Central Railway opts for clean & renewable energy for its traction requirement

Mumbai: In a first-of-its-kind in the Indian Railways, the Mumbai-headquartered Central Railway (CR) has installed a Floating Solar Plant of 10 MWp capacity in Igatpuri Lake in Nashik along the Western Ghats.

Moving towards its ultimate goal of zero carbon emission by 2030, the CR had in the past commissioned 12.05 MWp solar plants by utilizing the rooftop of railway stations and buildings, out of which 4 MWp solar plants were added last year.

“This has resulted in a saving of Rs.4.62 crores in the year 2023-24 and saving in carbon footprints of 6594.81 MT. There are further plans to install an additional 7 MWp Solar plants in the current year,” a CR spokesperson said on Thursday.

Steps have also been taken to move towards renewable energy. At present, 56.4 MW wind energy and 61 MW solar energy are being tapped.

“PPAs have been signed for utilization of 325 MW solar and wind energy, which will be on ‘round-the-clock’ basis. Besides this, 180 MW solar and 50 MW wind power is also likely to flow in the current financial year,” the spokesperson added.

The present monthly power consumption of CR is 236.92 million units for Traction work and 9.7 million units for Non-traction work.

After the commissioning of the above sources of renewable energy, it is expected that 70 per cent of the traction energy will be green.