CHANDIGARH: In a bid to tap its full resources and become a 100 percent renewable energy powered city, the Chandigarh administration has asked the union ministry of power to increase the quota of renewable power plants, on Saturday.
The administration has also urged the ministry to waive-off fixed charges to the tune of Rs 50 crore that it owes for using non-renewable power plants.
Ministry of new and renewal energy (MNRE) has set December 31 as deadline for UT to transform into a 100 percent renewable energy powered city. The department has purchased the required power from central generating stations, which include hydro, thermal and nuclear power stations as the UT electricity department does not generate power on its own. For this purpose, it has inked long-term purchase pacts with the power stations for which it will be liable to pay fixed charge to each generating station in addition to actual cost of power purchased.
Chandigarh electricity department caters to more than 2 lakh consumers with an annual energy consumption of around 1,600 million units (MU). In order to meet the power demand, which is estimated to be around 400 megawatts (MW), the department has purchased about 202 MW from hydro stations, 80 MW has been inducted from thermal power plants, while 10 MW is procured from nuclear power stations. The electricity department has written to power ministry to transfer the power quota, which it gets from non-renewable power stations to renewable power stations.
The department has also urged the ministry to waive-off the fixed charges of which amount to Rs 50 crore, which it will have to pay to the thermal power plants even if it does not purchase power from them.
MP Singh, UT superintending engineer, said, “Chandigarh can become the first city in the country to work on 100% renewable energy power. The present scenario scripts that around 68% of power used is being procured from hydro power stations. We have requested the power ministry to allocate around 30% more power from hydro power stations.
In addition, the administration has also requested the ministry of new and renewal energy (MNRE) to provide 40 MW of wind energy. “We are hopeful of achieving the target by end of this year,” said MP Singh.
MNRE has directed administration to prepare a master plan for achieving the target, including solar wind, biomass and waste for energy projects.
The UT division of ministry of home affairs (MHA) has been directed to regularly scrutinize the administration work to keep a tab on progress made in preparation of master plan.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
