Hyderabad Metro to use renewable energy

Hyderabad: The L&T Metro will be sourcing one third of its energy requirement from renewable sources like solar and wind energy across all corridors. 

“The Metro will be using three megawatts for complete operations across all corridors per day. A third of the requirement will be met through renewable energy sources,” said M.P. Naidu, project director, L&T Metro, speaking on the sidelines of the GreenPro Summit, 2018 at HICC.

He added that if solar rooftops are used in the depot and the 100 acres of land at Nagole and Miyapur respectively, the Metro will be able to generate the required amount of energy. 

At present, about 40 per cent of energy is sourced from solar power for four stations, Nagole, Uppal, Survey of India (Uppal stadium) and Miyapur. The implementation of solar plants follows the example of the Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) model, in which a company will install a solar power plant and not pay anything upfront. 

A power purchase agreement is signed between the installer and the consumer at a mutual price at the L&T Metro Rail.

“With one third of the power at peak times being produced by renewable energy, there will be financial benefits and reduction in operational costs,” he said. Even though L&T is not yet using wind power, they will be able to do so in the near future. All the operational stations are currently using less than one megawatt per day. Since the cost of operation has to be the lowest and highly efficient, electrical motors and converters need to be used.