Indian Railways zone becomes 1st in India to have energy-neutral stations! Details & list of stations here

Indian Railways takes a huge leap towards environmental sustainability! The Indian Railways South Central Railways (SCR) zone has become the first zonal railway in the country to have functional “energy neutral” railway stations on the network! The South Central Railways has converted a total of 13 railway stations into “energy neutral” stations, which is the highest amongst all the zones across the Indian Railways network. A South Central Railways spokesperson told Financial Express Online that energy-neutral railway stations are capable of meeting 100 per cent energy requirements by tapping into solar power through solar photovoltaic panels which have been commissioned at the station buildings.

The 13 energy neutral railway stations of the SCR zone are listed as follows:

• Ghatkesar station of the Secunderabad division has solar panels with installed capacity of 10 kWp
• Dharur station of the Secunderabad division has solar panels with installed capacity of 5 kWp
• Raghunathpalli station of the Secunderabad division has solar panels with installed capacity of 5 kWp
• Mellacheruvu station of the Secunderabad division has solar panels with installed capacity of 5 kWp
• Ontimitta station of the Guntakal division has solar panels with installed capacity of 7.5 kWp
• Kadiyam station of the Vijayawada division has solar panels with installed capacity of 10 kWp
• Dwarapudi station of the Vijayawada division has solar panels with installed capacity of 10 kWp
• Godavari station of the Vijayawada division has solar panels with installed capacity of 10 kWp
• Dharmabad station of the Hyderabad division has solar panels with installed capacity of 11.6 kWp
• Sivungaon station of the Hyderabad division has solar panels with installed capacity of 2.2 kWp
• Umri station of the Hyderabad division has solar panels with installed capacity of 17.43 kWp
• Karkheli station of the Hyderabad division has solar panels with installed capacity of 2.2 kWp
• Bolsa station of the Hyderabad division has solar panels with installed capacity of 2.95 kWp

The concept of the energy neutral stations is based on the principle of developing railway stations and buildings with total solar power in order to meet the complete energy requirements. This has been done by the installation of the solar photovoltaic panels on the roof tops, which are further integrated with the on-grid as well as off-grid solar energy plants for deriving power supply for the entire station.

According to the SCR zone, the total capacity of all the solar panels installed at the 13 energy neutral stations is 99 kWp. The cost incurred is around Rs 50 lakh. The anticipated energy generation from these energy neutral stations is coming to be around 1.3 lakh units annually. The SCR zone expects that solar power generated at these stations will lead to savings of Rs 13 lakh per year. All of the power requirements of the energy neutral railway stations such as lighting, fans, pumps as well as other electrical appliances are met through the solar energy, which brings down the net traditional energy consumption at these railway stations to zero.