BENGALURU: By the beginning of November, 17 government buildings and 13 parks in Yediyur ward, south Bengaluru, will be lit up without using Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited’s (BESCOM) electricity supply. They will, instead, be drawing their own electricity from a biogas unit set up three years ago, which is undergoing expansion.
Husband of corporator Poornima Ramesh and former corporator of Yediyur, NR Ramesh, says, “The unit converts wet waste collected from residents into biogas, which contains methane that generates electricity. We also purchase cow dung from locals to add to the mixture. We will receive a generator and balloon digester unit from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) soon to store electricity. We are generating 250 kilo-watts, but needed larger storing facilities. Only 40 kilo-watts were used to power seven parks and ornamental street lights in the ward.”
The remaining power was sold back to BESCOM. However, with expanded capacity, all of it will be re-routed to power all government buildings and parks in the area.“Seventeen BBMP buildings, including a library, anganwadi, primary health centre, tailor training centre, ward office, Yediyur shopping complex, corporation school, computer training centre, dialysis centre and Samudaya Bhavan will be powered using biogas.
Thirteen parks, including the children’s play park, Navathare Badminton Academy, Chandavalliya Thota, Sanjeevini Vana and Dhanvanthari herbal parks, and more will also receive electricity from this unit. We will be saving Rs17,80,000 per month by not buying power from BESCOM,” he says, adding that a 60 kilo-watt solar power plant will also be installed on October 25.
He explains that by the 12th day of storage, the wet waste gets converted into methane gas, which is collected in a sump. With the new generator and balloon digester coming in, the storage capacity will increase from 40 and 60 kilo-watts to 150 and 200 kilo-watts respectively.
A balloon digester is a plastic or rubber bag, which stores the biogas. Five tonnes of wet waste is collected and put into the biogas plant every day in this area. While the plant itself was set up in 2015 in South End Circle behind the Ambara Chumbana clock tower, the capacity of the semi-digestor (that breaks down the waste into smaller pieces) was increased in January this year.