Mumbai : The Railways started receiving electricity at lower costs from Dabhol power plant in Ratnagiri from Thursday morning. Through this, the Central Railway (CR) will save approximately Rs 1,000 crore every year and energy cost saving is expected to be in the range of Rs 2.50 to Rs 3.50 per unit.
Additionally, this will result in substantial savings of Rs 500 to Rs 700 crore annually for 47 traction substations located in Maharashtra.
CR sources said earlier they used to purchase electricity at Rs 9 per unit. The CR has signed a Power Purchase Agreement to avail up to 300 megawatt power from Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Limited which is a joint venture promoted by Maharashtra State Electricity Board , National Thermal Power Corporation and Gas Authority of India Limited.
Narendra Patil, Chief PRO of Central Railway, said: “The ministry of power has given deemed distribution licensee status to Indian Railways and Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has also endorsed this decision, paving the way to avail electricity by railways through open access mechanism power purchase agreement with RGPPL. With this, the Railways will be able to directly purchase electricity from the plant wherein we will be saving nearly Rs 1.5-2 crore every day.”
Further, CR will purchase electricity from TATA and MSEB if there are any further requirements and also a special energy cell will be operated 24×7 from CST office wherein after every 15 minutes, a load check will be conducted.
