On 27th August 2020, Indian Railways organised a discussion over a wide range of topics with the stakeholders, chaired by Piyush Vedprakash Goyal, Union Minister of Railways, to become 100% self-sustainable for all its energy needs and to contribute to the National Solar Mission of India. Indian Railways is set to meet its energy consumption which will be over 33 billion units by 2030.
Note:
The discussion is aimed to achieve the ambitious plan of Indian Railways to achieve 100% Electrification of Railways by 2023.
The current annual energy requirements of Indian Railways are around 21 billion units.
Key Stakeholders:
Adani, ACME, NTPC Limited, Renew Power, Hero Future Energies, Greenko Group, Azure Power, Tata Power, Avaada, SPRNG Energy and Vikram Solar were the key stakeholders that participated in the meeting.
Topics Discussed:
i.Innovative solutions for establishing solar projects along the rail track.
ii.Possible power procurement routes for achieving the target of 20 GW renewable energy.
iii.Challenges of Indian Railways in large scale deployment of solar energy projects.
Targets:
i.Utilisation of solar power will help to achieve the transformation of Indian Railways to Net Zero Carbon Emission Railways by 2030.
ii.Indian Railways is committed to make use of solar energy to meet its traction power requirements and become a complete green mode of transport.
iii.Apart from making green Indian Railways this will also contribute to the Atma Nirbhar bharat mission.
Key Points:
i.Indian Railways has developed a mega plan to install solar power plants of capacity 20 Gigawatt(GW) by utilising vacant lands by 2030.
ii.Indian Railways will extend support to the developers for installing solar power plants in the vacant encroached land.
iii.Developers will construct and maintain the boundary walls along the tracks to keep out the trespassers from the tracks.
iv.Railways Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL) invited bids for the 3GW solar project in the vacant lands of Indian Railways and land parcels along the rail tracks.
v.by adopting modern indigenous technology to create energy self-reliant Indian Railways will contribute toward achieving the renewable energy targets of India and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions(INDCs).
Other Project of Indian Railways:
i.The pilot project of capacity 1.7 megawatt(MW) with direct connectivity to the 25 kilovolts(kV) traction system in Bina, Madhya Pradesh has become successfully operational.
ii.A 3 MW solar plant has been commissioned for a non-traction application at the Modern Coach Factory(MCF) Raebareli, Uttar pradesh.
iii.The 2MW projects at Diwana(Haryana) and 50 KW project at Bhilai(Chattisgarh) are in progress to provide connectivity with State Transmission Utility(STU) and Central Transmission Utility(CTU) respectively.
Recent Related News:
i.Indian railways created a benchmark by setting a new world history on the successful running of the first Double-decker Container Train with a contact wire of 7.57-metre height on its high reach pantograph in the high rise Over Head Equipment (OHE) electrified territory on the western railway from Palanpur and Botad stations in Gujarat.
ii.Indian Railways(IR) operationalised its 1st 12,000 horsepower(hp) electric made in India Locomotive(loco), WAG12(with Number 60027) from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Station (Mughalsarai Junction), Uttar Pradesh to Shivpur. It is manufactured by Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd.(MELPL) Factory, Bihar.
About Ministry of Railways:
Union Minister– Piyush Goyal
Minister of State– Suresh Angadi Channabasappa
