India’s first solar-powered WLLP project

A solar lighting system as a part of the project Discovery City is being developed by Ramky Infra on PPP basis in Hyderabad.

A solar lighting system as a part of the project Discovery City is being developed by Ramky Infra on PPP basis in Hyderabad.

Why it was interesting

Solar street lighting is interesting as a project due to its following advantages, and advantageous because of other obvious environmental benefits:

• Not required to approach APCPDCL for power connections or any statutory approvals
• In line with the green concepts and satisfies Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) norms
• No monthly electrical charges
• Cabling, panels and separate substations for
• lighting are avoided, which reduces the cost and maintenance.
• Easy to install and low maintenance
• Higher illumination with low wattage LEDs
• Government subsidy can be availed on solar system
• Reduces the CO2 emission when compared with conventional system

The challenges

• A majority of the people are of the opinion that
• the initial investment as compared to the conventional system is high and is not successful in
• long run. Under such circumstances, it was difficult to pursue for solar proposals and to take call.
• It is not installed by any of the real estate developers
• It would be for the first time to install in a residential township/city development

The solar system/lighting itself was a new subject for the company, which needed to understand the following:

1. Exact functioning of each component being used in solar lighting.
2. Latest innovations in the technology
3. Technical and commercial comparison between conventional and solar lighting system
4. Maintenance of the overall system

To overcome

• The company identified some of the best manufacturers of components and system integrators
• Discussed the designs and lux (illumination) level requirements in detail
• Insisted that the vendors provide mock-up lighting with complete system including solar panels, LEDs, batteries, poles, etc, at site as per their designs and proposal
• Checked the performance of the complete system
• on daily basis for a period of two months
• Understood the design processes and required calculations of every component in solar system
• Depending on the Discovery City requirements and first such a large residential city project, we got the solar system at a very competitive price

This being the first solar system for us, we have given the maintenance under vendor scope for a period of five years and which may be extended subsequently.

This project has been awarded as performance-based contract and is not comparable with the contracts like BOT, BOOT, etc. Here the vendor has to supply and install the solar poles and has to maintain for five years. All the technical parameters like lux level, LED efficiency depreciation, down time, etc have been tied up during the commissioning time and maintenance period.

Input from Ramky Infrastructure