From Sanction to Commissioning: The PM-KUSUM Project Execution Journey

PM-KUSUM's progress is usually measured through two numbers: how much capacity has been sanctioned and how much has been installed. What those numbers leave out is everything that happens in between. The execution journey between the two involves multiple project-level considerations.

Moving a project from sanction to a working, generating asset requires more than procurement and construction. It involves securing land, resolving right-of-way and right-of-use arrangements, establishing grid connectivity, working within rural distribution networks, ensuring component quality and having skilled resources available across construction and operations. Each of these constraints can influence project timelines, cost and ultimately the amount of electricity an asset delivers.

For developers, lenders and DISCOMs, the distinction matters. A sanctioned project represents potential capacity, while a commissioned and reliably operating project represents generation. The gap between the two is shaped by execution. These challenges arise both from external and system-level conditions and from internal project factors.

External and System Challenges

These arise from conditions largely outside a developer's direct control.

Grid Readiness in Rural Areas

PM-KUSUM projects depend on rural grid infrastructure for evacuation and generation. In peak agricultural zones, feeder downtime can disrupt plant economics. Inadequate 33/11 kV grid infrastructure further contributes to curtailment and interruptions in plant operations.

Remote monitoring is often hampered by poor telecom connectivity in rural locations, and transmission routing and grid connectivity constraints can delay plant integration. In some cases, a plant can be fully built and still unable to operate at its intended capacity until these are resolved.

This creates a gap between installed capacity and usable generation. A project can be physically complete while its actual output stays limited by the network it connects to.

Land Access and Right-of-Way

Securing land is only one part of getting a project ready for construction. Land leasing, aggregation, right-of-way (RoW) and right-of-use (RoU) arrangements can take time to resolve, particularly where projects involve multiple landowners, transmission corridors or additional statutory approvals.

Approvals for land use and corridor development often pass through multiple layers, from state authorities to local and panchayat-level bodies, and each layer can extend project timelines. Community resistance during land access or corridor development can also restrict site activity and hold up execution.

The impact is felt in both schedule and cost. Industry observations point to 30–40% of approved capacity being delayed due to land leasing and RoW challenges, while land costs in some cases have risen 25–30% above initial estimates, adding an estimated 5–8% to total project cost. Where tariff assumptions leave limited room for cost escalation, these increases can directly affect project economics.

Internal and Execution Challenges

These arise from aspects of the project largely within a developer's direct control.

Skilled Workforce Availability

Skilled workforce availability affects a project throughout its lifecycle, from design and installation to commissioning and maintenance. A shortage of trained workers at these stages can affect how a project is designed, constructed and operated.

At the design stage, limited technical expertise can result in suboptimal system sizing and configuration. Despite initiatives such as Surya Mitra, installation skill gaps persist, resulting in improper alignment, wiring and grounding that can compromise generation efficiency.

The requirement does not end once the plant is commissioned. It continues through operations and maintenance (O&M). Inadequate diagnostic skills can prolong fault identification and delay repairs, keeping equipment unavailable for longer and reducing plant uptime.

These issues are rarely visible when capacity is sanctioned. They emerge during construction and operation through lower generation, longer outages and the gap between expected and actual asset performance.

Component Quality and Procurement Practices

In competitively bid renewable projects, procurement decisions inevitably place significant attention on upfront cost. The engineering consideration is how to balance cost competitiveness with long-term performance.

In competitively bid renewable projects, procurement decisions inevitably place significant attention on upfront cost. The engineering consideration is how to balance cost competitiveness with long-term performance.

Quality variation across modules and Balance of System (BoS) components, including mounting structures, inverters, cables and other electrical equipment, can influence reliability and maintenance requirements over the asset's operating life. Vendor capability and after-sales support also matter, particularly for projects located across dispersed rural areas, where service response times and spare-part availability can affect plant uptime.

Domestic sourcing requirements can also shape the available supplier base, which makes early supplier evaluation an important part of procurement planning.

For developers operating under competitive tariffs, the lowest upfront procurement cost does not necessarily represent the lowest lifecycle cost. Component selection needs to consider performance, reliability, warranty support and the conditions under which the equipment will operate.

How Above Challenges Affect Generation and Returns

The above execution challenges are manageable individually, but their effects become more significant when they occur together. Their impact becomes visible in different ways as a project moves from construction into operation.

Grid-related constraints have the most direct effect on generation. Feeder downtime and curtailment can reduce usable output by an estimated 15–25%, even when assets are fully built. RoW and RoU approvals can delay energisation and extend project timelines, potentially triggering PPA penalties or reducing effective revenues. Skilled labour shortages can affect generation through inconsistent installation practices and slower repairs, while variations in component quality can reduce performance over the operating life of the plant.

These effects ultimately reach the economics of the wider PM-KUSUM ecosystem and are felt across its stakeholders. Lower generation can erode developer IRR, affect farmer income stability and influence DISCOM confidence in decentralised solar programmes.
 

*Challenges and observations discussed in this article are indicative and may vary by state, site conditions and PM-KUSUM component.