Q.1 How you assess the Indian electrical industry amid the second wave of Covid 19?

 

Indian economy, industrial production, manufacturing industry, especially the capital goods sector, were already reeling under the severe onslaught of the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic and countrywide lockdown. Indian GDP shrank by 7.3% in the year 2020-21. The electrical equipment industry declined by 19.6% between April and February 2021 compared to April – February 2020, as per

IEEMA statistics.  When the Indian electrical industry was looking forward to the first sign of green shoots of recovery, the tsunami of the second wave of COVID-19 and subsequent regional lockdowns ruined any chance of early recovery of the sector.  After Govt. of India achieved its target of "100% electrification of villages investment in the distribution sector were reduced substantially. As a result, the financial health of many DISCOMs is highly precarious, thus dampening the direct purchases by these DISCOMs also. In addition, outstanding from DISCOMs have also ballooned, affecting the cash flow of Indian electrical industries. As per IEEMA estimate, the total overdue outstanding of 135 member organizations of IEEMA was INR 6500 Crs. With such substantial outstanding and severe cash flow problem, many MSME equipment manufacturers or component manufacturers will not recover even after normalcy returns. This will create a massive churning in the electrical equipment manufacturing sector, and many small manufacturers will find it difficult to continue their operation in the long run.  However, among this gloom, the only glimmer of hope for the industry is the government commitment towards Productivity Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes

for domestic manufacturing of Advance Chemistry Cell (ACC) Batteries, High- efficiency Solar PV modules, White Goods (ACs & LEDs) under "Aatmanirbhar Bharat scheme. In addition, govt. of India is also committed to improving the quality of electrical products available in the market through various Quality Control Orders. These two policies will give a fillip to world-class quality electrical equipment manufacturing in India for national and international markets.

 

 

What's your take on the gap between education and employability in our country, especially in the power industry?

 

Every year on an average, 15 lakh students get their degree in engineering, but due to the lack of skill required to perform technical jobs, less than 20 per cent get employment in their core domain. However, the quality of engineers coming out from various middle rung engineering colleges are far from satisfactory. Suitable engineers for the power industry are not readily available in the job market. Also, the new age engineers coming out fresh from the colleges are not always industry-ready. Hence industries need to train the fresh engineers as per their requirement for one year or more to make them industry-ready. Therefore,

a lot of time and resources are to be spent to make them industry-ready. The jobs in the industry require patience and passion, and thus retaining those trained engineers are the most significant challenge faced by the industry.  If we consider other professional courses like Medical Sciences, Law, Chartered Accountant, they complete duration of internship or apprenticeship before they are professionally enrolled. We have never tried to implement this kind of rigorous skill-based training for our engineering graduates. Before the final year, the one-month vocational training fulfils a part of the curriculum without fulfilling the skill development. We may think about a bold suggestion for engineering graduates also. The B.Tech project which students do in their last six months (8th semester) may be scrapped. Instead, they should work in an industry as an apprentice, and the industry will give their final grading following some fixed guidelines. To implement this kind of training, both the technical institutes and the industries need to work hand-in-hand. The college has to identify all the industries nearby and the specific training they can provide. Based on that, the students can choose their industry and training area. If effectively implemented, it will help all three stakeholders: the academic institutes, the tie-up industries, and the graduating engineers. 

 

Do you have any ongoing training program? 

 

We conduct workshops on various evaluation and other technical topics with both theoretical and practical sessions from time immemorial. These workshops are widely popular among manufacturers, utilities, industries and laboratory personnel. During the last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a restriction of movement among our customers. Hence, we conducted various online webinars and workshops, both during the first and second wave period, to benefit our customers. We have received tremendous response and participation for these webinars and workshops. This positive response has encouraged us to plan more webinars and workshops than last year. The latest calendar of these workshops is available on our website www.erda.org.

 

How is the company emerging to fulfil the needs of the Indian electrical industry?

 

ERDA supports all Government initiatives to improve the quality of electrical products manufactured in India or exported from outside. The government of India promulgates Quality Control Orders for various electrical equipment from time to time, mandating these products to be sold in India with BIS certification. During the implementation of the Quality Control Order for Distribution Transformers as per BIS 1180, ERDA rose to the challenge and substantially increased its infrastructure and significantly improved its operational efficiency. Thus ERDA was able to test around 3000 Distribution Transformers per year. Today around 700 DT manufacturers are BIS certified, and ERDA has tested over 75% of India Distribution Transformers, thus making this QCO a success.  At present, the primary focus of electricity seems to be on smart energy meters. Millions of smart energy meters are being installed in the distribution system in India. However, we need to be very careful about the quality of such meters being produced. Otherwise, the customer may lose confidence in these meters, and the adaptability of the scheme would be under doubt. For us, this creates a unique challenge of testing various smart energy meters accurately within the shortest possible time. So far, we have successfully met these challenges and have become the most preferred laboratory for smart meters in India. All the global manufacturers of smart meters are coming to us to evaluate their products under BIS 16444 & 15959.

 

How is ERDA providing assistance to motor and control gear manufacturers?

 

We have complete testing facilities for Low Voltage Induction Motor (up to 150HP) and Low Voltage Switchgear and Control gear as per the latest standards with NABL and BIS accreditation. Govt. of India has enacted Quality Control Order on LV Induction Motor as per IS 12615:2011 and on LV Switchgear & Control gear as per IS 60947. ERDA provides complete testing facilities to LV Induction Motor and LV Switchgear and Control gear manufacturers to obtain BIS certification for these products. We also offer a developmental testing facility on these products to manufacturers, SMEs and start-ups in this field. They can

utilize this option at a highly discounted rate to develop and improve their product design. We also offer expert services for design up-gradation to meet the energy efficiency challenges and new application challenges like Textiles and e-vehicles. ERDA has provided various designs to small scale industries in Ahmedabad and Surat region to meet these specific application challenges, including energy efficiency. In addition, ERDA has provided its expert services to various small scale industries to develop their own motors for e-vehicle applications. ERDA has also developed high-efficiency IE3 & IE4 Induction Motors, and these technologies are available for commercialization. ERDA has developed a novel process for manufacturing economic Silver-Tin oxide contacts containing 14% Tin-oxide using the powder metallurgy route. The

contact tip made using the new method has been evaluated for material properties. The performance of contacts in contactor of 16A, AC3 rating conforms to IEC 60947-4-1 (2012) for endurance test and is found to be at par with conventional contacts. This technology is readily available for commercialization.

 

How is ERDA transforming itself to cater to the emerging needs of the Indian electrical industry?

 

We at ERDA had always maintained pace with the changing electrical, industrial scenario. ERDA was the first Indian laboratory to get BIS accreditation for Smart Meter testing as per IS 16444: 2015 way back in April 2016. We also got accreditation for the DLMS COSEM communication protocol testing facility for smart meters. Today we test more than 50% of India Smart Meters.  Similarly, we have set up a communication protocol testing facility as per IEC 61850 for communicable IEDs. This facility has become helpful for indigenous manufacturers of communicable protection relays in India. On the R&D front, ERDA has set up a Grid Simulator facility for research in the power systems field. We have also set up India's first High-Temperature Low Sag (HTLS) conductor testing facilities, for which Indian manufacturers earlier travelled to foreign countries. This facility will give a great fillip to Indian manufacturers and utilities for HTLS conductor.  In our state-of-the-art High Voltage Partial Discharge laboratory, we have started testing GIS and HV Cables up to 245 kV. Furthermore, in our 10 meters semi-anechoic chamber, EMI / EMC testing is done as per commercial and MIL standards. As a result, local manufacturers can develop global standard products

and export them to the global market or use them for our indigenous defence manufacturing sector.  ERDA had pioneered testing of Power Transformers at manufacturer's works independently with its own instrument under NABL accreditation at the behest of various TRANSCOs. We have now added a state-of-the-art Portable Accurate Transformer Loss measuring system with a higher range and better accuracy in

our repertoire. With the help of this portable instrument, we shall be able to test Power Transformers up to 500MVA independently, 400kV, 3 phase and 500MVA, 765kV, 1 phase rating, at manufacturer's works, the highest rating of Power Transformers commercially manufactured in India.  Our Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji, on his "Mann ki Baat" programme on 27th December 2020, emphasized that "it is time to ensure that our products meet global standards. Whatever is global best; we should make it in India and prove it." ERDA is working relentlessly towards fulfilling this goal by

uplifting the quality of Indian Electrical equipment to a global standard and contributing to the nation's development.

 

 

What are the markets served by ERDA? 

 

All the power utilities in India accept our test reports. At ERDA, we test equipment from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Dwarka to Dibrugarh, i.e. from all over India. Apart from that, ERDA is well known and widely accepted for its reliable test reports in some of the SAARC countries, Middle East, Far East and African countries. Even the world's best-known certification agencies, e.g. Intertek (ASTA), UL, KEMA, CSA, TUV etc., have accredited ERDA as their evaluation partner. Middle East countries like Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Far East countries like Malaysia, Vietnam accept ERDA's test reports. Among our neighbours, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka accept ERDA Test reports. Moreover, ERDA engineers regularly visit Middle East countries to conduct Onsite testing and calibration jobs. ERDA is thriving to expand its horizon to other countries across the world.

 

What are the future plans of ERDA? What will be the outlook of the Indian Electrical industry in the coming quarters?

 

We are setting up a complete type testing facility of Solar PV Panels as per IS 14286 and IS / IEC 61730 at Vadodara. This project is expected to be completedby December 2021. We will also be upgrading its existing 600kV Partial Discharge Test Facility to  and has planned to set up a Climatic Test facility for Dry Type Transformer, Fully Automatic Transformer Test System. In addition, ERDA is also planning to upgrade its Conducted immunity and Radiated immunity test facility under EMI/EMC Testing facility. We will also set up an e-vehicle charger testing facility to support the growing EV infrastructure in India. However, the dream project of ERDA is to set up a Centre of Excellence for Medium Voltage Short Circuit Laboratory for testing of Medium Voltage Switchgear equipment and Power Transformers up to 50 MVA, 132kV. ERDA

believes it to be a project of national importance. This project is having an outlay of around Rs. 600 Cr. The financial closure of this project is awaited from the Government of India and the Government of Gujarat. We are cautiously optimistic about the rejuvenation of the Indian electrical industry if we can reign in the future spread of the COVID 19 pandemic and the overall economy springs back to normal. We hope that India and the world will come out of this COVID-19 menace at the earliest. The Indian electrical industry will emerge from this testing times stronger like the proverbial Phoenix reborn from its ashes.