Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) Limited’s subsidiary Railway Energy Management Company Ltd. (REMCL) has announced that it has secured its largest mandate from Indian Railways for handling tendering, installation supervision and managing power supply from 3 GW solar power plants to be set-up on vacant Indian Railway Land.
The project will be divided into 3 phases of 1 GW each. The first and third phases of 1 GW each will be on a PPP basis under Design, Build, Finance, Operate, and Transfer model. The second phase of the project (1 GW) will be on the ownership model of REMCL, which will be eligible for capital subsidy under the CPSE investment scheme.
According to the release, “The Railways have already identified suitable land to be leased to REMCL on nominal lease rent.”
Commenting on this mandate, Rajeev Mehrotra, Chairman & Managing Director, RITES Ltd
and Chairman REMCL said; “This is the largest mandate received by REMCL for tendering,
installation and power management of solar energy. This will strengthen REMCL’s position as
the green energy solution provider and energy manager to Indian Railways and firmly establish
REMCL in the green energy sector in India”.
Besides Bid management fee, in the beginning, REMCL would earn long term revenue through
supply management from these installations which may amount to approximately Rs. 20 crore
per year to REMCL during the life of the project. The entire installation is expected to be completed by 2022-23, it added.
REMCL is a subsidiary of RITES Limited and the balance held by Indian Railways. It is in the business of Power Management and Power Generation. REMCL is mandated to handle entire Power procurement under open access for Indian Railways besides handling renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. REMCL is presently handling about 74% of the traction power of Railways through open access mechanism.
In April, RITES Limited, an engineering consultancy company under Indian railways issued a tender for setting up of 1 GW of land-based solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants on land owned by the Indian Railways under Tariff Based Competitive Bidding.
In January 2020, Indian Railways was planning to source 1 GW of energy from solar power and about 200 MW from wind energy by 2021-22 across zonal railways and production units. The 1GW of energy is being planned to segregate in two halves ie. 500 MW of rooftop energy for railway buildings and the remaining 500 MW to meet both traction and non-traction requirements, according to a statement by the government.
