CHENNAI: In a major effort to completely switch to renewable energy, the Chennai Metro Water Board will set up a one mega watt (MW) solar plant at Chembarambakkam water treatment plant soon. Officials said the plant will be set up on a trial basis by next month. This is being done in collaboration with the National Institute of Wind Energy. Installation of solar plants up to 25 MW is one of the 10 goals of the board, for this year.
“Our goal is to totally switch to green power generation and consumption. We also want to reduce our power usage by 20-25% in the next two years and to run water treatment plant using only solar power. If this works, we will extend this to other plants,” added the official. Other than this, the board also plans to install biogas units at eight sewage treatment plants (STPs) by May 2021, so that they are not dependent on thermal power. Out of the 12 STPs operated by the board, four (Koyambedu, Kodungaiyur, Nesapakkam and Perungudi) are run completely on power generated by in-house biogas units.
Last week, the biogas unit at the 110 MLD Kodungaiyur STP, clocked one lakh functional hours and had generated 55,550 MW of power. “As this STP was not run on thermal power from TANGEDCO, we managed to save nearly `26 crore. Currently, renovation works are going on at eight STPs and biogas units will be fitted,” said an official. As sludge generated in the plants is very rich in methane gas content, which is fed into the gas engine generators. It convert biogas into electricity. “We are the first public utility to achieve this. The Kodungaiyur unit has been functional since 2006 and has been working double its lifespan,” concluded the official.