Ms. Athira Panicker will be present her Pre-Synopsis as per the following details:
Date: Thursday, 14th August 2025,
Time: 1100 – 1230 hrs.
Venue: C-TARA Conference Room 1
Title: Agricultural Electricity Distribution System Planning: Optimising Transformer Loading by incorporating Seasonal Irrigation Demand and Farmer Irrigation Behaviour
Guide: Prof. Priya Jadhav
RPC Members: Prof. Parmeshwar Udmale, Prof. Narendra Shiradkar
Abstract:
Agricultural electricity supply in India is characterized by poor quality, unreliable electricity supply and high infrastructure costs, particularly in semi-arid regions like Maharashtra, where irrigation demand is seasonal and energy consumption is low. While existing literature often frames these challenges as a political economy problem, this study identifies a critical yet underexplored technical dimension: the lack of systematic planning in the design of the agricultural electricity distribution system, while incorporating the agricultural load behaviour.
Through extensive field work in Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra, and analysis of energy meter data from DT and farmers and power flow modelling, this research investigates the root causes of supply quality issues like low voltage problems, supply interruptions and equipment failure. It is identified that procedural delays in providing sanctioned connections lead to illegal operation of pumps and, hence, result in overloading, a major reason for supply issues. DT forms a substantial part of the infrastructure, and DT failure impacts farmers' ability to provide crucial irrigation to their crops.
The study proposes an approach to optimize DT loading and maximize infrastructure utilization. The study quantifies the diversity in loading as per the seasonality of irrigation requirements based on cropping in a village/area. Farmer practices, daytime and nighttime loading, and usage of drip and sprinkler, area irrigated per pump, and crop-specific irrigation practices linked to fruiting, flowering, etc., are some of the factors that interact to affect infrastructure requirements. The study also investigates the pilot project of Load Management conducted under the PoCRA project, managing peak loading on overloaded DTs by irrigation scheduling among farmers. The research contributes a novel perspective to agricultural electricity distribution infrastructure planning by linking farmer behaviour, utility processes and Agro-Climatic Conditions.