Indian Railways ink 4 MoUs with Union Power Ministry to save power, improve efficiency

Union Railway Ministry has signed 4 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with Union Power and New & Renewable Energy Ministry for energy conservation, transmission and solarisation.
These MoUs seek to boost cooperation between both parties in the areas of electricity transmission, promotion of renewable energy and energy conservation in a time bound manner.
Key facts

• First MoU seeks to boost knowledge sharing in the field of energy and electricity conservation to reduce the cost of electricity for the Railways.
• Second MoU was signed to promote solar energy usage  and provide a framework for providing future energy solutions
• Third MoU it was signed between India Railways and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to identify technologies to improve energy utilisation.
• Fourth MoU was signed between Railway Energy Management Company (REMC) and Energy Efficiency Services (EES) Ltd for implementation of energy efficient systems and conservation of energy projects for the Railways.

Significance of these MoUs: These agreements will help Indian Railways in increasing savings on the power as it the largest power consumer in the country by providing future solutions (switching to renewable energy) in the power sector. It will also help to reduce the cost of power and energy bill of Indian Railways which is presently around 12,500 crore rupees.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2015