Indian Railways goes green! Delhi’s Anand Vihar Terminal railway station saves lakhs with solar power

Under Indian Railways’ mega project of making railway stations across India solar-powered, solar panels were installed at Anand Vihar Terminal railway station. The date of commissioning was October 2017.

Indian Railways’ Anand Vihar Terminal railway station (ANVT) in Delhi is setting a benchmark with the use of solar-power! Apart from getting the tag of ‘silver-green’ station, Anand Vihar Terminal railway station is saving cost, cutting down on Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and becoming a model for other Indian Railways stations to follow. Anand Vihar Terminal railway station is a key railway station in Delhi-NCR. With average footfalls of 1 lakh per day, it caters mainly to the east-bound trains traversing through highly-populated states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

Under Indian Railways’ mega project of making railway stations across India solar-powered, solar panels were installed at Anand Vihar Terminal railway station. The date of commissioning was October 2017. These solar panels have a capacity of 800 KWP with average solar power generation per month stands at 72000 KWh. The number of modules, inverters, ACDB is 3200, 16 and 3 respectively, according to Indian Railways’ documents accessed by Financial Express Online.

Environment-friendly, cost-effective: Installing solar panels always has two advantages – environment friendliness and cost-effectiveness. Anand Vihar Terminal railway station is achieving its target on both fronts. The savings in CO2 emission stand at 59.04 ton. The SEB average rate per unit is 10.09. BSES provides electricity to Anand Vihar Railway station at a cost of Rs 6.50 per unit. After installing the solar panels, the rate of solar energy is Rs 4.14 per unit, Joginder Singh, Senior Section Engineer, Anand Vihar Terminal Railway Station told Financial Express Online. The cut down in energy cost has led to a monthly saving of Rs 7,26,480, as per the Indian Railways documents.

The electricity demand in the day time is fulfilled by solar energy and during the night time, if needed, BSES supplies the electricity. The surplus power generation is sent to a common grid which is connected to other Indian Railways stations in Delhi-NCR. The power is used if there is a requirement at those stations. The total cost of installation was borne by the company which was entrusted with the responsibility even as Indian Railways has only provided the space, Singh said. The maintenance of these solar panels would be done by Solar Power Developer (SPD) for 25 years, Indian Railways document said.

Source: financialexpress