Maharashtra’s solar push just delivered its first daytime power win for farmers

Maharashtra’s drive to move farm irrigation off the night-time grid has produced its first working result in Nagpur district. MSEDCL commissioned a 4-MW solar park at the 33/11-kV Kachari Sawanga substation in Katol taluka on July 16, the district’s first such facility.

The park now supplies eight hours of uninterrupted daytime electricity to 1,074 agricultural pump consumers spread across nine villages: Ridhora, Khapri Kutumba, Ghartwada, Gujar Khedi, Sabkund, Kokarda, Kachari Sawanga, Borkhedi and Panchdhar. MSEDCL officials said the change should ease irrigation scheduling and reduce the difficulties farmers previously faced working at night.

The facility was built under the state’s Chief Minister Solar Agricultural Feeder 2.0 scheme, which is installing decentralised solar parks next to substations across Maharashtra. MSEDCL gave the private developer a 25-year land lease and signed a Power Purchase Agreement to buy the power generated for less than Rs 3 per unit, before supplying it to farmers as part of the state programme.

The 4-MW installation is estimated to have cost the developer around Rs 10-12 crore, based on MSEDCL’s benchmark of Rs 2.5-3 crore per megawatt. Officials said siting the park close to the substation also helps reduce transmission losses along the way.

MSEDCL said several more solar parks are currently under construction elsewhere in Nagpur district as the scheme expands. The Kachari Sawanga project was overseen by chief engineer Rajesh Naik, superintending engineer Sanjay Wakde, and executive engineers Narendra Katare and Narendra Dhawad.

Naik described the project as an important step toward reliable daytime electricity for farmers, one that also supports clean energy goals and strengthens the rural economy — a model MSEDCL appears set to repeat across the district in the months ahead.

Wikimedia Commons/by Kanadaurlauber