Southern Railway plans to set up windmills in Nellai district...

 

The Southern Railway is toying with the idea of setting up windmills in the district in a bid to draw on alternative energy to trim its annual electricity bill.

General Manager, Southern Railway, Rakesh Mishra told reporters on Tuesday that a comprehensive project report on installing windmills was under preparation.

Mr. Mishra, accompanied by Railway Divisional Manager, Madurai, A.K.Rastogi, was inspecting the facilities at the Tirunelveli Railway Junction.

Mr.Mishra cited the case of the Integrated Coach Factory which decided to go in for the non-conventional energy programme in 2007 and installed seven windmills at a cost of over Rs.66 crore. The units, set up at Kasthurirengapuram and Urumankulam in the district, offset ICF’s total annual power requirement of 25 million units by generating 25.90 million units. They also earned Rs.2.50 crore as carbon credits.

“It is a highly useful project that saves a lot of money for the ICF now. The power to be generated by the windmill, by offsetting our power requirement, will give the investment cost back to us within 10 years. Hence, the Southern Railway is mulling (the idea of) installing its own windmills in the district,” Mr. Mishra said.

Wind turbine generators are likely to come up along the Aralvaimozhi-Muppandal-Radhapuram belt.

Mr.Misra said further that the railway track electrification up to Kanyakumari would be ready for commissioning either in April or May next year, while the Rs.300-crore gauge conversion project between Shencottai and Punalur would take at least five years for completion owing to paucity of funds.

“This is, in fact, my dream project that will pass through the scenic areas of the Western Ghats. Even the people of Kerala expect the early completion of this project, but paucity of funds may extend the execution period up to five years,” Mr.Misra noted.

The Tirunelveli Junction would get two escalators shortly, Mr.Mishra added.

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Indian Railways planning to use Solar Power for its AC Coaches...

 

Indian Railways seems to be considering to use the solar energy to power its air conditions coaches; had asked Indian Institute of Technology, Madras to find ways for the same.

Indian Railways, the largest railway system of the world, is seriously considering to use innovative technologies to tap alternative/renewable sources of energy and to reduce the dependence on fossil fuel and the power grid.

There are two ways to source power for air conditioning (i) power cars that use diesel and (ii) AC coaches that generate power from the speed of a train. Currently, power cars are attached to trains like Shatabdi Express, Duronto and double decker trains while AC coaches of other trains have self-generating systems.

According to the Indian Railways, it has approached IIT Madras to find ways to tap solar power and use it for interior lighting and air conditioning and signed an MoU for this purpose last month.

Integral Coach Factory has initiated preliminary discussions with IIT Madras to work out different modalities to develop a feasible model to use solar power in running trains which will draw power from the sub for interior lighting and cooling.

If the project is successful, the railways may be able to dispense with power cars.

 

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More literature on this topic...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow1/21608984.cms

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Indian Railways to set up Nuclear Power Plants for Captive Consumption...

 

Indian Railways, seems to be in discussion with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to set up nuclear power plants on captive basis to meet its own electricity needs.

As the national transporter is reeling under severe financial stress, it seems that the move is part of the strategy  to revisit its energy consumption considering recent hikes in diesel price for bulk users.

Indian Railways spent Rs 8,000 crore on electricity in 2012-13, while its diesel bill was around Rs 15,000 crore.

According to the officials of Indian Railways, the transporter will soon sign an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NPCIL for the development of the nuclear power plants. The company is also exploring some options in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

As estimated by the transporter, the electricity costs from the proposed captive power plants will be close to Rs. 4 per unit or even lesser whilst it currently is paying around Rs. 5.4 per unit.

The first phase of the captive power plant will be operationalized at Nabi Nagar in Bihar.

 

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Additional Reading...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Railways-plans-captive-nuclear-plants-to-cut-rising-fuel-bill/articleshow/21441267.cms

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Imported Coal Transportation getting preference by Indian Railways…

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Power India found that the movement of coal to thermal power plants including movement of imported coal is accorded preference by the Indian Railways over similar cargo moving to other customers. The Railways have been successful in meeting the demand for movement of imported coal to thermal power plants.

 

As per Central Electricity Authority (CEA) reports, coal imports to thermal power plants which were at a level of 3.6 million tonnes in the year 2001-02 have increased to a level 45.549 million tonnes in 2011-12, out of which approximate 14.262 million tonnes were moved to shore based power plants which did not require movement by rail. Out of the balance 31.287 million tonnes coal which was imported, the railways evacuated 30.897 million tonnes and only 0.390 million tonnes were available at the ports.

 

The capacity of the Railways is adequate to meet the demand for imported coal barring seasonal bunching of imported coal at ports. This has been made possible by a proper planning process wherein a logistics plan linking various ports to various plants has been formulated.

 

Adequate measures are being taken by Railways to ease evacuation/transportation of coal on Indian Railway Network. A total of 3077.46 kilometres of new lines, doubling and gauge conversion at cost of Rs. 17988.82 crore have been sanctioned and are in various stages of progress for primarily coal bearing routes. This excludes projects being undertaken on deposit term basis from coal companies.

 

In addition, the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors which are slated to come up by the terminal year of the 12th Plan will primarily cater to both domestic and imported coal movement on the Eastern sector and imported coal movement on the Western sector. In addition, the Railways are substantially increasing their fleet of rolling stock to meet coal movement. In the year 2011-12, 11683 number of coal loading wagons were inducted into Indian Railway. Moreover, the wagons being inducted are cleared for higher pay load and speed.

 

 

 

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