Despite sustained efforts, a large section of the population in India continues to use biomass for household cooking leading to adverse health, economic, and environmental consequences. However, given the number of potential consumers of electric cooking in the country, the transition besides resulting in expected benefits from preventing these consequences, also shows potential to create a very substantial market for eCooking device manufacturers, and others in the supply chain, which can lead to companies exporting their solutions as well.

In the above background, MECS conceptualised and established a Modern Energy Cooking India with the aim to initiate discussions among stakeholders to accelerate the transition to modern energy-based clean cooking focussed on Electricity, Battery and Solar – initially focusing on India and envisaged to increasingly enable discussions for a leap into the global markets that are emerging. The first edition of the Forum was organised in September 2022 in New Delhi. The forum was attended by distinguished national and international speakers and delegates from the MECS Programme, EESL, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy,Government of India, International Solar Alliance, Climate Parliament, Ministry of Rural Development, O/o Principal Scientific Adviser to GoI, IOCL, GGGI, SIDBI and like. The discussion was around the pressing difficulties and issues in the area of clean cooking adoption with respect to affordability and availability of devices and reliable solutions, large-scale investments, participation of all stakeholders, and a possible robust policy support mechanism by global agencies and the local government. The Forum also offered a platform for the display of clean cooking product/devices organized on its side-lines and a range of innovative products were exhibited like different models of Electric Pressure Cookers (EPC), Induction Cooktops, Surya Nutan (Indoor Solar cooking system), Artificial Intelligence based cooking platform, Solar PV based cooking systems, etc.

The first edition of the Forum was a success in terms of getting all stakeholders involved in participation, engaging them in serious discussion and, last but not the least, in working out an effective follow up plan for realising the objective. To cite a couple of initiatives taken by the government organisations during the interim period, it may be mentioned that the Star-labelling programme formulated by BEE under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 now covers 34 appliances, including the induction hobs, and EESL plans to initiate market-based interventions for Solar based Induction cooking solutions by leveraging Carbon financing for a financially and environmentally sustainable market model.

The Way Forward

Switching over to a cleaner fuel in any household is driven by the income of the household and the relative cost of the fuel. Due to the lower cost and easy availability of traditional fuels mainly biomass compared to modern fuels, the majority of households living below the poverty line continue to use them despite its negative effects on health and the environment. The Indian government’s landmark initiative under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana(PMUY) ensured access to clean energy for cooking for a large unprivileged population, but there are issues like accessibility, and affordability, leading to underutilization. Such issues like accessibility and affordability can be addressed through a holistic approach consisting of development of appropriate technology and deployment of alternate cost-effective and scalable clean-cooking devices/solutions with policy support from the government, innovative financing mechanisms, and creating an ecosystem for manufacturing electric cooking devices supported by its after sales service network. Since, India is now an electricity surplus nation with universal household electrification; adoption of eCooking will also help in better utilisation of power generation capacity available with utility companies who also have to play a major role in Demand Side regulation of electricity. Spreading awareness about clean cooking solutions among people also has to play a substantial role in this endeavour. Thus, transitioning to clean cooking will involve integrating demand aggregation, bulk procurement and leveraging economy of scale supported by strengthening of grid infrastructure and maximizing share of green energy on the supply side.

Accordingly, the Modern Energy Cooking Forum 2023 is being structured for panel and roundtable discussions on critical issues and challenges under multiple domains of Policy, Supply Chain, Finance and Consumers in transition to clean cooking in India.