PUMPED FOR CHANGE

Even though India is a global leader in water pumps, the sector needs urgent efficiency overhaul

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ACROSS INDIA'S farms, homes and municipal bodies, water pump-sets hum with quiet intensity—powering irrigation and supplying water to overhead tanks. But beneath this essential function lies a seldom acknowledged reality: most of these pumps are energy guzzlers, operating far below their efficiency potential.

India's agriculture sector alone boasts of over 21 million pump-sets, predominantly inefficient, with an annual addition of 0.25 to 0.5 million new connections, acknowledges the Union Ministry of Power in its report, “Impact of Energy Efficiency Measures: for the Year 2022-23”. These pumps, of 5 horsepower (HP) on average, currently operate at 25 to 30 per cent efficiency levels, it states.

K V Karthik, president of the Indian Pump Manufacturers Association (IPMA), tells DTE that nearly 80 per cent of the demand for electric pump-sets comes from agriculture, while households and municipal bodies account for 15 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. A report by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) highlights that these pump-sets have driven a 46 per cent increase in electricity demand over the past seven years, making them the third-largest electricity consumer in the country, after the industrial and residential sectors. Most of this energy is consumed for irrigation.

In other words, improving the energy efficiency of water pump-sets has the potential to save energy at the national level and help state governments significantly reduce the electricity subsidies provided to the agriculture sector. In response to a Lok Sabha question, the Union Ministry of Power stated that, in 2018-19, state governments extended direct electricity subsidies amounting to ₹67,885 crore to the agriculture sector. Enhancing pump-set efficiency would also help the country avoid carbon emissions and support its transition to net-zero.

Surprisingly, efforts by authorities and manufacturers to make the sector more energy-efficient appear lacklustre.