Traditionally, India’s domestic fuel consumption was met with firewood. Over the years due to high indoor household pollution and health implications of firewood, LPG was adopted for domestic cooking with the help of many government schemes and subsidies. As of July 2022, over 2,895 lakh households in India and 217 lakh households in Tamil Nadu have access to LPG.

India currently relies on LPG export by 57%,  and the import dependence is slated to rise even more in the coming years. Considering the country’s high LPG prices, the instability in global trade and the high import dependency, the need to explore complementary and alternative energy sources for domestic and commercial cooking presents itself. Electric cooking is such an alternative, it is an easily adaptable and techno-commercially viable solution.

Electrical cooking cannot be scaled without universal access to reliable electricity supply. Electricity access has increased steadily from 56% in 2000 to 96% in 2020. As of 2022, 98% of Tamil Nadu’s population has access to electricity. The average daily electricity supply in Tamil Nadu is around 23 hours, both in the urban and rural areas.

With an adoption rate of 17%, Tamil Nadu stands as one of the states with the highest adoption of electric cooking in India. Electric cooking is majorly adopted by the urban households.

This paper explores the opportunities of partially replacing LPG cooking with electric cooking in Tamil Nadu.

An energy cost model that explores the cost savings of adapting electric cooking is presented.