India steps up pace of electrification of Railways!

 

To achieve the stated target, Indian Railways has collaborated with Central Organisation for Railway Electrification, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, RITES Limited and the Indian Railway Construction Company.

Once they achieve the goal, the national transporter will be enabled to save close to Rs. 145 billion annually, on the bill for fuel. Rs. 63.26 billion have been allocated for the railway electrification projects under the rail budget 2020-21.

Indian Railway’s network electrification mission has gained great momentum since 2014. The 2013-14 annual budget permitted the electrification of only 610 route km. Since then, the annual targets have been growing non-stop, with 6,015 rkm in 2020-21, increasing it by 10 times. It accomplished maximum ever electrification of the network, despite disruptions caused by the Covid-19 during FY 2020-21. It totalled to 6,015 rkm in just a year and exceeded the previous highest of 5,276 rkm recorded in 2018-19.

Although the electrification projects got setbacks in lockdowns, the completion time for the mission remains intact.

Over the past year, Indian Railways electrified sections namely the Mumbai-Howrah section through Jabalpur, the Chennai-Trichy section, the Gorakhpur-Varanasi section through Aunrihar, the Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur section and the Mumbai- Marwar section.

The recently done electrification of Nimmita-New Farakka rail stretch makes the Eastern Railway zone stand at being a 100% electrified.

It also plans to electrify 28,143 km of railway tracks between 2019-20 and 2023-25. Over the past 3 years, railway electrification projects worth Rs. 202.6 billion have been sanctioned.

IR cut down its diesel fuel expenditure by over Rs. 80 billion during 2020-21 - resulting in a significant amount of savings for the cash-strapped national transporter, due to increased pace of electrification. It also lowered the diesel consumption from 3.06 billion litres in 2018-19 to 1.43 billion litres in 2020-21.

Key Strategies:

IR has taken several steps to reduce both traction and non-traction consumption. In order to reduce traction consumption, trailing locomotives of multi-units hauling empty freight trains are switched off to save energy; an auxiliary power unit has been provided in 986 diesel locomotives to reduce fuel consumption when the locomotive is idle; the use of energy efficient three-phase technology with regenerative features for electric locomotives is being promoted; energy consumption on electric locomotives is being monitored through microprocessor-based energy meters; idling of diesel locomotives is being monitored through remote management of locomotives and trains; all diesel locomotives that are over 31 years old are being grounded and a head-on generation system has been introduced in trains to reduce diesel fuel consumption in power cars.

With the adoption of LEDs, renewable energy, and open access in non-traction areas, IR expects to save Rs 11 billion on an annual basis, in terms of its electricity expenditure. Further, a provision has been made for the use of energy efficient LED lights and only star-rated energy efficient equipment in all railway installations, including railway stations, service buildings, residential quarters and coaches. IR has been conducting energy audits at consumption locations on a regular basis. Energy efficiency studies of six production units and four workshops have been conducted so far, with up to 15 per cent improvement in the overall energy efficiency.

Under the new head-on generation / HOG system, power is now gained from an overhead electric supply system, which previously used to be derived from power generator cars attached to the train’s front and back portions. With the introduction of HOG system, they have saved a good amount to diesel fuel consumption of power cars. A total of 1,280 trains have been equipped with the HOG system, as of June 2021. As per IR’s estimation, the adoption of HOG technology will avoid the release of 1,724.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.88

IR is progressing towards becoming the world’s largest green railway network by 2030, with the target of becoming a net-zero carbon emitter. IR is gearing up to meet this target by expediting renewable energy initiatives, including setting up solar plants and wind projects on unutilised railway land on a mega scale. The national transporter aims to generate 20 GW of renewable energy from solar and wind energy projects to meet its annual power requirement of around 21 billion units. Railway Energy Management Company Limited, IR’s public sector undertaking, has placed bids for 3 GW solar projects on vacant railway areas in this regard. It is estimated that setting up solar plants on railway sites is Rs 1,500 billion worth of opportunities for private players. To encourage private sector participation in this initiative, the ministry has included the provision for letter of credit in the event of payment default by IR and has introduced a penalty for delay in payment for solar power companies.

The Indian Railways plans to source 1,000 MW of solar power, 200 MW of wind power by 2021-22 across zonal railways and production units. In a notable development, it has set up a 1.7 MW solar plant at Bina, MP, to directly power railways’ overhead lines during the Covid-19 in July 2020.

In simpler words, it enabled the use of solar energy to power trains. The project has been set up in partnership with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.

The construction of 50 MW project in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, too has started. This project will have connectivity at compact tracking unit level and 50 MW of power generated from the plant will be utilised for operating trains. The Ministry of Railways has commissioned a 2.5 MW solar project at Diwana, Haryana for connectivity with the state transmission utility.