Three railway stations in Vijayawada division get ‘energy neutral’ status

The SCR officials said these stations were capable of meeting 100 per cent energy requirements through solar photovoltaic (SPV) panels commissioned on the station buildings.
For representational purposes (File Photo |EPS)
For representational purposes (File Photo |EPS)

VIJAYAWADA: In its push for the use of green energy, the SCR has developed three railway stations in Kadiyam, Dwarapudi and Godavari in the Vijayawada division have been developed as ‘energy neutral’ stations by the South Central Railway (SCR).

The SCR officials said these stations were capable of meeting 100 per cent energy requirements through solar photovoltaic (SPV) panels commissioned on the station buildings. In all, 13 such stations have been developed in the SCR zone, among which three are in the Vijayawada division.

SCR spokesperson Ch Rakesh on Thursday said the concept of ‘energy neutral’ stations was based on the principle of developing railway station buildings with solar power units, thereby tapping into capabilities commensurate with exact load requirements of those particular stations.

This was done by installation of SPV panels on the rooftops, which were integrated with the on-grid/off-grid solar energy plants to provide power to the entire station. The total capacity of solar panels installed at these 13 stations was 99 kWp with the cost incurred, being around Rs 50 lakh.

With anticipated energy generation from these stations coming to around 1.3 lakh units annually, it is expected that solar power will also lead to savings of Rs 13 lakh per year. In addition, the generation of clean solar energy enables reducing carbon footprints to the tune of 1170-tonne per annum.

"All the power needs of the energy neutral stations like lighting, fans, pumps and other electrical appliances are met through the solar energy, thereby bringing down the net traditional energy consumption at these stations to zero. Like the electric traction power required for running of trains in electrified sections, railway stations and service buildings of the Railways too depend on conventional energy sources, mostly linked to drawal of coal-based power from thermal plants, water based hydro electric power etc," Rakesh said.  

SCR General Manager Gajanan Mallya said the zone had made a great push towards green energy sourcing for Railways and significantly reducing carbon footprint. Until now, SCR had commissioned 8.2 mWp solar power plants, 1.75 kWp solar hybrid plants, 2.18 lakh LPD solar water heating, 570 kWp water pumping and 52 KW equivalent day pipe light system in offices.

In the recent past, SCR had also earned recognition for developing ‘solar roof’ for Kamareddy Railway Station booking office in Hyderabad Division, which signifies adoption of a design model to seamlessly induct SPV panels as the roof of the buildings.

Likewise, a "solar cover over platform" has also been developed at Vijayawada Railway Station, which signifies designing of the platform roof incorporating SPV panels. The GM also emphasized on the fact that SCR being located in hot terrain held the advantage of utilizing the climatic conditions to abundantly tap solar energy.

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