Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has successfully commissioned a 1.7 MW Solar PV Plant at Bina in Madhya Pradesh for the Indian Railways. The plant will directly feed power to traction systems of Indian Railways.

The project is a landmark achievement in the history of solar power, as this is the first time that solar power is being directly used for traction applications. Notably, with this, BHEL has achieved direct injection of single-phase 25 kV power to traction substation of Indian Railways.The project has been jointly conceptualised and developed by BHEL and Indian Railways. BHEL’s scope in the project envisaged design, engineering, manufacture, supply, construction, erection, testing, commissioning and O&M based on the inputs provided by Indian Railways. The project has been installed and commissioned by BHEL in just 4.5 months from the date of joint land survey with Indian Railways for the Bina location (excluding time lost due to Covid disturbances).

This is a pilot project by the company developed on turnkey basis on vacant land of Indian Railways. The concept to design and engineering was carried out in less than 1.5 months. The R&D, development and manufacturing was completed entirely in-house at BHEL facilities at Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jhansi and Bhopal.

Significantly, for the first time development of single-phase 850 kW solar inverters and 400 V/25 kV dry type transformers for outdoor duty has been done. Other solar plant equipment such as PV modules, SCADA system and HT switchgear have also been supplied by BHEL’s manufacturing units located at Bengaluru and Bhopal respectively.

The project is a unique example of joint working of Indian Railways and BHEL in the field of rail transportation. This development marks a major step of merging the advantages of renewable energy in the railway sector in an unprecedented way.