India-NZ at Kotla was first match held without gensets: BSES

New Delhi, Nov 2 (IANS) In a historic first at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium here Wednesday night, an international cricket match was held without using diesel gensets for power, thus, saving the environment the equivalent of 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide, BSES, one of Delhi's two distribution companies (discoms) said on Thursday.

"It was the first time that an international cricket match was successfully conducted at Feroz Shah Kotla without using a single genset," a BSES statement said.

The discom said Wednesday's match was also the first ever on this scale in the capital to be powered solely by grid electricity "as the use of diesel gensets in Delhi-NCR was banned by EPCA (Environment Pollution Control Authority) on October 18."

"Absence of diesel gensets help prevent 20 tonnes of Co2 from being released in the capital's environment."

According to BSES, the Delhi District Cricket Association requested for an additional load of 3,500 KW for the match, while the body has a sanctioned load of 1,800 KW.

Faced with a total requirement of 5,800 MW, or a load increase of 260 per cent, the discom embarked on a war footing to complete the network augmentation in three days, the company said.

"With no cushion of any back-up gensets, BSES Yamuna Power Ltd had the sole responsibility to ensure uninterrupted power supply, at the right voltage and with no fluctuation," a discom spokesperson said.

If the gensets were used for power supply in the stadium, it would have consumed around 7,500 litres of diesel, which would have resulted in emission of 20 tonnes of Co2, 120 kg of nitrogen oxide and 4 kg of PM 2.5 emission into the atmosphere," he added.

The match on Wednesday witnessed other landmarks. It was first time that India beat New Zealand in a T20 international.

It was also the last international cricket match for former Test match fast bowler Ashish Nehra, who also plays for Delhi in domestic cricket.