Carbon credits for Mumbai

The new Siemens-MRVC purple and white rakes may just earn Mumbai its first carbon credits for transport. And, the new swanky rakes would be second only to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to earn credits in the country. A three-member carbon credit validation team from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) as well as officials from Central Railway, Western Railway, Railway Board, Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation, World Bank and the Research Designs and Standards Organization verified if the new AC-DC rakes actually consume 30% lesser energy than conventional ones. The adoption of the three-phase IGBT technology on EMUs (electric multiple units) in Mumbai suburban area has led to reduction in greenhouse gases, say MRVC. “We are confident that we will earn these credits. We would earn around 20 euros per tonne,” said an MRVC source. The corporation, though, would know if they pass the test in the next two months. If they do, Indian Railways will earn more than Rs 5 crore per year. This amount would increase subsequently as currently only 66 rakes are under consideration.
The new DC-AC rakes have regenerative breaking, where, on application of brakes, the traction motor works like a generator and converts kinetic energy into electrical energy. The generated energy is fed back to the OHE, which is used by other trains running in the section. MRVC managing director P C Sehgal said that the project idea note, the first step of the lengthy process to earn the credits, was prepared in August 2007. “This is followed by a detailed document of the project after which it was loaded on the MRVC website (open for public scrutiny) and the approval of the Government of India is sought. After this, it is loaded on the UNFCC website and if they are convinced members of the UNFCC comes to Mumbai.” The ten-member team would see the computer installed in the rakes and check the energy consumed and regenerated.
AC-DC EMU rakes consume 30% less energy than conventional DC rakes Energy consumption of DC unit (three-car) is 4.94 kwh/km Energy consumption of DC-AC unit (3-car) is 3.46 kwh/km The estimated overall emission reduction is 53,381 tonnes of carbon dioxide