Rumu Banerjee, April 6, 2010
NEW DELHI: If you’ve been wondering what the legacy of the Commonwealth Games is going to be for De hi, here’s a ‘powerful’ thought: the Thyagaraj Stadium, which is producing electricity of 1MW from solar energy, has been putting that power into the grid over the past week. The good news is, henceforth, the power will be made available for public consumption, except during the period when the Games take place in October.
Said KK Sharma, principal secretary (public works department), “The amount of solar power generated is substantial, and we wanted to utilize the power plant properly, especially as around 1MW of power will be generated every day, depending on the weather.”
To use the electricity, the government is in the midst of an agreement to sell this power to the NDMC. Sharma claimed that the agreement which is between PWD, NDMC and BSES will be in place “soon”.
In the meanwhile, the 1MW is being put into the grid by BSES. Added Sharma, “The BSES will be bringing the electricity to the localities though the power will be purchased by NDMC.” Incidentally, the solar power plant was designed and commissioned by Reliance at the Thyagaraj Stadium, the parent company of BSES. Sources at the stadium confirmed that meters have already been put in place at the stadium.
PWD, which is selling the electricity to NDMC, is hoping to do the same with the power that will be generated from the gas turbine set to be commissioned at the Thyagaraj Stadium later this month.
Added a senior site official, “The gas turbine will be generating 2.5MW of electricity, which will be used for the needs of the stadium, with the surplus to be put into the grid.”
For the solar power generation though, government officials confirmed that tariff hasn’t been decided yet, though the matter has been forwarded to the DERC. “The rate would be fixed by the regulatory body,” confirmed Sharma.
The solar power plant at the Thyagaraj is one of the largest single rooftop power plant in the country, and has been designed to feed electricity directly to the grid at 11kV. It is spread over 10,521 sq metres and has thousands of panels which capture the sun rays to convert it into energy.
The stadium, which has several other green features including waste regeneration and rainwater harvesting besides others, has been built at a cost of Rs 297 crore.