IGL to facilitate conversion of diesel generators to natural gas gensets

Days after diesel generators were banned in Delhi and neighbouring cities, Indraprastha Gas Ltd on Friday said it will help housing societies as well as commercial establishments to replace diesel in generators to environment-friendly natural gas.

IGL, which retails CNG and piped gas in the national capital and adjoining cities, in a statement said it will offer diesel-run genset users in residential complexes, commercial establishments and industrial units based in Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and parts of Gurugram an appropriate solution to convert their electricity generating units to natural gas.

A K Jana, Managing Director, IGL said, "In view of the ban on usage of diesel gensets due to enforcement of GRAP measures, a large number of users are considering converting their existing diesel gensets to gas. As an organisation committed to offering clean energy solutions to our stakeholders, we have put a system in place to capture the requirements and facilitating their communication with the technical team offering an eco-friendly solution for the same."

A link has been set up on IGL website where those interested in getting their gensets converted to gas can fill the details along with the capacity required. The interest in the conversion of genset to gas can also be conveyed on 24 hours helpline number of IGL.

Highlighting the advantages of running genset on gas, Amit Garg, Director (Commercial), IGL said, "Apart from environmental benefits, the initiative of conversion of existing diesel genset to gas is expected to reduce the operational cost of running power back up gensets by up to half at the current level of prices if run on full capacity. The one time cost incurred on conversion can be recovered in over a year and a half depending on the usage."

The generators in most residential complexes can be connected to gas very easily as the complexes are already connected with gas pipeline network of IGL.

Due to online supply, the users would not have to make any arrangement for procurement as well as storage of liquid fuels and the installation area shall remain clean.

Apart from promoting the usage of natural gas in generators, a promotional campaign through various media platforms is already underway to push the usage of CNG in the automotive segment.

"Latest figures indicate that around 8,000 vehicles are being added to the CNG fleet every month and the numbers are steadily growing due to cost advantage. CNG offers over 62 per cent savings towards the running cost when compared to petrol-driven vehicles at the current level of prices in Delhi. When compared to diesel driven vehicles, the economics in favour of CNG is around 40 per cent," IGL said.

IGL sells CNG to over 12 lakh vehicles in NCR through a network of 560 CNG stations. It also supplies piped cooking gas to nearly 15 lakh households in these cities.