NEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on April 18, 2019 started receiving solar power from Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa Solar Power Project, starting an initiative to be the world’s first 100 per cent green energy rail network in the world.
The DMRC received 27 megawatts (MW) power from the project and it will gradually increase to 99 MW. “The power received from Rewa will be utilised for the operational as well as auxiliary requirement of DMRC. Till now, the solar power generated by the roof top plants installed in DMRC premises were utilised for the auxiliary requirements such as lighting and air conditioning of stations and depots,” said a DMRC official.
Metro officials said that DMRC on an average would receive 345 million units (MU) of power from Rewa every year. Last year, DMRC used 1092 MU electricity to run the 373 km network. “From May 2019, we are likely to start getting 99 MW solar energy from the 750 MW plant in Rewa.”
At present, DMRC uses solar energy for almost 60 per cent of its electricity needs. It plans to run all its operations on solar by 2021. Delhi Metro expects to save over Rs 41 crore shifting to solar energy.