Hitachi Energy India Ltd (formerly known as ABB Power Products and Systems India), which offers a range of power transformers, digital sensors and transformer services, hopes to maintain the leadership position in its core business of power grid solutions, supported by capacity ramp-up and innovative solutions, while accelerating growth in energy systems businesses such as data centres.
The BSE-listed company has expanded its capacity of HVDC (high voltage direct current) and power quality products by setting up a new assembly and testing factory at Mahindra City near Chennai.
“This is in response to the growing demand for high voltage transmission projects in India, which has set an ambitious target of achieving 500 GW by 2030. The Chennai unit is the replica of what we have in Sweden in terms of design and technology,” said Claudio Facchin, CEO of Hitachi Energy, after the inaugurating the factory.
Strong demand
The company foresees a strong demand for HVDC projects in the country given the proposed plan to integrate renewable with the grid. Achieving higher generation of renewables will require the bulk transmission of clean energy over long distances and balancing the national grid for intermittencies, for which HVDC and power quality are seen as ideal solutions.
“Since renewable projects have shorter gestation periods unlike thermal projects, the government is expected to accelerate investments in transmission networks in connecting remote renewable generation with the national grid. Hitachi, already a leader with its share of more than 50 per cent in HVDC links, will stay invested in capacity to meet the demand,” said N Venu, MD & CEO-India & South Asia.
For instance, the company has executed the 6,000 MW Raigarh-Pugalur link, transmitting power from central India to consumers in the south, over a distance of 1,830 km. The investment to create a State transmission system for more than 500 GW of renewable capacity by 2030 is estimated at ₹2.4-lakh crore.
Venu said given the high clean energy targets set by the government, India would need one HVDC unit in every 1.5-2 years now as against one unit every five years earlier. Hitachi Energy has invested ₹100 crore every year in the last three years and the Chennai factory is the second greenfield unit in the last six months.
“Chennai has been chosen for the new HVDC factory due to the availability of its high-quality talent. Also, our existing engineering centre in Chennai, which employs more than 2000 engineers, has been working on similar solutions for the domestic and global markets. Thus, both can work in tandem to deliver innovative solutions. Also, the Chennai factory can start serving global needs in future,” said Venu.
Data centre
Meanwhile, Hitachi Energy is also seeing good traction in its data centre business, where the company offers grid connections, high voltage automation etc. One in every three data centres set up in the country is served by Hitachi and its total addressable market size is 15-120 per cent of data centre capex.