 Energy efficiency is of primordial importance to developing nation like India as it grapples with meeting mounting unfulfilled demand. While addition of new power generation capacity is a direct method of improving availability, it is equally important to ensure that the power quality is high, and that distribution of electric energy is an efficient activity.
In the pursuit of "quality power", a situation where the power factor of a circuit is as close as possible to its ideal value of 1 (unity), the role of capacitors is indispensable. In fact, use of capacitors is the cheapest and most practical way of achieving a higher power factor.
One of the deterrents of an electrical distribution system is reactive power-a phenomenon that is often considered as the most confusing aspect of electrical engineering. In short, reactive power is that power that only flows through the circuit without doing any "work". Reactive power often leads to drops in voltage thereby making the circuit inefficient. Shunt and series reactive capacitors are now being widely used to correct voltage drops, power losses and voltage fluctuations. 
For India that has an installed power capacity of around 1.5 lakh mw and is targeting to attain 2 lakh mw by 2012, the market for such capacitors is very high. In fact, the HT shunt capacitor addition programme has been moving very slowly; it is a worrisome situation for power utilities but at the same time represents a huge untapped business opportunity. For instance, the northern region alone is expected to 4,940 MVAr of shunt capacitors in 2009-10 (See related story on page 49).
The domestic market for capacitors is very fragmented because the capacitor industry by itself is heterogeneous with products ranging from plastic film capacitors to high-tension (HT) capacitors.
n 2008-09 production of HT Power Capacitors increased by about 7 per cent while that of LT capacitors rose by just 1 per cent, according to statistics available with IEEMA. The market for LT Capacitor is estimated around 15,300 MVAr and for HT Capacitors in the region of 13,600 MVAr. HT and LT capacitors are largely consumed by state government utilities, and to some extent, by industrial and commercial users.
The consciousness of energy efficiency will prove to be a big demand driver. Already, state utilities are offering incentives on use of capacitors. They are also penalising industrial and commercial users for poor power factor-a means to increase the use of power factor correction capacitors.
It is very interesting to note that though the industry size is small, exports have been very high. Last year capacitor exports grew by 22 per cent. It is even believed that half of India's capacitor production can be exported. This only shows how poor the penetration of capacitors, particularly HT capacitors, has been.
Capacitors also represent a recession-proof industry; in fact, an economic slowdown can boost the use of capacitors as improving efficiency is the top-most priority of any business when the times are rough.
Just like industrial and commercial consumers would be compelled to improve their power factor, it would be the responsibility of state utilities to do the same in its power distribution grid. Hence, we would have a situation where energy consumption is brought under check by curbing the use of active power (e.g. through energy efficient devices) and reactive power is controlled through the use of shunt capacitors. Interestingly, capacitors find applications in both active and reactive power.
Several capacitor producers are of the opinion that taxes and duties should be reduced so that the cost of raw material is kept low. Only this could lead to better offtake of capacitors. The use of capacitors should be encouraged even more by offer high subsidies and incentives to consumers who contribute towards efficient power consumption.
|