The Southern Railway’s push for green energy through commissioning of solar plants, electrification of tracks, upgrade of suburban trains with three-phase electricity, and installation of LED lights, has resulted in making it an energy-efficient organisation.
The organisation has saved nearly 600 million units (MU) of power for the financial year 2020-21. This also resulted in preventing carbon footprint of 5,88,000 tonnes, which is estimated at ₹377 crore.
According to a press release from the Southern Railway, by installing solar power at several important railway stations, including Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. MGR Chennai Central, Moore Market Complex, Katpadi, Tambaram, Guindy, Mambalam, and Chengalpattu stations, it had generated 12 MUs of power with this year’s contribution being 4 MUs. This saved the organisation ₹1.77 crore. As part of the 100% electrification project, the Southern Railway has electrified 370 km of its track network this year and thus reduced the contracted power load with the State electricity utilities. Along with the electrification, the introduction of 3-phase electrical multiple units (EMUs) in Chennai suburban and mainline electrical multiple units (MEMUs) in other remote areas has resulted in average energy savings of 25%.
The Southern Railway, which has solar capacity of 5 mega watt (MW), plans to add 109 MW by using 288 acres of vacant land. Already, tender had been floated by REMCL for 119 acres and tender process is under way for the remaining 169 acres.
