Northern Railway is on a green drive in keeping with the motto of reduce, reuse and recycle. As part of its green agenda, it is trying to meet as much of its energy needs through solar power as possible.
“As a significant step towards a solar power revolution within Northern Railway, the solar power plant at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra railway station is meeting energy needs of 5,000 kilowatt (kW) daily,” a Northern Railway spokesperson said.
The one Megawatt Peak (MWP) rooftop grid-connected solar power plant at the station is the largest rooftop solar power plant in the Indian Railways network and the largest in Jammu & Kashmir.
Northern Railway now plans to replicate the success story at New Delhi railway station, Delhi Cantonment station, Gurgaon station, Delhi Divisional Railway Manager’s office, Sahibabad station and other stations and offices.
“In keeping with our objective to resort to more eco-friendly measures and strengthen the mechanism to cater to energy demands, Northern Railway has installed a 25 kB power Solar Energy Panel at Gurgaon station in collaboration with RITES,” he said.
“Apart from these, we have also installed solar geysers at Northern Railway Central Hospital,” he said.
The Northern Railway is also planning on rooftop solar panels on trains to cut diesel consumption on trains.
“The use of solar power as a near-consistent and reliable source of energy has been a considered viewed, the Railway has been on a steady pursuit meeting energy needs through a planned green agenda,” he said.
The solar power plant at Katra has a capacity to generate 14.6 lakh units per annum.
“The accrued benefit envisaged was reduction of 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum and a saving of Rs.1 crore per annum on energy bills to the Railway,” he said.
Northern Railway has made an arrangement for import/export of excess energy production with Power Development Department of the J&K government.
“At present, out of 5,000 units produced only 1,700 to 1,800 units are utilised by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra railway station, whereas 3,200 to 3,300 units are exported to the Power Development Department of the J&K government,” he said.
“There are many stations in the Delhi Division that face regular power cuts and we plan to install solar power plants at most of them to tide over the power shortage,” said a senior Northern Railway official.
