Are Indian Homes Ready for Electric Cooking?

Key Findings

• Around five per cent of Indian homes use eCooking devices, with a higher prevalence in urban areas (10.3 per cent) than rural areas (2.7 per cent). Induction cookstoves and rice cookers are the most popular devices, each used by nearly 40 per cent of the eCooking users, followed by microwave ovens.
• eCooking use is concentrated among wealthier households in India, and around 85 per cent of the eCooking users belong to the top-five wealth deciles.
• At the state level, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have the highest proportion of eCooking users (17 per cent), followed by Telangana, Kerala, and Assam (more than 10 per cent). However, most northern, western, and eastern states in India have a very low rate of eCooking use.
• Only half of the eCooking users in India use it on a daily basis, and 93 per cent of them rely on LPG or piped natural gas (PNG) as their primary cooking fuel.
• Around 60 per cent of the eCooking users perceive that it would be feasible for them to transition to eCooking entirely. However, non-users of eCooking displayed high scepticism, and only one-third of them perceive eCooking as a feasible option to meet all of their cooking needs.

Few Indian households think eCooking would be cheaper than other alternatives

• With increase in LPG prices, e-Cooking is increasingly becoming cost-effective. At an unsubsidised LPG refill cost of INR 800 (USD 11) per cylinder, eCooking would be operationally cheaper for households paying an electricity tariff of less than INR 6.6 (USD 0.09) per kWh. However, the high upfront investment on buying an eCooking device and compatible utensils (INR 2,500–4,000 or USD 34–52) would act as a barrier for most Indian homes in their transition to eCooking.

Households getting subsidised electricity would typically find eCooking more cost-effective than LPG

Key Recommendations

• Support research and development of energy efficient, low-cost devices to make eCooking affordable. In parallel, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) should bring fast-growing appliances like rice cookers and induction cookstoves under the standards and labelling programme.
• Devise financing solutions to stimulate demand for eCooking devices. Discoms with surplus power could collaborate with financial institutions to enable credit-linked adoption.
• Ensure reliable and quality electricity services to enable households to rely on electricity for cooking without a backup.
• Conduct in-depth studies to capture the household experience and perception of eCooking under diverse social contexts, which in turn could help guide future policy interventions.