Diesel vs electric traction

Bio diesel Potential - Indian Railways An estimate

• Track length of 1,00,000 km
• If 50% tract available and 50 meters of both sides
• Approx. area 5000 sq..km
• considering an yield of 2 tons / ha
• Yield of oil crop 1 MMTPA
• Approx. Bio diesel potential 200-250,000 tones i.e. about 10% of the Railways’ diesel requirements
• Indian Oil as Partner in technology development

• The Railway Minister said that Railway Ministry and Indian Oil Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding for a pilot project for production of eco-friendly biodiesel for the Railways.
• Courtesy : The Hindu dt. 13th Feb.2003

Electric Traction -What it costs the Nation ?

Electric Traction -What it costs the Nation ? (ii)

Every Diesel Loco of 4000 HP put on line adds to the Power Generation Capacity of the country by 3 MW

• Every Diesel Loco of 4000 HP put on line adds to the Power Generation Capacity of the country by 3 MW
• Every Electric Loco of 6000 HP put on line
• Eats into the Power generation capacity by about 4 to 5 MW *
• Deprives 15000 Houses of Electric Power
• Adds to use of inefficient small DG sets by Industrial, Agricultural & Domestic sectors
• * Taking into account the Locomotive, Transmission and Distribution Losses.

Electrify the Railways and Dieselise the Industry ??

• In a country where 14.7% villages are yet to be electrified, can we afford to electrify Railways ?
• The Energy Policy should ideally aim at replacing inefficient use of Fuel
• Electrification replaces a highly efficient Turbo charged Railway Diesel locomotive with small sized high inefficient gen-sets resulting in higher consumption of HSD and pollution.

Anticipated Drains from the Power production in future years, even with no further Electrification.

Further Drain into the scarce Capital Resources

Optimum Utilisation of Energy - Petroleum

• There is a lot of reluctance in the States for establishing any new coal-based Power Plants in view of the serious limitations like poor quality of coal with high ash and sulphur content, pollution of ash and dust, high cost of developing new coal fields, extreme shortage of water, etc,.
• Most of the Power houses set up in the country in the last five years and those in the pipe line are based on Petroleum products such as LNG, Diesel, Naptha, etc.