The government may also provide subsidies to some rural households if required, he said.
The Energy Efficiency Services Ltd will be roped in to put the model in place like it did with the government’s Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LED for All (UJALA) scheme.
“We want to promote e-cooking in a big way so that we move away from fossil to non-fossil fuel,” Tewari said. “We are trying to come out with electric cooking in such a manner that is affordable to even rural areas.”
Solar or solar-thermal combined cooking could be some models that need to be promoted, especially in the rural areas, where it may not be possible for poorer households to afford, Tewari said while addressing the Consumer-Centric Approaches for E-cooking Transition.
Through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) the government made clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households.“Now, let us move from clean cooking to e-cooking,” Tewari said.A model has to be developed in a manner that electricity comes from renewable energy sources so that there is aggregation of carbon credits also, which will offset some cost.
It should be affordable in the sense that it should be linked with solar or some other renewable energy source which is cheaper, he said.
If we have standard and affordable models, we should be able to cover all urban areas within 2-3 years. By 2030, we would like to cover as many households as possible under e-cooking, he said.
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd’s has already launched an indoor solar cooking system which operates both on solar and auxiliary energy sources simultaneously.
The initial cost of IOC’s product was around Rs 12,000 for base model, and Rs 23,000 for top model. However, the cost is expected to reduce substantially with economies of scale, as per the company.
