Delhi Metro earns ₹19.5 crore by selling 3.55 million carbon credits

Delhi Metro is the first Metro or railway project in the world to be registered by the United Nations under the Clean Development Mechanism to claim carbon credits for its Regenerative Braking Project in 2007

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has earned ₹19.5 crore from the sale of the 3.55 million carbon credits that it collected over a period of six years (2012-18) by investing in clean development mechanism projects.

In the regenerative braking project, whenever trains on the Metro network apply brakes, three phase - traction motors installed on these trains act as generators to produce electrical energy which goes back into the overhead electricity lines (Representative photo/HT)

Delhi Metro has registered four of its projects with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). The projects are: regenerative braking, Modal Shift, MRTS Program of Activities and solar project.

Anuj Dayal, executive director, corporate communications, DMRC said, “All these projects are first of their kind in the world. Delhi Metro is the first Metro or railway project in the world to be registered by the United Nations under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to claim carbon credits for its Regenerative Braking Project in 2007.”

The CDM is a project-based Green House Gas (GHG) offset mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, allowing the public and private sector in high-income nations the opportunity to purchase carbon credits from greenhouse gas emissions-reducing projects in low or middle-income nations as part of their efforts to meet international emissions targets under the Kyoto protocol.

The DMRC earned ₹9.55 crore from the sale of carbon credits it generated from the regenerative braking project—DMRC’s first CDM project. In the regenerative braking project, whenever trains on the Metro network apply brakes, three phase - traction motors installed on these trains act as generators to produce electrical energy which goes back into the Over Head Electricity (OHE) lines. The regenerated electrical energy that is supplied back to the OHE is used by other accelerating trains in the same service line, thus saving overall energy in the system as about 30% of electricity requirement is reduced.

The second important CDM project is about modal shift in Delhi ever since DMRC started its operations. Dayal said, “The essence of this project is that the carbon footprint of people travelling by metro is much lesser than that of the same journeys performed by other modes of transport.”

Then there is a solar project and Program of Activities. Under PoA, DMRC has been providing CDM consultancy service to other Metro systems in India since 2015. “DMRC is enabling them to earn carbon credits from their project. Already Gujarat Metro, Mumbai Metro and Chennai Metro etc. have registered their projects under the Delhi Metro’s Program of Activities (PoA) project,” said Dayal.

In 2014, Delhi Metro registered with the prestigious ‘Gold Standard Foundation’, Switzerland, which is also a globally accepted certification standard for carbon mitigation projects. The Metro has registered four projects with the Gold Standard Foundation.

Dayal said, “Total revenue generation from CDM and Gold Standard projects since inception has been ₹29.05 crore.”