Cooking Energy Security in India – Electric Cooking
Why this matters now
India’s cooking energy system has entered a moment of strategic importance. In the last two days, news reports from multiple cities have pointed to public inconvenience, panic buying, black-market diversion, restaurant distress, and visible queues at LPG agencies amid supply concerns linked to West Asia tensions. Andhra Pradesh eateries have reported steep supply drops and fear closures.
Delhi vendors have raised concerns over rising commercial LPG costs and shortages; and district administration had to publicly appeal against hoarding while acting against diversion and black marketing. These are early warning signs of a broader cooking-energy vulnerability that affects households, workers, food systems, and inflation.
This is not only a fuel-supply issue. Cooking energy sits at the intersection of energy security, household welfare, women’s health, public service delivery, and climate transition. India has built one of the world’s largest clean-cooking access platforms through PMUY, with 32.94 crore active domestic LPG consumers as of 1 March 2025, including 10.33 crore PMUY beneficiaries.
The Cabinet has also continued targeted subsidy support of Rs 300 per cylinder with an budget outlay of Rs 12,000 crore for PMUY beneficiaries in FY 2025–26. At the same time, government data shows PMUY refill use has improved, but sustained affordability and continuity remain central concerns, this shows the success of the scheme, which further leads to the people will use LPG or better cooking fuel such as electric or solar.
Cooking Energy Security : Recent Development in Clean Cooking
India’s cooking-energy landscape has evolved in three important ways. First, LPG access has deepened and become socially embedded through PMUY expansion and subsidy support, which means any disruption now has wider political and welfare consequences than before.
Second, the policy foundation for electric cooking has strengthened while India becoming Power Surplus nation. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has launched a GoElectric campaign to promote Electric cooking & EV; notified star-labelling programme for induction stoves under compulsory regime and EESL launched the National Efficient Cooking Programme in late 2023, positioning induction cooking as an affordable and efficient clean-cooking pathway.
Third, India’s broader energy-transition architecture has shifted decisively toward electrification. NITI Aayog’s 2026 power-sector report says India’s development and climate goals increasingly hinge on electricity and that the net-zero pathway depends on rapid electrification of end-use sectors, with reliable, affordable, cleaner electricity acting as a core lever for economy-wide decarbonisation and reduced fossil-fuel imports and recognised gas as transitionary cooking fuel.
Together, these changes mean cooking can no longer be treated as a standalone welfare issue. It must now be treated as part of India’s energy-security and net-zero strategy.
Why Government should care now
The structural reason is import dependence. If India remains heavily dependent on LPG for the next phase of clean cooking, then household energy security stays exposed to shipping risks, geopolitical shocks, and global price volatility. NITI’s power-sector outlook explicitly links electrification with lower fossil-fuel imports and stronger energy security. Electrifying a meaningful share of cooking is therefore not only a climate move; it is a strategic economic and security move.
The developmental reason is that cooking energy affects women most directly. PMUY itself has been framed by Government as a women’s empowerment intervention, with reported time savings and social benefits. A resilient cooking transition that combines LPG with electricity can protect these gains while reducing household exposure to price shocks and supply interruptions.
Cooking with electricity by 2030
A national target of 25% of households using electricity for cooking by 2030 is ambitious but increasingly plausible. It has already appeared in energy-transition discourse through the ETAC report discussions reported publicly, and it aligns directionally with India’s broader electrification-led net-zero pathway. This should be treated as a national transition goal to be tested and operationalised, not as a substitute for LPG overnight. The practical objective is diversification: LPG remains important, but electricity should become the second major pillar of India’s clean-cooking system.
A 25% electric-cooking pathway would help India in four ways: it would reduce import vulnerability, create a demand sink for cleaner domestic electricity, support rooftop solar and distributed-energy models, and lower lifecycle emissions from cooking as the grid gets cleaner.
Suggestions
Government should care because cooking energy is now a public convenience issue, a women’s welfare issue, an inflation issue, an energy-security issue, and a net-zero issue at the same time. The recent news cycle shows what happens when the system is stressed. The next disruption may be larger. India has the opportunity to use this moment to move from an LPG-dependent clean-cooking strategy to a more resilient LPG-plus-electricity strategy.
Additionally, eCooking represents a shift from flame-based to electricity-based cooking, which requires significant awareness and behaviour change. A strong promotional strategy is needed to address practical aspects such as compatible cookware for induction stoves and adequate kitchen power sockets, ensuring households can adopt and use the technology effectively.
Over the past five years, Finovista has actively supported the development of India’s electric cooking ecosystem through research, field pilots, policy inputs and implementation support. Our work has focused on modern energy cooking solutions, usability studies, institutional deployments, state engagement, and ecosystem building—generating evidence and practical models to inform large-scale government programmes.
This experience highlights that the challenge is no longer technological feasibility, but scaling adoption in a way that is affordable, practical, and policy-ready across diverse consumer segments. Electric cooking also requires sustained efforts in consumer awareness, behaviour change, compatible cookware, and kitchen adaptation to ensure effective use. As India seeks to diversify cooking energy and reduce LPG vulnerability, our experience can support a structured transition that combines technology deployment with user-centric adoption strategies, ultimately improving energy security while impacting every household’s daily life.