Thursday, August 06, 2014:The solar power sector in India is going to see a new dawn very soon. The future of this sector looks brighter with power and automation technologies maker ABB India Ltd.’s initiatives to remotely monitor the solar plants. This development is due to help increase electricity output. Talks are on between numerous solar power sector bodies and the company as the latter needs to understand their basic necessities urgently.
This company already has a solar division, which is working on creating inverters and switch gears. It also works as a solution provider for solar power units regarding operations and maintenance issues. This particular division is chalking out a plan to have its focus on the booming roof-top solar power generation market as this is expected to be the biggest thing in this sector in the years ahead.
ABB India Ltd, a major player in the engineering sector, is also quite hopeful about its recently launched solar pump drives, which have been specifically modified to meet the special requirements of the Indian market. These redesigned solar pump drives will help provide uninterrupted power supply to the rural and the agricultural sector. The recent budget has also announced allocation of Rs 4,000 million for solar pumps and this may lead to around 25 per cent rise in the company sales in 2014-15. These pumps will be quite beneficial in this country as farmers’ dependence on conventional grid power is due to reduce certainly.
A H Kawdikar, vice president and country head (solar), stated about the company’s future plans, “We are a company with a long term perspective in renewable energy sector especially solar and wind power. We want to grow in this sector by building on our key competencies power and automation technologies.” He gave some more inputs about their new project, “In solar sector we have taken number of initiatives one of them is how to make the inverter more grid interactive. The other one is how to remotely monitor the solar power plants. As these plants are remotely located, an expert cannot remain present at the site everyday. So we are talking to existing solar power plant operators in Gujarat and having discussion on their requirements for remote monitoring of the plant.”
As per Kawdikar, the company is also working on roof-top solar power systems which has been a huge success in Gandhinagar and other states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi are also planning to join the league soon. In Vadodara the company is making its presence felt by providing electrical side support to the 10 Mw canal top solar power project. This leading man of the company said that the first half of this financial year was not so smooth for them as decisions got delayed. An optimistic Kawdiker clarified further, “But for the second half we are optimistic and see significant growth during this period. Our order book was for equipment of 100 Mw capacity. We expect another 200 MW business in the second half.”
