Delhi Metro on Thursday, 18 April, began receiving power from Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa Solar Power Project, increasing solar power’s share in its electricity consumption to 60%.
According to a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) statement, the Delhi Metro currently receives 27 megawatts (MW) from the MP-based solar plant and will gradually increase it to 99 MW.
“The power received from Rewa will be utilised for the operational as well as auxiliary requirement of Delhi Metro. 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,” the statement read.
DMRC plans to run all its operations on solar power by 2021, which would make it the world’s first metro rail network fully powered by green energy.
To mark the occasion DMRC’s Managing Director Mangu Singh, along with Manu Srivastava, head of the Rewa Plant, travelled on a solar powered Metro train from Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to Central Secretariat on the Violet Line.
In 2011, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation became the world’s first railway network to gain carbon credits from the United Nations for helping reduce pollution levels in the city by about 6 lakh tonnes every year.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)
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