Sri Vijaya Puram, Oct. 25: Hon'ble Union Minister of Power and Housing & Urban Affairs, Govt. of India, Shri Manohar Lal, arrived on a day’s visit to A&N Islands today. The Hon'ble Union Minister visited NLC India Limited 20 MW Solar PV Plant with 8 MWHr/16 MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) Plant Site at Dollygunj. Hon'ble Union Minister enquired about the power generation capacity & distribution of Solar Plant with the NLC officials present at the Plant Site. The Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman, Shri Arjun Sharma, IAS, Secretary (Labour & Employment), Dr. Anil Agarwal, Director (Power), Dr. Prashant Kumar, Senior Officers of A&N Administration, NLC India Limited and Electricity Department were present during the visit.

The Executive Director, REPP, NLC, Shri B. Anbuchelvan, briefed the Minister about the functioning of the Solar Plant and other power projects of NLC in A&N Islands. The 20 MW Solar Plant set up by NLCIL is a first of a kind MW Scale Solar integration with Battery Storage System in India. The BESS is set up to smoothen out variations in Solar generation due to intermittent cloud cover, he added.

Thereafter, the Hon'ble Minister of Power visited 5 MW Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Plant at Garacharma by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), commissioned in March 2013. This plant is the first initiative by the NTPC and A&N Administration for increased renewable energy deployment for greening the Islands thereby contributing to the socio-economic development of the Islands. Shri Anil Shrivastava, CGM, NTPC briefed the Hon’ble Minister about the functioning of the Solar Power Plant.