BHEL commissions Solar PV Plant in Madhya Pradesh for Indian Railways

State-run engineering firm BHEL on Thursday said it has successfully commissioned a 1.7 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at Bina in Madhya Pradesh for the Indian Railways.

The plant will directly feed power to traction systems of Indian Railways, a Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) statement said. "The project is a landmark achievement in the histor y of solar power, as this is the first time that solar power is being directly used for traction applications. Notably, with this, BHEL has achieved direct injection of single-phase 25 kV power to traction substation of Indian Railways," it added.

This is a pilot project by the company developed on turnkey basis on vacant land of Indian Railways.

The concept to design and engineering was carried out in less than one and a half month and the project has been installed and commissioned by the BHEL in just 4 and a half month, the company said. This development marks a major step of merging the advantages of renewable energy in the railway sector in an unprecedented way, the company said.

With this successful demonstration by BHEL, Indian Railways'' objective of turning its huge land bank into captive PV power plants for supporting the Railway traction grid without the support of utilities and the Railways’ initiative of ‘ Go Green’ by 2030, will become a reality, the statement added.

The project has been jointly conceptualised and developed by BHEL and Indian Railways. BHEL''s scope in the project envisaged design, engineering, manufacture, supply, construction, erection, testing, commissioning and O&M based on the inputs provided by Indian Railways.