The energy bill of NSCBI airport in Kolkata has come down to Rs 5 lakh a day, and the airport is no longer paying hefty bill, thanks to its captive solar power plant.

Energy consumption has came down and energy bill per month has been reduced by Rs 1.5 crore after the 15 mega watt solar power plant was commissioned at the airport on 5 December last year, a senior official of NSCBI airport said.

In November last year, the gross power bill at the airport was Rs 2,78,29,872 and on 17 December it came down to Rs 2,21,07,887 after the solar power plant was commissioned.

On 18 January this year gross energy bill at the airport was around Rs 1,60,52,475, as per the power consumption report at Kolkata airport.

The energy bill in the near future will come down by a great extent as the solar power plant is now generating surplus energy, a senior official of the electricity department of NSCBI airport said.

The power bill on 18 February this year, amounting to Rs 2,02,70,920 is much lower than the power bill which was generated in February 2017, said a senior engineer of the electricity department.

The energy bill this year during February is higher than in January because of the use of air conditioners, the official said. Excess power generated by the plant was injected to CESC.

The power plant had injected 5,19,000 units (in kilowatt hours) in January and in February it had injected 3,13,000 unit (in KWH) to CESC’s DISCOM, according to the power consumtion report.

The Airport Authority of India had entered into an agreement with private power utility CESC so that the excess power generated by the plant can be injected into CESC’s grid and the airport can avail power from the grid when solar power is not available.

The power bill gradually started to come down since November last year when the plant was put on trial run.

The 15 MW plant, whose capacity is the largest among projects installed at various other AAI airports across the country, was installed over 67.5 acre land in the operational area of the airport and it was commissioned on 6 December last year.

It was inaugurated by the then civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju. Only two other AAI airports have the ground mounted grid-connected solar plant – Chandigarh (3 MW) and Jaipur (1.8 MW) airports.