In a bid to enhance its solar power generation, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is planning to commission four new plants at its various stations.
DMRC officials said three of the new solar panel systems will come up on the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli-Huda City Centre) at MG Road, Sikanderpur and Guru Dronacharya stations, whereas the fourth one will be on the Violet Line (ITO-Escorts Mujesar) at Sarai metro station.
The plants coming up on the Yellow Line will be of 50kW each and the one at Sarai metro station in the Faridabad section will be of 198kW, the DMRC officials said.
“The three systems on the Yellow line are being installed and the fourth one is ready for commissioning,” said an official.
The metro is also augmenting its installed capacity at the Yamuna Bank metro station, which also has a depot.
Apart form the existing 1500kW system at Yamuna Bank, two additional sets have been installed of 225kW and 100kW each at the depot and the station respectively.
So far, all agencies in the national Capital, put together, have an installed solar power capacity of only about 7MW, out of which 3.2MW is being generated by the DMRC alone.
Under the ongoing Phase-III plan, and subsequently in Phase-IV, the DMRC is planning to make every station self-sustaining to some extent with the help of solar energy.
As of now, the Delhi Metro’s total power requirement is 150MW, which is expected to increase to 250MW once Phase-III is operational. “Our target is to have an installed capacity of 20MW by 2016 and by 2021 it has to go up to 50MW,” said a senior DMRC official.
The DMRC has been looking to switch to solar power as its power bills have been increasing rapidly over the last few years.
Since it falls under the non-domestic and non-residential category of consumers, it has to pay a significantly higher tariff for the electricity consumed.
