Modern Energy Cooking Forum Research Session – highlights

By Dr. Nick Rousseau (Loughborough University).

As part of this year’s MEC Forum in India, we organised a parallel track where academics or practitioners could present their work on eCooking and the lessons emerging from these. The edited video of these sessions is available here and below, which includes some of the insightful and valuable discussion that each presentation stimulated.

In this blog post, I highlight a few interesting insights and link to the slides that the presenters shared.

We would be interested in your thoughts on whether this should become a regular feature of the MEC Forum, as a rare opportunity for academics working on eCooking to come together and share their research.

The presentations were:

Findings – Evidence-based approach to assess the energy transition in the residential cooking sector in India by Dr. Rudrodip Majumdar, Assistant Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies.

eCooking – EnDev Bangladesh by Ms. Puja Saha, Junior Energy Advisor, GIZ Bangladesh.

Enabling electric cooking ecosystem in rural India – Case study of Bihar by Prof. Jayendran Venkateswaran, Professor, IIT Mumbai.

Challenges and opportunities of promoting electric cooking in India by Mr. Sunil Mani, Advisor, International Institute for Sustainable Development, et al.

A few useful quotes from these studies that I feel could be significant…

Evidence-based approach to assess the energy transition in the residential cooking sector in India

A survey of over 900 diverse and representative households (69% were from either Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Groups or Scheduled Tribes, with 56% on income less than 25,000 INR a month) across Bengaluru in Karnataka, southern India, found:

• While most stated that they primarily/exclusively cooked with LPG, 57% owned some form of eCooking appliance – microwave oven, rice cooker, induction stove, bread toaster, sandwich maker.
• While many would be eligible for the Govt LPG subsidy scheme PMUY, only 10.5% of the exclusive LPG users were signed up for this.
• 33% stated they used more than 6 LPG cylinders a year, most used fewer and 30% use 4 or less.
• 48% are aware of eCooking appliances and feel they are aware of the benefits and challenges, but 34% are aware of the appliances but lack knowledge of the benefits/challenges – 18% are not even aware of the appliances.
• 33% stated they would like to purchase an electric cooking appliance with a further 29% responding “maybe”.
• The main benefit people see in eCooking is speed and convenience with only 7% expecting it to save them money.
• The main concerns expressed about eCooking were increase to electricity bill and safety risks.
• 64% have only one small plug point in the kitchen and only 23% have 2 or 3. While nearly 50% have one large plug point (for higher loads) the other 50% have none.

eCooking – EnDev Bangladesh

• To promote e-cooking, EnDev used a Results-Based Financing (RBF) mechanism to incentivise sales by Walton and ATEC, two established manufacturers and distributors of e-cooking appliances, in the Khulna region of Bangladesh.
• Walton promoted rice cookers, induction cookers, and infrared cookers, while ATEC specifically promoted induction cookers.
• In 2023, EnDev reached 26,120 people with e-cooking appliances under the RBF mechanism. On the demand side, Endev worked with Practical Action on awareness-raising campaigns, promoting the benefits of high-quality eCooking appliances and reached 25,000 households.
• In their Independent Verification of installed stoves they found that:
  – The gender split of eCooking users was 41% male and 59% female and 43% aged 31-40, 35% aged 21-30. Older and younger groups were much less involved.
  – The gender balance in decisions to buy cooking appliances shifted significantly subsequent to the programme – before it, most decisions were made by both male/female (52%) and only 27% just by the women, while after it this was reversed with 52% made by women alone and 27% by both.
  

Enabling electric cooking ecosystem in rural India – Case study of Bihar

IIT Mumbai has been running a supply chain pilot in rural Bihar funded by MECS since August 2023 with its partner, J-WIRES. They have trained up Clean Cooking Champions and established outlets where households can buy induction stoves with cooking vessels or Electric Pressure Cookers, for 4,700 INR. The service includes home visits to ensure the electric sockets are suitable and provide further training to the cooks. They are using energy consumption meters to monitor actual usage of the appliances, where the households are willing.

• To date over 6,000 women attended awareness raising events including over 40 cooking demonstrations, and this generated over 1,000 potential customers – leading to nearly 200 sales.
• They conducted a baseline survey (n=137) of households – 66% of the respondents have a Below Poverty Line card, with average household income 11,000 INR.
• They found:
  – 38% of participants find biomass cookstoves difficult to use, with only 35% reporting ease of use.
  – 91% of LPG stove users find them easy to operate, indicating a strong preference for this fuel type.
• About eCooking appliances:
  – 89% of users appreciate that electric stoves eliminate smoke, enhancing indoor air quality.
  – 76% find electric stoves very convenient, with 58% noting significant time savings in cooking.
  – 40% feel electric stoves are very safe, and 18% report cleaner kitchens and walls, reducing maintenance efforts.
• All households have an electricity connection, and the average electricity supply available in each house is 19 hours
• On average, respondents spend 2 hours each time they go for collection of wood.
• Respondents spend 500 INR on buying firewood every month
• With the data loggers they found average consumption per day per household is 0.81 kWh

Challenges and opportunities of promoting electric cooking in India

This presentation included a review of the cost of LPG usage and the opportunity from reducing this to divert Govt funds to promote eCooking, and a report of a qualitative study of eCooking challenges of 100 urban and rural households in 5 states. 

Costs to Government of LPG provision

Key findings included:

• GoI provided INR 40,000 crore (~USD 5 billion) every year as LPG subsidies in the last 10 years, the main elements of this being:
  – Support for running LPG subsidies through the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG consumer (DBTL) scheme
  – Subsidies supporting LPG access for poor rural households through Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). PMUY led to increase in LPG coverage from 62% in May 2016 to ~100% in 2023 in India.
  – Keeping LPG market price for domestic consumers below the actual cost (GoI provided compensation to the OMCs for the loss).
  – GST concessions & custom duty exemptions
• LPG consumption is increasingly exceeding domestic production (see figures).

Key findings from survey regarding the use of eCooking:

• Urban households living reported positive experiences with eCooking usage (especially, in states with lower electricity tariff):
  – Ecookstoves can be used to cook most of the meals (with some exceptions such as Chapati or Baingan ka bharta)
• As per the e-cookstove users in urban cities:
  – Ecookstoves cost in the range between INR 1500 to INR 2800 (limited affordability barrier in urban metropolitan cities)
  – It is convenient and safe to use compared to LPG
  – The food tastes similar to that cooked on LPG
• Due to the power supply of 20+ hours everyday for most of the year, it is an effective clean cooking solution in the urban areas.
  – However, consumers also highlighted that in summers, the frequency of power cuts increases, especially during peak hours, which can affect eCooking usage frequency (and consumer perceptions).
• In rural areas, very few households are even willing to shift to eCooking:
  – Poor situation of power supply & high cost of eCookstoves + utensils are highlighted as the most important concerns
  – Lack of awareness about advantages of eCooking and about its operations & maintenance
  – Perception about eCooking as being complex and difficult to operate (mental barriers)
• Moving to a new place either for studies or employment plays a key role in opting for eCooking for students and young professionals (difficulty in getting an LPG connection)
• While for families, they purchased eCookstoves as a backup to LPG.
• Multiple other reasons for preferring e-cookstoves in urban cities:
  – Difficulty in bringing the LPG connection for people moving between states.
  – Incentives given for electricity use (such as Gruh Jyothi scheme, which provides free electricity up to 200 units for every residential household of Karnataka).
  – Low maintenance and easy operation.
• Even though eCooking is more efficient than LPG (higher thermal efficiency), time taken to cook a single meal is relatively higher due to a single heating unit.
• Foods that require flame (such as Chapatis or Baingan bharta) cannot be cooked on the eCookstove without modifications.
• New utensils (which are often more expensive) are required for eCookstoves, which are seen as an extra cost by households, and sometimes act as a barrier to eCooking adoption.
• Even though users are comfortable using the eCookstove, it still takes time for them to get acquainted with the temperatures for specific cooking activity.
• Scientific literature suggests that eCooking has higher emission intensity as compared to LPG and PNG suggesting we should prioritise eCooking in states with higher renewable energy penetration.

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Featured image, top: Ms. Puja Saha, Junior Energy Advisor, GIZ Bangladesh, gives the talk ‘eCooking – EnDev Bangladesh’ at the Research Session on eCooking, Modern Energy Cooking Forum 2024 (image credit: Finovista).