages

The main technological options available for the electrification of remote villages using New and Renewable Energy Sources are :-

      Small hydro power plants.

Biomass gasification systems in conjunction with 100% producer gas engines or with dual-fuel engines using non-edible vegetable oils.

Non-edible vegetable oil based engines.

Biogas engines

Solar photovoltaic power plants.

SPV Homelighting Systems

     In many situations, particularly in very small and very remote villages, no other renewable energy option except SPV homelighting systems may prove to be feasible.  The Rural Electrification Policy has now laid down that in “villages/habitations where grid connectivity would not be feasible or not cost effective, off-grid solutions based on stand-alone systems may be taken up for supply of electricity.  Where these also are not feasible and if only alternative is to use isolated lighting technologies like solar photovoltaic, these may be adopted.  However, such remote villages may not be designated as electrified”.

    A majority of remote census villages taken up for electrification under the programme are provided with SPV home lighting systems (about 95%).  While, before 2004-05, support was being provided for SPV homelighting systems of upto 4 lights each, after 2005 it has been restricted to systems of 2 lights each.  BPL households are provided single light systems with 100% subsidy.  The solar home lighting systems  for two lights are designed to provide around 0.1 kWh of energy per day and cost Rs.13000-15000 per system per household. Some villages have also been electrified with distributed SPV power plants, biomass gasification systems and small hydro systems.  The small hydro option has been used successfully for electrification of remote villages mainly in the states of Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. 

    The Ministry aims to provide grid quality electricity in all the villages taken up by it for electrification through New and Renewable Energy Sources.  However, since the actual programme implementation is being carried out through state governments, the Ministry accepts the proposals for use of a particular technology, as submitted by the state implementing agencies.

Central Financial Assistance for the projects

    The Ministry provides a subsidy of upto 90% of the costs of various renewable energy devices/systems subject to pre-specified maximum amounts.  In addition, many other promotional supports and also a substantial amount of service charges are provided to the state implementing agencies.  The maximum amounts of CFAs for different technology options are given in Table-2. 

Table-2    Maximum CFA under RVE Programme

                                                                          Maximum CFA, (in Rupees)

Technology

General Category States

Special Category States

SPV homelighting systems Model-I

5895

6165

Solar photovoltaics homelighting system Model-II

11250

11250

SPV streetlighting system

19602

20578

Small Hydro systems10-1000 KW

68400 to 98100/KW

86400 to 1,16,100/KW

Biomass Gasifiers

43726 to 68040/KW

48099 to 74844/KW

  Maximum CFA per household will be Rs.18,000.

    In line with the provisions under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, for BPL households, a one light connection will be provided with 100% cost support from the Ministry, subject to pre-specified maximum amounts.

    During 2005-06, the Government announced the National Electricity Policy - 2005 and the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana both of which had a significant impact on rural electrification programmes including the Remote Village Electrification Programme of the Ministry. The Remote Village Electrification Programme was thus suitably modified to align it with these two policy statements.  During 2006-07, the Government also notified the Rural Electrification Policies, which lay down the broad framework for rural electrification programmes in the country.  The RVE Programme has also been suitably adapted with these policies.  Main extracts from the Policy are given below.

Relevant extracts from the National Rural Electrification Policies, 2006

    Goals include provision of access to electricity to all households by the year 2009, quality and reliable power supply at reasonable rates, and minimum lifeline consumption of 1 unit/household/day as a merit good by year 2012.

For villages/habitations where grid connectivity would not be feasible or not cost effective, off-grid solutions based on stand-alone systems may be taken up for supply of electricity.  Where these also are not feasible and if only alternative is to use isolated lighting technologies like solar photovoltaic, these may be adopted.  However, such remote villages may not be designated as electrified.

State government should, within 6 months, prepare and notify a rural electrification plan which should map and detail the electrification delivery mechanism.  The plan may be linked to and integrated with district development plans.  The plan should also be intimated to the appropriate commission. 

Gram panchayat shall issue the first certificate at the time of the village becoming eligible for declaration as electrified.  Subsequently, the Gram Panchayat shall certify and confirm the electrified status of the village as on 31st March each year.  

The state government should set up a committee at the district level within 3 months, under the chairmanship of chairperson of the Zila Panchayat and with representations from district level agencies, consumer associations, and important stakeholders with adequate representation of women.

The district committee would coordinate and review the extension of electrification in the district and consumer satisfaction, etc. 

Panchayat Raj institutions would have a supervisory/advisory role.

Institutional arrangements for backup services and technical support to systems based on non-conventional sources of energy will have to be created by the state government.

Identification of Remote Villages and Hamlets

The task of identification of remote, unelectrified census villages and hamlets of electrified villages has been entrusted to the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), which is the apex implementing organization for the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana.   REC has so far identified around 9000 remote villages and hamlets in 24 states.  The state-wise details of remote villages and hamlets in different states are given in Table-3.

Table3-     List of the remote unelectrified census villages / hamlets as verified by 

                            Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) (as on 31.07.07)    

 

S. No.

State

Number of villages / hamlets verified by Rural Electrification Corporation

 

 

Villages

Hamlets

1.

Karnataka

23

150

2.

Madhya Pradesh

411

 

3.

Assam

2139

 

4.

Maharashtra

257

 

5.

Meghalaya

158