Shimla gets waste-to-energy plant

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, November 20

Shimla has joined the league of cities having a waste-to-energy plant.

In the pipeline for many years now, the plant located on the outskirts of the city has started generating power from the garbage.

“The plant has been set up by Elephant Energy, an Australian company, in Private Public Partnership mode with Shimla Municipal Corporation,” said Municipal Commissioner Ashish Kohli.

Power purchase agreement

• The project coordinator said that the plant would start transmitting power to the nearby electricity grid.
• He said that there’s a power purchase agreement in place with the Electricity Department. The department will purchase power at over Rs 7 per unit.
• The transmission of power to the grid would start in the next couple of days.

“We are providing roughly 100 ton garbage to the plant every day and the plant will generate 1.7MW electricity from it,” said Kohli.

Apart from generating electricity, the plant ensures the cash-strapped MC doesn’t have to pay anything for disposing of the garbage it collects from within the Municipal limits and nearby areas.

“We just gave land to the company for setting up the plant.

The company has set up the plant on its own and is disposing our waste free of cost. Other ULBs pay close to Rs 2,000 per to waste management plants for disposing of one ton garbage,” said Kohli, adding that Shimla MC was the only ULB in the state to have a waste-to-energy plant.

The MC collects around 80 ton waste every day from Shimla and around 20 ton waste is gathered from the neighbouring places. All this waste, both dry and wet, is transported to the plant in Bhariyal, a few km away from the city.

While the dry waste is most suitable for the producing energy, the MC is giving both dry and wet waste to the company.

“The company has installed dryers to dry up the wet waste and use it for producing energy,” said Project Coordinator DP Singh. He further said that disposing garbage through waste-to-energy plant is relatively environment friendly.

“If the waste is burnt at low temperatures, it releases carcinogenic gases into the environment. In the waste-to-energy plants, the waste is burnt at 700 to 800 degree temperatures, converting it into synergic gases,” said Singh.

The project coordinator further said that the plant would start transmitting power to the nearby electricity grid.

“There’s a power purchase agreement in place with the Electricity Department. The department will purchase power at over Rs 7 per unit. That’s how the company will recover its investment and recurring cost,” said Singh, adding that the transmission of power to the grid would start in the next couple of days.