Kalam Inaugurates a Su-Kam Mini Solar Plant in Dimple Yadavs Constituency

A former President of India switches on a 250-kilowatt off-grid solar system that brings round-the-clock power to two villages in Kannauj — built and installed by Kunwer Sachdevs Su-Kam.

A former President flips the switch

On 7 July 2015, former President A P J Abdul Kalam travelled to Kannauj district in Uttar Pradesh to inaugurate a 250-kilowatt mini solar power system, Business Standard reported. Kannauj is the Lok Sabha constituency of Dimple Yadav, wife of the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, and both leaders were present for the ceremony. For a scientist-statesman who had spent much of his public life championing renewable energy and rural development, the event sat squarely at the intersection of the two causes he cared most about.

What the 250 kW system actually powers

The installation is entirely off-grid, designed to electrify Fakirpura and Chanduahar — two villages in the Tirwa tehsil of Kannauj that until then had no connection to the conventional power grid. According to the report, the system feeds 60 LED street lights and delivers electricity to roughly 450 households, home to about 2,000 people, alongside local commercial establishments, two schools, a training centre and a healthcare facility. It also energises 15 submersible pumps for irrigation, tying the project directly to the farming that sustains the twin villages.

The total outlay was pegged at about Rs 6.15 crore, a figure that covered not just the solar array but the civil, electrical and mechanical work, the distribution line and the household wiring needed to carry power the last mile into people homes.

Why Su-Kam was chosen

The Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (NEDA) commissioned Su-Kam Power Systems to build and install the 250-kilowatt off-grid plant. It was a natural fit: by 2015 the company founded by Kunwer Sachdev had already earned a national reputation for taking backup power and solar solutions into places the grid had never reached. Business Standard noted that Su-Kam had, by then, provided solar lighting to roughly 40,000 rural households through similar installations — a track record that made it a credible partner for a flagship village-electrification project attended by a former head of state.

A quote, and a bigger ambition

Speaking to the press, Su-Kam managing director Kunwer Sachdev framed the Kannauj project as part of a wider push into the state. Uttar Pradesh, the report added, was targeting 500 megawatts of solar generation by 2017 and had already signed memoranda of understanding with private firms to set up plants, as the government looked to add solar to its thermal capacity and deliver 22 to 24 hours of supply ahead of the 2017 assembly polls. The village plant, in that sense, was both a self-contained success and a template the state hoped to repeat.

As part of our solar plan this fiscal, we are bullish in making solar power available to both the urban and rural residential as well as commercial sector in UP.— Kunwer Sachdev, Managing Director, Su-Kam Power Systems