Schneider Electric vying for smart grid projects in India

Schneider Electric is finding a huge business opportunity in the smart grid projects being implemented by various state governments. Under the Re-structured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP) of the Central government, several state governments are taking up projects for integrating power systems with information technology to reduce the wastage of energy during transmission.

 

“Schneider Electric has secured contracts to execute the smart grid projects in Kerala, Bihar, Orissa and Jammu and Kashmir. As per the central power ministry the distribution loss should ideally not more than 15 per cent and it is currently as high as 30 to 35 per cent in many states. Our systems can bring down the loss to the stipulated 15 per cent,” said Prakash Kumar Chandrekar, vice president, energy business, Schneider Electric India. The company seeks to integrate both operational technology and the information technology for efficient grid management. Schneider is competing with companies like Alstom and Siemens in securing contracts for the projects.

 

In order to augment its operations in India, the company has opened a new design and manufacturing facility at Poonamallee in Chennai. The second such automation solutions facility after Noida will cater the needs of not just the Indian market, but some of the company’s key international markets as well. “The facility has been set up by the 24 billion Euro global entity and will serve our markets like Australia, Canada, some of the south east Asian countries and a few Latin American countries,” said Anil Chaudhry, managing director and country president, Schneider Electric India. “Apart from increasing the capacity of the Noida plant, it will make easy availability of products in the Indian market and will also deliver a fully-integrated, digitized self healing feeder automation solution for the first time in India,” claimed Chandrekar.

Posted on Friday, November 29, 2013