Coimbatore Corporation will soon commission a 3.6mW solar power plant, Commissioner Sravan Kumar Jatavath told reporters here on Wednesday. Though the deadline for commissioning the ₹ 17.8- crore plant was June, the Corporation hoped to complete the work by February or March.
The plant would take the total power the civic body generated to 5.6mW, as it had already two one mW plants in Ukkadam and Kavundampalayam.
The Corporation had proposed to use the power generated at the plant to offset the power it consumed to run the water treatment plant at Velliangadu, just as it was using the power generated from the Ukkadam 1mW plant.
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Mr. Jatavath said the Corporation chose to use the solar power generated to offset the consumption at the water treatment plant because the charges the Tangedco levied for the HT line at the plant was higher than it charged for LT consumption.
With the 15 lakh units a month the Corporation generated, the civic body had saved around ₹ 45 lakh in power consumption. If it had offset the generation against any LT consumption, the savings would have been less, he explained.
If the Corporation had any surplus power left to offset from the 3.6mW plant, it would use the same for other HT consumptions like sewage treatment plant.
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Mr. Jatavath said the Corporation recently won an award from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for its solar projects because it not only invested in renewable energy but also used a land that was reclaimed to commission the plant.
The land reclaimed was earlier a sewage farm, he added.