The Times of India 19.01.2023
BMC’s P-South ward office to set up solar plant on
roof, save up to Rs 3 lakh/year
SANJEEV
DEVASIA / TNN / Updated: Jan 19, 2023, 08:25 IST
MUMBAI: The BMC’s P-South ward will
soon set up a rooftop solar plant at
its office or its power needs. It is expected to recover its
investment in the plant in about five years by way of savings on energy
expenditure.
The civic body will install a 25KW on-grid rooftop solar plant at its ward
office building at Goregaon (West). It is expected to spend between
Rs 18 lakh and Rs 20 lakh to set up the plant. Municipal officials claimed the
plant would help save between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh per year.
“The ward office building and premises consume over 50,000 units of electricity
per year and this solar plant, which will be connected to the grid, will help
us save big on energy. We have enough space on our rooftop, and we will be
using about 1,200 square feet to install the solar panels,” a P-South ward
official said.
“The solar panels have a life of about 25 years and a rough calculation taking
into account the projected rise in power tariffs annually indicates that the
ward will save about Rs 1 crore in the next 20 years,” the official said. The
ward has followed the guidelines of the central and state governments while
setting up the solar plant, he added.
According to the official, the power generated by the plant will be supplied to the grid and the electricity supplier will provide the ward office a rebate in bills commensurate with the power supplied.
Vishwas Shankarwar, deputy municipal commissioner of Zone-IV, said, “We wanted
to implement some new initiatives. Therefore, we zeroed in on the solar plant,
which will help us in saving on the expenditure incurred on power consumption.”
Last June, the civic body’s G-South ward office had commissioned a 20KW solar plant on its building rooftop. The office consumes about 25,000 units of power a year and the plant is expected to help it save between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh per year in terms of expenditure on energy.
