Power cuts may not deter works at Aduthurai railway station near Kumbakonam hereafter. Wind -powered unreserved ticketing system has been introduced at the station, thanks to a windmill put up by Coimbatore based Viviann Wind generators. Energy from the windmill can run the UPS, provide skeletal lighting at the station and help signal operations.
Southern Railway General Manager Deepak Kishan, who inaugurated the windmill on Friday, said that depending upon its success, many more may be put up at various stations. Southern Railway has wind farms in Madurai and Tirunelveli.
“Wind energy is godsend and we have to utilise it,” he said.
According to B.K.Shivakumar, Chairman, and Vimal Arockyaraj Vincent, Managing Director of Vivian Electric, a wind energy generator of 2KW capacity is erected atop a 20-metre tall tower.
The wind data of Aduthurai is encouraging. If the wind speed is above 3m/sec, it starts generating AC voltage with a variable frequency which is rectified to DC voltage and then inverted to 230 V single phase 50 Hz.
It has a battery backup during low wind time. The UTS application requires 600 W.
“We have also provided hybrid street light to rain drop boat house at Mudaliarkuppam, off East Coast Road, near Chennai,” they said.
Railway officials said that it has been proposed to provide a 1-KW capacity solar power supply system at TPTN station in Tiruchirapalli to supply power to the lighting circuits of station building.
A solar system has also been provided for the operation of the ticket checking system at Thirunageswaram railway station. Ticket systems are operated with electrical load of around 1KVA. It is fed through UPS supply with four hours battery backup.
Many of the railway stations in Tiruchirapalli division fall under rural distribution network of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and there is a regular power cut of two hours per day in addition to unscheduled power cuts.
As a result of these power cuts, the UPS battery gets discharged for certain period of time each day and may not get charged fully in the remaining hours. To overcome this, one 500 VA capacity of solar system based inverter has been provided to cater for power requirement of UTS during power shut down, officials said.
