The sun has eclipsed on the Punjab Government’s ambitious plan of installing solar power plants at 120 police stations across the State, at least for the time being. The company that was awarded the project has backed out due to some technical glitches.
Envisioned in 2013, the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) was supervising the project which was aimed at increasing the usage and popularizing the solar photovoltaic technology for power generation.
Almost a month before, the PEDA was eyeing to complete the project by December end, this year. However, with the designated-company withdrawing from the project, it has come under a shadow.
In fact, the officials are not clear about the future of the project. “We were expecting that the project would be finished by December…we were talking in terms of inaugurating the same, but the company has backed out due to some issues,” a senior PEDA official told The Pioneer, while refusing to divulge much.
The official said that it was not certain whether the process for the project would start afresh. “No decision has, so far, been taken in this regard,” the official added. Under this project, PEDA was to install rooftop photovoltaic solar systems in 120 police stations across the state for power generation, covering the major districts — Amritsar, ludhiana, Patiala, Jalandhar, and so on.
With the total project cost of over `7 crore, each solar photovoltaic system, that was to be installed, was to generate 2.5 kilowatt (KW) power for powering lighting and running computers in each police station.
Already the PEDA is working on installing power systems on most of the Government buildings, aiming to complete all by the end of 2017 replacing conventional energy and providing backup power during grid shutdowns.
For the purpose, PEDA has carried out a detailed rooftop survey of major Government buildings in the State with estimated potential of 40 megawatt (MW). As of now, PEDA has installed solar power plants at eight sites in the state, and its capital — Chandigarh, including the Golden Temple, Durgiana Mandir, historic Jallianwala Bagh and the Wagah Border in Amritsar.
Besides, Punjab Raj Bhawan, Punjab Civil Secretariat, Punjab State Assembly in Chandigarh and World Sikh Heritage Centre at Anandpur Sahib has also been covered with the solar power plants under the Centre’s Special Area Demonstration Programme (SADP).