Western Railway receives National Energy Conservation Award

By ENN, Ahmedabad: Western Railway has bagged the National Energy Conservation Award 2009. Shri R. N. Verma, General Manager received the award from Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde, Hon'ble Union Minister of Power in a function at Vigyan Bhavan. New Delhi on 14th Dec, 2009. Western Railway has achieved a savings of Rs. 25.57 Crores by taking innovative initiatives as Energy Saving measures.

Western Railway has been able to save 440 lakh units of power on traction by switching off standby transformers, using regenerative braking in 3 phase locos and AC-DC EMUs and maintaining average power factor 0.95 lag. Similarly, it used State Converters in place of ARNO Converters.

Besides this, Western Railway has also been able to save 113.45 lakh units in areas other than traction by using CFL lamps, electronic ballast in FL tube fittings and by the provision of energy efficient fittings. It was also ensured to switch off the air conditioners after booking hours in reservation offices. One of the most important measures has been adopting 30% and 70% lighting arrangement at all its 719 electrified station. Under this arrangement, only 30% of the total lighting remains in use when there is no train on the platform. The remaining 70% lights are put on only for the period when the train is at the platform.

WR could achieve this remarkable feat by implementing the Energy Management Policy. An Energy Management Group (EMG) is formed which monitors Specific Energy Consumption (SEC). It also monitors Energy Budget (EB) and Energy Consumption Targets (ECT). WR also took measures to modify or replace every inefficient equipment by efficient one and encouraged energy efficient design/innovative technology. Periodic energy audits were carried out to identify the areas of improvement.