Indore: Indore’s sludge hygenization facility has now started running on solar energy with Indore Smart City Development Limited (ISCDL) commissioning a 180kw solar power plant there.
ISCDL officials said that installation of the plant was started in July this year.
“We have completed installation of the 180-kilowatt roof-top solar power plant and electricity production through the same has also started,” ISCDL’s chief executive officer Rishav Gupta said.
He said that this solar power plant is meant to reduce electricity power cost at this sludge hygienization or treatment plant by 50 per cent.
“This solar power plant will generate around 22,500 units of electricity in a month and save around Rs1.34 lakh in monthly electricity bill,” Gupta said, while adding that the monthly electricity cost of the sludge treatment facility, which is borne by ISCDL, is between Rs2 lakh to Rs2.5 lakh.
ISCDL officials said that this plant has been installed by a private agency at an estimated cost of Rs 77 lakh, and it will maintain the facility for the next five years.
“We will be saving around Rs10-12 lakh through this mega solar power plant in one year,” he said, while adding that they hope to recover the amount invested in the same in the next six years’ time.
Indore is the second city in the country after Ahmedabad to establish a sludge hygienisation plant for treating dry sewage sludge using high energy gamma radiation from Co-60 gamma sources, officials pointed out.
This plant was established by ISCDL with the help of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in around two years’ period and made functional early this year, they said.
Source: PTI
