Eastern Railway organized a seminar on Open Access and Capacity Building Measures on Power with the help of Railway Energy Management Company Ltd (REMCL) and Power Trading Corporation India Ltd recently. This seminar was organized to improve the knowledge of field officials and understanding the intricacies of various processes and procedure of open access.
Shri Suneet Sharma, General Manager, Eastern & Metro Railway; Shri S. S. Gehlot, Additional General Manager, Eastern Railway; Shri C S Jeengar, Principal Chief Electrical Engineer (PCEE), Eastern Railway; Shri Rajan Saxena, OSD, BRBCL; Shri Vasudev Panda, PCEE, E.Co. Railway; Shri Ram Prakash, PCEE, CLW; Shri Alok Mathur, GGM, REMCL addressed the Seminar. Senior officials from Eastern, South Eastern, East Central, South East Central, North Eastern, North Frontier, East Coast, CLW, Metro Railway participated in the seminar.
Railway is the largest single user of energy in India. At present, Indian Railways energy expenses, both on Diesel and Electricity is Rs. 33,000 Crores per year, which is 22% of its running expenses i.e. highest after establishment expenditure to its employees.
Indian Railways has an ambitious Mission of saving Rs. 41,000 Crores in its energy expenses for the period 2015-2025 through Integrated Rail Energy Management System, through setting up of 1000 megawatt Solar plants, 200 megawatts wind energy plants, 100% Railway Electrification of its track, introducing Regenerative features in its Three Phase Electric Locos and EMU/MEMU trains, Head on Generation (HOG) in Electric locos to feed lighting and air-conditioning system in trains, 100% LED lights at Stations/Service buildings and staff quarters, use of 5% Bio-diesel with Diesel in Locos, Energy audits at consumption points, etc.
Eastern Railway signed a Power Purchase Agreement of 16 Million Watts (16 MW) Rooftop Solar power plants on its unused rooftops at Station platforms and service buildings with M/s Sherisha Solar, Chennai on RESCO model without any Capital and Operation and Maintenance expenses for next 25 years to Railways. Besides green, clean & Renewable energy, it will effect saving of nearly Rs. 7 Crores per year and about Rs. 200 Crores in revenue expenditure to Eastern Railway.