Railways inaugurate control room for power procurement

The Indian Railways on Tuesday inaugurated a centralised control room to improve scheduling of power procurement.

According to the Ministry of Railways, the centralised control room set up by REMCL (Railway Energy Management Company) will further improve scheduling of power being procured by Indian Railways as a deemed distribution licensee.

"This move will make it possible to look into ways to further reduce the cost of power to railways by leveraging part power through exchange. It will also allow scheduling of power close to its actual load requirements," the ministry said in a statement.

The Indian Railways, through REMCL, have started drawing power as a deemed distribution licensee at a lower tariff in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and partly in Uttar Pradesh.

Currently, railways have contracted 585 MW (mega watt) power in Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan through open bidding at a much lower tariff.

"Flow of power in these states is likely to commence shortly. This has already resulted into significant saving to railways and will continue to result in further savings," the statement added.