Rajkot and Bhavnagar Divisions of WR bags Prize in the Institution Category for Energy Conservation

WR wins first prize in energy conservation in transport sector at the National Energy Conservation awards 2019

In its continuous efforts towards contributing extensively for providing a clean and green transportation to its commuters, W.Rly bagged three prestigious National Energy Conservation Awards (NECA) in two categories for the year 2018-19 organised by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power. Western Railway was awarded with the First prize in the Transportation Category along with Second and Third in Institution Category for Energy Conservation measures adopted by Divisional Railway Manager’s offices at Rajkot and Bhavnagar respectively.

Sanjiv Bhutani – Principal Chief Electrical Engineer of Western Railway accepted the First Prize in Transport Category from Minister of Power and Renewable Energy R.K. Singh at National Energy Conservation Awards 2019 in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 14th December, 2019.

According to a press release issued by WR CPRO Ravinder Bhakar, W. Rly was given this top honour for its significant improvement in Specific Energy Consumption (SEC), which is an index for measuring energy efficiency in carrying traffic in the Transportation Category. Through various measures such as, provision of coasting board and counseling crew to switch off traction at falling gradients, fixing up of trip ration load wise & section wise and its strict monitoring, switching off of trailing Locomotive in Multiple Unit while working light load, 100% use of Regenerative Braking in 3phase state of the art electric locomotives & EMUs, switching off of locomotives when idle for more 30 minutes & switching off of auxiliary machines if locomotive is idle for more than 15 minutes, monitoring of driving technique of Loco Pilots to conserve energy and monitoring of energy efficient crew and extensive counseling of weak crew to improve their driving technique, Western Railway was able to bring down its expenditure on energy.

It is worth mentioning that these measures have resulted in substantial improvement in the Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) i.e 5.49 kwh/1000GTKM for carrying load in 2018-19 against 5.95 during 2017-18 for Railway traction. Bhakar stated that in the Institution Category, Rajkot and Bhavnagar Divisions of Western Railway received the Second and Third prizes for the efforts made by these divisions to promote energy efficiency in the non traction area.

Many measures such as Replacement of conventional ACs by 5 star rated AC, Replacement of conventional luminiaries by LED luminiaries in Railway stations, Replacement of conventional luminiaries by LED luminiaries in Service buildings, Replacement of conventional luminiaries by LED luminiaries in colonies and street lights, Switching off light & fan circuit when not required, Use of energy efficient equipments in offices, sheds & workshops, Provision of timers for lights and fans, Installation of solar PV panels on rooftops of Stations, Buildings and Rest Houses and Installation of solar water heaters played an instrumental part in conserving energy by these Divisions.

Western Railway with its commitment towards maximizing energy conservation has also replaced all conventional lights with energy efficient LED lights at all the 726 stations, 2479 service buildings & 40714 residential quarters. These measures have brought down the Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) to 44.05 (kwh/kw) in 2018-19 against 47.8 (kwh/kw) during 2017-18. This resulted in non-traction energy saving of 4.5 million units during FY 2018-19. In total, Western Rialway has saved Rs. 3.25 crore on account of energy conservation.