Hyderabad Metro to have rooftop solar set-up

L&T Metro Hyderabad Rail Ltd will be partly powered by solar rooftop installations across its stations and infrastructure coming up along all the three corridors in Hyderabad.

It has been permitted to have the advantage of procuring power through the ‘open access’ mechanism. About 64 metro stations will see the installation of solar power (estimated to be about 14 MW), which will partly power the metro and station energy requirements.

According to sources, the contract to set up the 14 MW solar power projects has been awarded to renewable energy company Greenko.

L&T, which is working round-the-clock to ensure that all of the 30-km stretch is ready to be commissioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Hyderabad in the last week of November, is currently undergoing trial runs and awaiting final safety approvals for a segment of the recently completed stretch. Two other stretches of 8 km and 11 km had already received approvals.

In tune with the Telangana State policy to offer open access to certain sections of consumers in the State, the metro, which requires about 75 MW of power to meet its requirements, had requested the State to permit it to purchase power through the open access route.

A senior official told BusinessLine that the Discom has accorded permission to the metro to take advantage of open access.

However, a special tariff of ₹3.95 has already been offered to the Metro Rail. The open access will enable them to access power when the tariffs outside are lower. This move comes in the backdrop of high power cost prevailing in the State for the Railway Traction, which was about ₹7 per unit, in 2016.

However, the TS Electricity Regulatory Commission, had created a new category of consumer ‘Metro Rail’ on the lines of Delhi, to offer lower tariff. Accordingly, the tariff for Railways as also metro rail was brought down from ₹7 a unit to ₹3.95 per unit.

With the power tariffs steadily coming down due to oversupply in the energy exchanges, the metro rail is considering the open access mode to take advantage of lower tariffs ruling in the power exchanges.

The Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd, which is facilitating the implementation of the 72-km elevated metro rail projects, is working on softer side of the infrastructure, including beautification of stations, developing landscape and providing greenery.