Kolkata: Kolkata Metro’s Blue Line has become the country’s first metro corridor to get battery backup that will carry the trains to the next station during an outage.
The new Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) is a set of converters that will kick into life when regular power supply fails.
This first of its kind system in Indian Railways was set up at the substation next to Central station.
Three trials were conducted with fully loaded rakes prior to the launch. The rakes covered 20 km at 55 kmph, switching to BESS to emerge out of tunnels after the power was cut off.
The system can cover 35 km and sequentially pull out 18 trains one by one.
The BESS can also supply electricity for tunnel ventilation and environment control system (AC) in underground stations.
The green batteries are also expected to reduce the metro network’s energy footprint and electricity bill.
