South Eastern Railway (SER) has ordained to upgrade energy conservation measures and the use of alternative sources of energy in this financial year. To promote environment friendly measures, the main goal was to install solar plants which will be good for clean energy, usage of LED lights to reduce power consumption and the implementation of Head on Generation (HOG) system in train operations.
HOG technology introduced as an electrical power supply system which supplies power drawn from the overhead electric lines to serve to the entire train load including lighting of the coaches, air conditioning, fans, pantry and other passenger communication requirements. Calcutta-based headquarters of South Eastern Railway, a railway spokesman at Garden Reach informed, “These measures will make trains cost-efficient and also cut down on pollution.” The HOG system is safe for air and noise pollution.
At present, data indicated that only 35 trains are running on HOG system. It has brought about to cut down fuel cost and carbon emission. With the advanced use of HOG technology, SER decided to add more to 60 trains running with HOG technology by March next year. The decision has been taken to preserve conventional energy; it is going to switch over to non-conventional sources of energy in various phases.
Until now in SER, 2.306 MWp solar plants have been implanted on the roof top of its Garden Reach Headquarter and also installed in four divisions including Ranchi and Chakradharpur. In 363 stations, SER have also substituted conventional light fittings with energy efficient LED lights that fall under its jurisdiction and other railway premises.
As per the railway officials, around 500 acre of vacant land that is alongside the railway tracks as well as settlements in SER jurisdiction have been assigned in which 201 MWp capacity of solar plant will be installed. It is noteworthy that after absorption of solar energy as an alternative source of energy, SER has saved Rs. 33.6 lakh and Rs. 39 lakhs in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
