The Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL), a subsidiary of RITES Limited,has received a mandate from the Indian Railways to tender, supervise and manage 3GW of solar projects which are to be set up on vacant railway land. The project will be divided into three phases each having an installed capacity of 1 GW. The first and third phase will be developed on a public-private partnership basis under a design-build-finance-operate-transfer model, while the second phase will be based on an ownership model with REMCL as the owner and will be eligible for capital subsidy. Suitable land has been identified and will be leased to REMCL on a nominal lease rent.
The 3 GW projects are slated to be completed by 2022-23. This project will further REMCL’s reputation as a green energy solutions provider. REMCL can expect to earn long-term revenue through supply management from these projects beyond just the bid management fee received in the beginning. The revenue may amount to about Rs 200 million annually for the period of project operation. Beyond renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, REMCL is responsible for handling the power procurement under open access for Indian Railways. Earlier, the REMCL has floated a tender to set up wind-solar projects in November 2019 as well as for setting up 32.56 MW of rooftop solar projects in October 2019.