Kolkata Metro adopts battery energy storage system for efficiency, passenger safety

Kolkata, Feb 25 (PTI) Metro Railway Kolkata on Wednesday commissioned a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) along the underground stretch of its Blue Line to enhance energy efficiency and ensure passenger safety during power outages.

The underground section of the Blue Line covers the 17-km stretch between Dumdum and Mahanayak Uttam Kumar (Tollygunge).

The entire Blue Line corridor runs 27 km from Dakshineswar to Sahid Khudiram (Birji), with the Dakshineswar-Dumdum and Mahanayak Uttam Kumar-Sahid Khudiram sections being elevated.

Metro Railway Kolkata general manager Subransu Sekhar Mishra said that after the successful implementation of the 6.4 MWh BESS at the Central sub-station, it became the first microgrid system installed at a Metro station in the country, comprising 88 racks, each equipped with an inbuilt fire suppression system.

"The back-up application will haul passenger-loaded trains in case of any power outage and take the rake to the nearest station for safe evacuation of passengers," Mishra said.

"Also, if there is a power outage, the tunnel ventilation control system will continue to function, and commuters will not face suffocation," he added.

He described the initiative as an initial project following a successful trial conducted a day earlier.

"It is a starting phase, and we will slowly proliferate it," Mishra said.

On future plans, he said, "We wish to add another power converter component in this BESS so that it can also absorb excess regenerative energy which could not be utilised in the absence of a Metro rake being in the accelerative mode." Niranjan Nayak, managing director of Delta Electronics India, which built the power converter, said, "The BESS is capable of transmitting auxiliary power and running any train in the entire tunnel section from Dumdum to Mahanayak Uttam Kumar." "The deployment of BESS will provide energy-efficient power solutions in the Blue Line as part of our commitment to provide critical public infrastructure across India," the official of the firm, a leading provider of power management and smart green solutions, said. PTI SUS MNB