From waste to energy: NDMC attempts at easing power woes

As the residents in the national capital grapple with an acute power crisis, the New Delhi Municipal Council is doing its bit to ease the situation by daily contributing 16MW of electricity generated from solid waste to 8,000 households in the city.

The civic body is generating power using solid waste as fuel at a ‘Waste To Energy’ plant on NDMC land in Okhla. This plant generates 16MW of electricity per day which is being used by 8,000 households, said NDMC chairperson Jalaj Shrivastava.

The plant, set up in 2011, processes 1,300MT municipal waste, of which 200 to 400 MT is contributed by NDMC as fuel. It is equipped with modern systems and uses the latest technologies to minimise health  and environmental risks, Shrivastava said.

NDMC has so far delivered an approximate quantity of about 2 lakh metric tons of solid municipal waste to the Okhla plant site. Approximately Rs 6 crore has been saved till dates, which were earlier being paid as sanitary landfill charges. Earlier NDMC was paying Rs. 300/- per ton, as Sanitary landfill charge, which amounts to an expenditure of Rs. 75,000/- per day. Now, the NDMC is able to save Rs. 2.73 crores per year.

The plant is equipped with the latest technologies, to minimize health & environmental impacts. The advantage of this plant has been used to treat sewerage water and therefore there is no consumption of drinking water. 

The plant also ensures that it burns the maximum amount of segregated waste, while minimizing pollution levels. The plant, set up as a Public-Private Partnership project on DBOT (Design, Built, Operate, and Transfer) scheme, also ensures that it achieves burning of maximum level of segregated waste to minimise pollution levels. Jalaj Shrivastava also informed that to solve drinking water problems, NDMC is planning to come up with to ‘Pay & Use’ drinking water ATMs in its area. Children from council-run schools will however have free drinking water. People can use either a token or a card to purchase drinking water from these water facilities. A survey for installation of these types of ATMs is in progress.

The quality of water is set to meet ISO:10500 standards. This project will be begin operations under the public-private partnership model with the condition that the agency is asked to work with low income communities to create awareness for safe drinking water.