Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Plug Power Energy India, a subsidiary of the leading U.S.-based fuel cell manufacturer, Plug Power, on Friday entered into a fuel supply agreement for supply of liquefied petroleum has (LPG).
Under the five-year contract, HPCL will supply commercial LPG to Plug Power’s GenSys fuel cell systems powering remote cell towers in rural India, according to an official statement issued by HPCL here.
Earlier, Plug Power received an anchor order from WTTIL, the cell tower arm of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), for 200 GenSys systems to be installed at the TTSL cell tower sites by the end of March 2010.
To install 1,000 systems
The company expects to install around 1,000 systems by the end of 2010. HPCL will be providing the LPG fuel for the initial 200 installations, the release said. GenSys provides continuous power to cell tower sites with extremely unreliable electric grid service.
Around 10 per cent of the cell towers in India now operate completely off-grid where the primary power is provided by diesel generators.
HPCL is also evaluating the utilisation of GenSys prime power systems within its own infrastructure, including gasoline fuelling stations, community kitchens, pipelines and other potential applications.
