World over, Smart Grid technologies are getting prominence as a means to solve the toughest energy crisis. GE has outlined major plans in bringing Smart Grid technologies to India and also in Africa and the Middle East where power reforms are underway. Gursharan Bhatia, in an interaction with Venugopal Pillai, discusses how GE plans to spread the use of Smart Grid in India. He also dwells on the expansion plans of leading transformer maker Indo-Tech Transformer Ltd where GE, through Prolec GE, is now a majority stakeholder.
Tell us in some detail about GE's equity participation in Indo Tech Transformers Ltd.
The majority stake in Indo Tech Transformers Ltd (74.35 per cent) by Prolec GE is a response to the needs of the market. Prolec GE has over 30 years of experience in the industry, with products installed in more than 30 countries around the world.
What is the current installed capacity of ITTL and what are the capacity expansion plans going forward?
Indo Tech will provide Prolec GE with a competitive manufacturing base and a skilled workforce in India, one of the world's fastest growing economies. It will provide Prolec GE with a foundation for continued growth throughout the region, where the business already has a significant presence.
The facilities are located in close proximity to two ports and an international airport, which are ideal for target export areas, expanding Prolec GE's global growth opportunities.
India is now moving to the EHV regime with the emergence of 765kV substations and 800kV transmission lines. What is GE's plan to tap this new business opportunity?
Our product palette includes distribution transformers 100KVA upwards, power transformers up to 220kV, 160 MVA and power transformers from Prolec GE, Mexico, up to 500kV, 500 MVA. With higher capacities and technology available with Prolec GE, going forward we will diversify from our current range.
How do you see growing opportunities for Indian transformers in the international markets? How is GE gearing up in this direction and which countries would form the backbone of its export performance?
Quality and technology of Indian transformers is today comparable to world standards. Indian players have considerable presence in export market. We will continue to tap markets like Australia, Oman, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia and the Middle East.
What is the current annual demand for transformers (power and distribution) in India? Where do you see this reaching by 2015? Do you think Indian companies are gearing up with new capacities to meet this demand?
Transformer demands can be of two types: power transformers in the range of 10MVA to 500MVA, 132kV and above with the annual demand being 105,000 MVA; and distribution transformers of 11kV to 66kV and up to 5 MVA with the demand around 45,000 MVA.
Does India face competition from transformers supplied by Chinese companies?
Chinese manufacturers have made inroads in dry type distribution transformers. In power transformers, they have package deals with independent power producers.
In very simple terms, please explain the concept of Smart Grid.
Smart Grid solutions enable utilities to increase energy productivity and power reliability while empowering customers to better manage their electricity consumption and costs through real-time knowledge exchange. This helps electricity customers lower their carbon footprints, without having to compromise lifestyle or habits.
Call it "Demand Side Management" or call it "Time of Use" pricing, optimising demand brings in choices around comfort and cost.
There is no greater hassle for electricity customers than power outage. The suite of smart grid products and technologies (including and not limited to distribution management and outage management) help maximise system uptime, while also helping the utility more quickly to restore power to homes and businesses in the event of an outage. This delivery optimisation, hence, not only improves reliability, but also reduces losses by better visibility and management.
In addition to monetary and convenience benefits, customers will be part of the effort to employ smarter energy alternatives designed to help the growing energy demand, thereby helping customers conserve energy and reduce their carbon emissions.
The gains achieved by upgrading to a smarter grid from conventional are like switching from a typewriter to a word processor. The smart grid is not a "product", but rather a strategic collection of smart devices and applications applied to the grid that provide an abundance of real-time information on the performance of the grid and allow for smarter and faster decisions to be made.
In the medium to long term, India is expected to add around 16,000 mw of new generation capacity per year supported with matching T&D infrastructure. What is the role that Smart Grids can play in achieving muchneeded energy efficiency?
India's generating capacity is to grow from 150 GW in 2010 to 800 GW in 2030. With urbanisation, the demand-supply gap is ever increasing. The government's implementation process of RAPDRP is a great step towards reducing this gap and to gear up for the future demands. Through modernisation of infrastructure, integrating ICT with IT and power control applications, and building the infrastructure for integrating renewable technologies and efficient demand side management being planned, the Smart Grid will play an instrumental role in addressing all the issues, while reducing the AT&C losses, and improving delivery efficiencies.
Do you think that (governmentowned) power utilities in India are showing sufficient inclination in adopting Smart Grid technologies?
Without doubt, India is one of the adopters of Smart Grid technologies, and every element of the power system in India acknowledges the same. Not only are the power utilities, both governmentowned and private, gearing up for charting out plans for adopting Smart Grid technologies, the ministry of power and the electricity regulatory commissions are devising strategies for its adoption for both medium and long term.
We understand that Smart Grid solutions are currently deployed by developed countries. Which developing countries are showing keenness in adopting this technology?
Developed Western countries have been early adopters of this technology. However, the definition of the Smart Grid is ever evolving and each country has a specific motive for its adoption/implementation.
Please summarise GE's growth plans for Smart Grid solutions in India. With global products and research (supported by our technology centres at Hyderabad and Bengaluru), we believe that GE Energy will have a major play in the Smart Grid implementation programme for India.
The T&D segment is said to be the weak link with government's focus traditionally being on generation. Do you feel matters are improving? What measures would you suggest to expedite project implementation in T&D?
The R-APDRP is the right step by the Government of India towards this objective of keeping T&D apace with power distribution. Smart Grid is the definite next step towards this endeavour. The grid needs to be "Smart" to cope with intermittent energy sources and Smart Grid technologies enable the optimisation and integration of wind, solar and other alternative energy solutions. In addition, sophisticated controls enable the potential for widespread distributed generation to become a reality. |