Solarizing Indian Oil Filling Stations

Bluebird Solar is one of the premium quality solar PV Module manufacturers and the leading rooftop solar & EPC service provider in India. This year, the company has been putting continuous efforts in order to provide cleaner and sustainable energy while meeting stakeholder needs.

A large number of petrol pump stations cater to the fuel demand of the country, however, the reliability and operational efficiency of most petrol pumps are severely affected by power shortages. Many petrol pumps are in either rural areas or outskirts of urban areas, which always face a lack of power supply. So, running solar water pumps on solar power is the best solution.

Bluebird Solar finds itself fortunate to get impaneled with Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and contribute towards its aim to go green by Solarizing its Retail outlets and Kisan Sewa Kendras. With our team of highly qualified and experienced professionals, we have successfully installed more than 260KWp of rooftop solar power plants at 34 IOCL petrol pumps at various locations in north & east India. In all the rooftop solar power plant installations done at IOCL petrol pumps Bluebird Solar 325W polycrystalline solar panel has been used.

Petrol pump owners have immensely benefited by opting for solar power, one of the many reasons is the reduction in their electricity bills and the operational cost of diesel generators. In addition to this, the solarization of petrol pumps delivered a positive message to customers about IOCL as a responsible business entity. It drastically reduced breakdown expenses and increased sales at the outlets due to seamless service. “Solar is not just about being environment-friendly. It is paying off financially as it helps raise sales & bring down the operating cost for petrol pumps,” said AK Sharma, director (finance) at Indian Oil Corp.

A few years ago, Mr.Vikas Sharma, the manager of an Indian Oil filling station at Bhojpur in Ghaziabad, used to lose up to 10 percent of his monthly sales because of long hour power cuts and availability of electricity for only 8-10 Hrs a day, not necessarily during business hours. “Most of the customers are in a hurry, by the time you get your boys to start the backup generator, the customer would have left. That’s the cost one pays daily for being dependent on grid power,” said Mr.Sharma. Sometimes the staff at filling stations are too lazy to start the generator, knowing the cost of running it would be more than the money made from a motorcyclist wanting to fill Rs.20 worth of petrol.

"All these accumulate into a substantial loss of business in a month,” said Sharma, who installed solar panels in early 2018 at his decade-old pump to meet fuel demand which is increasing with rising rural incomes and roads getting increasingly better. "This has changed everything for us" he said.

Mr. S.K. Singh of an Indian Oil Kisan Sewa Kendra located 16.5 KM away from Lucknow got a 10KW off-grid solar power system installed at his filling station. He used to face 5-6 hr long power cuts daily & during blackouts, he used to run the pump on a diesel generator that consumed 7.5 Lts. of diesel every day, costing him upto Rs.15000 per month. Besides this, his monthly utility bill used to be Rs.10000/ month. His dependency on diesel Genset came to zero after Bluebird Solar commissioned a rooftop solar power plant at his place, thus saving his expenses of Rs.15000 on diesel & reducing his electricity bill to Rs.7000 per month. This way he is now saving a total of Rs.216000 per year.

Bluebird Solar has been installing solar power projects since 2017 and has an EPC portfolio of 8MW including installed & under execution projects. We have been contributing to the "National Solar Mission" with our products and services and strive to satisfy our customers with the best quality.