In line with National initiative on Solar Mission, North Central Railway (NCR) has attached top priority to solar energy generation.
More details:
- Due to excellent upkeep, very close monitoring of operations of solar power plant & numerous innovative steps taken under Solar Mission-2021-22, the productivity of solar plants in North Central Railway in the year 2021-22 has been the highest among all the Zonal Railways.
- While in 2020-21 NCR generated 106 lakhs unit of energy using solar power, in the financial year 2021-22, 124 lakhs units of energy were generated using solar power, an improvement of 17% over last year.
- Not only it’s a big leap towards a larger goal of environment protection as solar energy is a greener source of energy, it has led to substantial savings in revenue too.
- NCR has achieved net revenue saving of Rs. 5.01 crores using solar power in the year 2021-22.
- While in financial year 2020-21, net revenue saving was Rs 3.97 crore, this year an improvement of 26% has been recorded in revenue saving by using solar energy.
- Importantly, this improvement has been done without incurring any extra expenditure.
- NCR has a total installed capacity of 11.03 MWp. While 120 kWp has been installed by the Railway, remaining 10882.34 kWp capacities has been installed by two major Solar Power Developers (SPD) Azure and ReNew on a PPP basis.
- Among the major places where roof top solar plants have been installed are station buildings, workshops, training schools, GM office and DRM office buildings.
- About 10500 tonnes of reduction in carbon emissions have been achieved by NCR using solar power in the year.
- Productivity of solar plants is measured in terms of Capacity utilization factor (CUF). NCR solar panels have recorded a CUF of 12.8 % during the year which is highest among all the seventeen zonal railways.
In order to promote solar energy, utmost importance is being given to maintenance of solar plants. Some of the steps taken are:
- Monitoring of Solar Energy generation is being done for each plant, inverter wise.
- Daily monitoring, instead of monthly, of Energy & CUF% of plants is being done.
- Defective/Decommissioned plants due to roof repairs, inverters, cables, etc. have been put right.
- Focused attention for quality cleaning of solar panels.
- Tree trimming in shadow affected zones.
- 25 points Solar Mission ready reckoner in pictorial form issued for education & sensitization of maintenance staff.
- Technical & practical useful educational videos on 25 topics in HINDI have been issued to field supervisors for enhancing their knowledge.
- Solar Diary introduced to SSEs for systematic documentation & focussed monitoring of energy & other important data in a structured manner.
Future plan for solar installations in NCR:
- Long term plan: Work of installation of Solar Power Plants of 1.86 MWp on roof top, 46.25 MWp on vacant lands near Railway stations (around 185 acres acres) and 249 MWp on vacant lands along the railway tracks (around 1320 acres) falling under Golden Diagonal & Golden Quadrilateral (GD & GQ) over NCR by Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL) has already been planned.
- Planning for this year: 1.5 MWp of solar plants are targeted to be installed in the current financial year.
Source: North Central Railway- Press Release | Image Credit (representational): Pixabay
