NEW DELHI:
A model 1MW Smart Micro Grid Solar Power Plant built in Neemrana, Rajasthan, by the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) to demonstrate integration of solar power with backup diesel generators has begun commercial operations, supplying clean, stable, renewable energy to its first industrial consumer – Japanese automotive parts manufacturer Mikuni India Pvt. Ltd.
The 1MW unit is a part of a larger project by the DMICDC — which also includes a 5MW Model Solar Power Plant that uses thin film technology — being implemented in partnership with the New Energy and Industrial Technology 
Development Organization (NEDO), Government of Japan, with Japanese firms supplying solar panels and equipment.
The project, which now has a total capacity of 6MW, is spread over 36 acres of land allocated by the Rajasthan State Industrial Development & Investment Corporation (RIICO) in the Japanese Zone, Neemrana.
The DMICDC Neemrana Solar Power Company Limited, which manages the project, has a power purchase agreement (PPA) with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVNL) for the 5MW Solar Power Plant and has been supplying power to the state grid in Rajasthan since September 2015.
Mikuni India Pvt. Ltd. — which is operating in the Industrial Area since 2008, manufacturing a wide range of auto components including electronic control fuel injection system, carburetors, pumps and heaters — executed a 10-year PPA for the 1MW Micro Grid Solar Power Project in May 2016.
Power began flowing to Mikuni India Pvt. Ltd., from Monday (July 10, 2017). The plant which has a 1 MW Solar PV integrated with 2 MW Diesel Generator sets, has been built with the support of NEDO and Hitachi Ltd.
DMICDC has set up the 6MW project in Neemrana to give a fillip to the large-scale use of solar power and smart micro grid technology, and promote its replication in other industrial areas. Neemrana falls in Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana Investment Region, one of the eight industrial nodes being developed in Phase I of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
“We are encouraging a shift to clean energy, for instance combining renewable solar power with reliable backup from diesel generators, to help reduce the overall industrial carbon footprint,” said Alkesh Kumar Sharma, CEO and MD of DMICDC. “It would also give a boost to indigenous manufacture of solar panel and other equipment and technology.”
