Q.1Please enlighten us about the journey of KVTEK in India. What are the products and services available for the Indian market?

 

KVTEK was established in 2005 with a clear aim of manufacturing quality High Voltage Test and Measuring Equipment and marketing it across the world. Prior to 2005, we were have involved in marketing, installing, Commissioning and providing after sale service of these equipment in India by sourcing it from Europe and USA. However with emergence of China in this field it became difficult to market these products by sourcing from Europe and USA due to huge price difference.

At that point, we had two options; either to start sourcing from China and keep marketing or start manufacturing these equipment, we chose the later option. We spent good 5 years from 2005 to 2010 in R&D activities; designing, developing these products ourselves. In 2010, we started marketing these equipment in India and then slowly expanded to other international markets as well. Initially the import content was relatively high in our equipment but now the import content is less than 5%.

We are currently involved in following products and services:

1. Setting up the complete Power & Distribution Transformer Test Lab (Both for routine and type tests) on turnkey basis. Major equipment involved are;

  Static Frequency Converter

  Intermediate Multi-Tap Step-up Transformer

  Capacitor Bank (Option of Manual, Semi-Automatic and Fully Automatic is available)

  Transformer Loss Measuring System

  Multi-Channel Partial Discharge Detection System with HV Filter 

  Impulse Voltage Test System

  SR Test Set for separate source test

  Portable C & Tangent Delta Test Set of 12 kV with variable freq. option.

  Winding Resistance meter with Heat run extrapolation software

  Earthing, Site Preparation& Shielding design

 

2. Setting up the High Voltage PD Test Lab for Testing CT/PT/CVT, Cables, Switchgear and other HV Components on turnkey basis. Major equipment involved are;

  High Voltage AC Series Resonant Test Set (Variable Inductance OR Variable Frequency OR both Variable Inductance & Frequency Type)

  Partial Discharge Detection System

  RF Shielded Room

  HV & LV Filters 

  Earthing and Site Preparation design

3. Setting up Impulse Test Lab for Testing CT/PT/CVT, Cables, Switchgear and other HV Components on turnkey basis. Major equipment involved are;

  Impulse Generator

  Impulse Divider & Impulse Shunts

  Multiple Chopping Gap

  PC Based Impulse Control System

  PC Based Impulse Analysing System

  Over Shoot Compensation Device

  Glaninger Circuit

  Earthing and Site Preparation design

4. Capacitance & tangent Delta Test Set with Standard Capacitors

5. AC/DC Kilovoltmeters with Voltage Dividers

6. Online Moisture Absorption System

7. Calibration services for all the above equipment through NABL accredited lab

 

Q.2How has the second wave of the pandemic affected business? How the company is managing risks and ensuring business continuity during the second wave?

 

Second wave of pandemic has affected in terms slowdown in cash flow as many customers are delaying picking up their ready consignments. Many projects on which we were working has been put on-hold temporarily. However fortunately we had the healthy order book so we have managed the continuity of work but sudden increase in raw material costs has severely impacted the business margins.  

 

 

Q.3Could you brief us about the performance of KVTEK and about the overall performance of the industry?

 

High Voltage Test & Measuring Industry is a very niche market and barring China, worldwide there are only 4-5 manufacturers in this field. KVTEK is the only Indian company and the latest entrant in this field. In the span of last one decade, KVTEK has succeeded in creating a space for themselves in this challenging environment by taking the major share of the Indian market and have also succeeded in exporting test equipment to 17 countries so far. All leading names in the field of Power Equipment manufacturing like Siemens, GE, ABB, Toshiba, BHEL etc. are already our regular customers.

Electrical Industry by nature is a very slow changing industry and equally slow in accepting the change in any technology sector especially the testing arena. It normally takes several decades for any new player to succeed in this field but relatively we have been very quick in creating a space for ourselves in this field. We have not just created space for ourselves but have also succeeded in introducing new technologies in the testing field. Historically Transformer manufacturing industry has been using 2 x MG Sets; one as 50Hz power source and another for 100Hz or 200 Hz Power source, some even use voltage regulator as 50Hz power source. This resulted in lot of wastage of time in changing connections from one source to another during transformer testing. KVTEK has successfully introduced Static Frequency Converter (SFC) in lieu of MG Sets and Voltage regulators as single SFC can give you variable output voltage and variable output frequency ranging from 50-200 Hz thus the need of changing connections from one source to another has been eliminated and this significantly improves the testing throughput. Besides saving time, it saves lot of energy, space and noise pollution as well.

KVTEK recently has manufactured and successfully tested the world’s largest Static Frequency Converter of 6 MVA specifically designed for testing large power transformers of 500 MVA rating. This will add growth to our business in the coming years. Besides successfully using SFC for this application of Transformer Testing, KVTEK has also introduced SFC technology in Potential Transformer (PT) Testing. KVTEK’s revolutionary concept of using variable inductance & variable frequency Series Resonant system has made it possible to conduct High Voltage and Partial Discharge Test successfully on PT’s which conventionally was being done by feeding high frequency power from the secondary side of PT (which at best is a makeshift arrangement only). 

The other significant step which KVTEK has taken is that now we have an in house NABL accredited calibration laboratory. This adds lot of depth to our business as we are able to supply all test equipment manufactured with NABL accredited calibration certificate which adds lot of value to our customers as this helps them to get their test labs NABL accredited.

Overall performance of the industry also has been full of turbulence in the last few years as major players from Europe and USA in this field are busy changing their respective owners. Most customers across the world are quickly realizing that it is not prudent to rely heavily on Chinese companies in this field due to serious quality issues and complete lack of after sale service on their part.

 

Q.4What are some of the new and promising technology trends that are shaping the Indian electrical industry?

 

Power Testing Systems industry is going through the transition as there is significant change in the technology. More digital technology in the field of power testing industry is not only helping users to make much more accurate measurements but with increased automation in the technology is also helping the users to significantly increase the testing throughput as well. 

Use of Static Frequency Converters & Transformer Loss Measuring System in Power Transformer industry is helping them immensely to make measurement much more accurately and significantly increasing the number of transformers being tested in a day. 

Use of Variable Inductance & Variable Frequency Series Resonant Test Systems for HVPD Testing of PTs has helped Instrument Transformer Industry immensely in creating a proper testing facility for PTs rather than the makeshift arrangement of feeding high frequency power from secondary side.

Fully automated voltage seasoning equipment for Vacuum Interrupter Bottles has helped the industry in increasing their testing throughput significantly.

Additionally with the option of sourcing quality testing equipment from within India from companies like KVTEK instead of importing it from Europe and US at almost double the price, setting-up the test labs by electrical equipment manufacturers and third party test labs have become very cost effective which is allowing even the smaller players to enter the field of manufacturing power equipment like Power Transformers, Instrument Transformers, XLPE Cables, Switchgears. Lightning Arrestors, Bushings, Insulators and other HV Components. Which is good for them and us as well as this is a win-win situation for all concerned.

 

Q.5What are your top priorities for KVTEK for the next one to two years? What are the company’s growth plans?

 

KVTEK after establishing their footprint in Indian market is now focused on expanding their business to across the globe. Till date KVTEK has succeeded in exporting their test and measuring solutions to 17 countries and are now in the process of adding 5 more countries every year. KVTEK is working aggressively in making formal tie-ups with trade partners in the selected countries who in turn will help KVTEK promote their products in their specific countries. Plan is to have trade partners in every major country in the next decade so that we can cater to the requirements of entire world market in the field of HV Test and Measuring Solutions. KVTEK’s current business of manufacturing HV Test and Measuring Equipment for the Electrical Equipment Manufacturers, often requires lot of customization which requires a lot of R&D work for each project. This increases the turnaround time of each project significantly thus limits the growth options.

To overcome this challenge, KVTEK is also diversifying to cater to the Indian Railways and Metro Railways requirement of Frequency Converters. Railways is the single largest consumer of Frequency Converters; KVTEK will be investing lot of quality time in the coming years to make their Static Frequency Converters suitable for Railways application and their specifications, especially keeping in mind the converter has to go through harsh environmental conditions and vibrations.