Metro to get solar power from Madhya Pradesh plant.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has become the first Metro system in the country to procure solar power on Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) basis as an interstate open access consumer.

The DMRC on Monday signed three power purchase agreements and a coordination scheduling agreement for a 25-year period with Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited (RUMSL) — a joint venture of Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Government of Madhya Pradesh — Solar Power Developers (Mahindra, ACME Solar and Solenergi) and MPPMCL.

With this agreement, the DMRC will now get green energy at just ₹3.30 per unit from RUMSL.

A DMRC team of senior officers, led by Director (Electrical) Anoop Kumar Gupta, has been spearheading the DMRC’s efforts in enhancing the use of solar power, to reduce impact of increasing energy tariff and mitigate environment depletion.

“The DMRC was involved in this solar project since April 2016. Team of officers from the DMRC and RUMSL, have achieved a record low first-year tariff of ₹2.97 for solar energy,” a statement released by the DMRC read.

This 750 MW solar project being set up at Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, will be one of the largest solar plants in the world and is likely to be operational from June next year.

“The DMRC will source 345 million units (MUs) annually from this project, effectively the entire energy requirement of Phase-3 of Delhi Metro project, and will mean substantial savings in energy cost for the Delhi Metro,” the statement read.

The DMRC also has a target of commissioning 20 Mega Watt peak (MWp) rooftop solar plants by end of 2017 on its premises and has successfully commissioned 16 MWp capacity till date and already signed power purchase agreements for 31.50 MWp.

THE HINDU