Four memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed between the Ministries of Railways, Power and New & Renewable Energy for energy conservation, transmission and solarisation, here on Wednesday.

“In the Budget, we had said that we will focus on partnerships and today that idea has been extended. While diesel costs are not in our control, electricity is and over the last 5-6 months, we have reduced costs. These MoUs will help us further cut power costs,” said Suresh Prabhu, Union Railways Minister.

The Minister highlighted that the current energy bill of Rs 12,500 crore is likely to rise over the next few years as passenger and traffic rises. The agreements, he said, was a step toward increasing savings on the power front for the Railways, which is the largest power consumer in the country.

“The savings can be diverted into our capacity expansion plans and will be beneficial to our bottomline. We also have to address how to reduce power consumption in the Railways simultaneously,” Prabhu explained.

The first MoU was signed between the Power and Railways Ministries for knowledge sharing in the field of electricity and energy conservation to reduce the cost of electricity for the Railways.

The Railways Ministry also signed an MoU with the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy to promote solar energy usage while it signed a third MoU with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency to identify technologies to improve energy utilisation.

The last agreement was signed between the Railway Energy Management Company and Energy Efficiency Services Ltd for implementation of energy efficient systems and conservation projects for the Railways.

“The Railways has saved Rs 2,500 crore over the last five years in energy costs. This must become a yearly practice now and a target of Rs 2,000 crore has been set for this year. We will work toward how to reduce costs for the Railways,” said Piyush Goyal, Union Power Minister.

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