Leh in the cold desert region of Ladakh on Monday became the first place in the country to have a solar power run LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil. This would save about 30,000 litres of diesel annually that was being burnt to run the bottling plant.
The 35 MW solar power plant at the POL depot was commissioned by Gurmeet Singh, Director (Marketing) of the Indian Oil. With this, the capacity of the solar plant has enhanced to 135 kws.
The world’s highest LPG bottling plant has been upgraded by adding 6 mounded storage vessels of 300 Metric Tonnes each.
With Leh being cut off for six months in a year due to heavy snow and demand rising exponentially in the winter season, there was a need to augment its storage capacity. Before augmentation, advance winter stocking had to be done by Indian Oil in which 100,000 filled cylinders had to be stored ahead of time. However, with the augmented capacity, the need for storing filled cylinders at the distributor end is minimal.
The bottling plant’s cumulative storage has now increased from 1500 MT to 3300 MT which would prevent any shortfall in supply even during emergencies for the people in Ladakh region and comfortably meet the high demands for LPG during winters. It will also cater to any additional demand by the Indian Army as well.