The Nagpur division of South Eastern Central Railway (SECR) has adopted use of solar panels to fulfill some of its energy needs. SECR has installed 3200 solar panels on the roof tops of its administrative office, rest house, running room and a number of level crossings. Power generated from the solar panels is used at all these places during the day time generation hours.
Two years back, SECR had set a target of generating 211 KWP solar energy, which has helped it to save expenses towards energy to Rs 25 lakh. In the year 2018-19, SECR has succeeded to save Rs 35 lakh taking its generation capacity to 961 KWP. The work to increase the installed capacity by 3,816 KWP is in progress, which is expected to be complete by end of this month. As a result, SECR is expecting that its total installed capacity would reach 4,777 KWP, which would save Rs 2.5 crore.
Moreover, a 50 MWP solar plant is being tendered by REMCL for traction power, which would further save Rs 25 crore per year. The initiative will not only bring down the energy bills but also make the environment pollution free.
SECR has also initiated a move to replace the conventional light fittings with LED. Under the initiative, all the active stations have 100 per cent LED lights. Similarly, gauge conversion is in progress on large scale at 53 stations of Nagpur division. All these stations would have LED lighting. This would save 13.85 lakh unit of power ultimately saving Rs 1.18 crore.
