According to press release, the ministry of power has attempted to develop a framework for operationalizing Decentralized Distributed Generation projects through which the DDG and renewable project developers will get a boost.

This will ensure that energy needs of remote village and hamlets are met through scaleable, replicable and technologically and financially efficient models. Developers could be State agencies, private sector developers, NGOs and other institutions.

The potential energy developers are encouraged to apply for setting up DDG projects on a transparent and technically and economically efficient basis.

The Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, a Flagship scheme of Government aims to electrify 115,000 villages and provides free electrification to 2.34 crore BPL households in the country. 62,000 villages have been electrified and 6 million BPL households have been given free connections so far.

The Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana has set aside INR 540 crore subsidy for electrification of hamlets and habitations which are not being covered under the scheme on account of their remote locations through Decentralized Distributed Generation scheme a sub component of RGGVY. DDG aims at utilizing suitable technologies which are locally available for generation of electricity and distributing the same in the nearby hamlets and habitations.

By nature, such projects rely more on small hydro and renewables. Though there have been some attempts at meeting the energy needs of villages through renewable in the past, the same have not been scaled up to operate at a larger scale by proving technical and economical viability of the implementation models. Ministry of Power has come out with transparent set of guidelines, standardized format for preparation of DDG projects and guidelines for procurement of goods and services for implementation for rural electrification projects under DDG.

9The scheme aims at identifying such developers, who will be able to meet the village and hamlet electricity requirements on a sustainable basis for a period of 5 years and the selection of the developers will be on basis of least viability gap funding. The details of the scheme and all other relevant documents are available at website