— Rajesh V. Shah, CMD,
High-Volt Electricals Pvt Ltd
Mumbai-headquartered
High Volt Electricals Pvt Ltd is today a
leading name in the field of manufacture and repair of transformers.
HVEPL has a broad-based clientele including power utilities,
industrial units and even Railways.
Rajesh V. Shah talks about the
company's activities and its future plans. He also discuses at length
the recent foreign collaboration that High-Volt has entered into with
DuPont, which will bring in cutting-edge Nomex technology to
India. An interview by
Venugopal Pillai.
The Indian power transmission infrastructure is gradually
moving to extra- and ultra-high voltage, even 1,200kV. What is
your general view?
There is no doubt that extra high voltage power transmission
infrastructure is the need of the hour. However, before
establishing the same in India, good quality and proven
standards are needed that are yet to happen in the country.
India also needs to do solid research work in the field of EHV
infrastructure.
What is your general opinion on the mandatory BIS
certification for electrical grade steel used/imported in India?
Do you think foreign CRGO suppliers are showing keenness in
obtaining BIS certification for their products?
The move of using only BIS-certified steel is a good step.
However, our system is very long-winded and it might so
happen that some of the foreign CRGO mills may not register
because of the cumbersome nature of the registration process.
There are general apprehensions of a slowdown in the pace of
project implementation. What is your view?
There is definitely a slowdown and this is more than reflected
from the reduction in the country's GDP growth target from 9
per cent to around 5.4 per cent.
The BEE star-rating program has been around for nearly three
years now. Has there been a significant impact?
The program has had little impact as it has not been
implemented strongly enough to have the desired result.
Talking about your company, you had planned to upgrade your
Boisar plant to produce transformers up to 200 MVA in the 200kV class. What is the latest status?
Yes, our current capacity is up to 40 MVA in the 132kV class, and
we are beginning to upgrade up to 200 MVA, 220kV class within
a short period. The delay has been due to the general slowdown
in the industry.
On the other hand, we have upgraded our plant for railway
transformers is a big way. Our present capacity for railway
transformers has been doubled in just the last six months. Our
action has been well appreciated by the Railways and we are
getting repeated orders that our present plant capacity can
fulfill.
I wish to add that the Railways is in the process of changing
their system for improving the quality and efficiency of their
services. To this end, we have now associated with DuPont (I)
Ltd, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dupont USA, Inc. We
have submitted our joint venture agreement to RDSO Railway
and have started manufacturing the transformers by using
"Nomex" technology so as to improve the quality of
transformers. After this successful implementation, we will be
jointly advising the Railways to reduce the losses and weight of
transformers so as to improve their quality further. This
technology will be applied for repairs also.
Apart from higher demand for transformers from the Indian
Railways, do you notice any improvement in procurement
practice over the recent years?
Demand for railway transformers is definitely going to
increase. However, in order to cater to the railways, quality is
a must. Railways do not go in simply for L1 suppliers. First, the
desired quality has to be achieved and only then will come the
price aspect. The Railways recognize that for best quality,
prices are bound to be higher.
There has been a lot of improvement in the working of the
Railways after Shri Kulbhushan, a Gold Medalist from
Chandigarh University, recently became Member Electrical,
Railway Board. Under his leadership, the entire Railways
electrical department will improve.
Given that India's transformer base is bound to expand
substantially in the coming years. How do you see the scope of
transformer repair and maintenance as a standalone activity?
At present, much like manufacturing, even repair &
maintenance work is not up to the quality. Small players cannot
give good quality and big players cannot do repair work at
reasonably low cost. Hence, a partnership between a small
player and a big player that assures quality control is a
workable solution and is being practised in developed
countries. This practice is followed in developed countries.
However, as a small player is always considered as a threat to
the bigger player, a well-documented legally-vetted agreement
should resolve the problem.
Tell us more on the foreign collaboration that you spoke about
earlier.
At present, we have entered into technical collaboration with
M/s DuPont (I) Pvt Ltd for improving the quality of
transformers by using Nomex paper and board. DuPont (I) Pvt
Ltd will give us the technical know-how and design for
improving the quality of Railway transformers. This technology
has already been deployed by DuPont in Europe by SNCF
(France), DB (Germany), etc.
The technically upgraded transformer will be manufactured
by us and will be type-tested. The successfully cleared
transformer will be used for six months and thereafter all
transformer specifications will be changed by Railways for new
transformers as well as those that come in for repairs.
This design will be our property and will not be given to our
peers, but they can buy the raw material from DuPont (I) Pvt
Ltd. This type of non-committed agreement was done with
DuPont (I) Ltd for EMU transformers and the same has been
successfully implemented. So far, 50 EMU transformers are
working in Central Railway. It is an achievement that no
company in our peer group can match.
Please summarize your growth plans for High-Volt Electricals.
At High-Volt, we are working on a three-pronged growth plan.
Railways: Within the next three years we will be supplying all
major type of transformer for Indian Railway. This will take our
capacity for manufacture & supply of traction transformer to
the tune of 700 MVA.
Power Distribution Transformer: In this segment, we are
concentrating on specialized application such as solar power
plant, steel plants etc. where transformers need to meet
typical requirement and parameters.
Overall quality: We are actively working at improving the
quality in existing transformers by reducing copper losses and
by using thermally upgraded insulation. This is for both Railway
and power distribution transformers.