Railway station to save big with solar rooftop system
LUDHIANA: In a move which will annually save crores of rupees of the railway authorities, the Ludhiana railway station is all set to get a solar power system for generating 2 megawatt of power to fulfil its massive power requirement.
Presently, the electricity demand of the station is being fulfilled by a hotline of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, with an average of Rs 25 lakh monthly bill being paid by the railway station. Once the solar power plant on the rooftop of the railway station is fully operational, the bill will be cut by about 60%.
The plan to introduce rooftop solar panel technology for electricity generation at 8,000 railway stations, a massive project of the railway ministry, will provide the Northern Railway with around 20 Megawatt of solar power generation capacity, of which, Ludhiana railway station will receive around 2 Megawatt of solar energy system. For the speedy implementation of the project, a team of Azure Power Company, which has signed a contract with the railway ministry for the solar plant installation, visited the Ludhiana station to identify the suitable sites where the rooftop solar energy system would be set up.
Giving more information about the project, Ludhiana station director Abhinav Singla said, “Around 2 MW of power generating system will be received by the Ludhiana railway soon. It will cater to half of its present electricity needs. The solar photovoltaic cells will be installed on the rooftop of the main building and provide power to all the offices, power cabin, waiting hall, etc. It will also be installed on the roofs of the guest house and carriage and wagon (C&W) buildings. One of the major reasons behind the commencement of this project is to bring down the monthly energy bill and to reduce the dependence on power utilities.”
Senior section engineer (Powers) Brijraj said that last month, the railway authorities have paid Rs 26 lakh to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited for using their utility. In summer, the energy consumption is high as compared to winter. “The installation of solar energy system will definitely help in saving a huge amount,” he said.
Earlier, the Railways had planned to set up 500 Megawatt of solar energy system to meet the energy requirements of over 8,000 stations and the Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL) had first auctioned 67.38MW of rooftop solar project in August, 2017. Then in November last year , the firm tendered 32 MW rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, which will be installed at offices, buildings and railway stations at the zonal level.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
