Rutam Vora ABB India, a subsidiary of global power solutions provider ABB, is looking to provide power and energy solutions to the ambitious High Speed Rail or “Bullet Train” project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
While Japanese players are bringing the technology for the project, the power supply and equipment sourcing are likely to be indigenised, creating opportunities for companies such as ABB.
“The Japanese are bringing the technology for bullet train. But we see an opportunity as the government may look at indigenisation of the power solutions. We have approached the government on this and a dialogue is on as we see an opportunity for ABB,” said Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director, ABB India, at the inauguration of an industrial solar microgrid at its Maneja facility in Vadodara on Thursday.
Sharma said ABB provides power solutions for 35 per cent of the Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains of the Indian Railways. For ABB in India, transportation and infrastructure are potential areas, where ABB has increased its interests in projects such as metro rail - on components or turbo chargers sections.
The company gets30-35 per cent of its $1.5 billion India revenues from transportation and infrastructure segments.
“New innovations such as microgrids are an under-exploited area. Reliable, resilient and cost-effective power supply through microgrids is key to achieve ‘Make in India’ targets, speed up industrial development and realise the vision of 24x7 power for all. Electric vehicle is another such new area opening up,” said Sharma.
ABB India inaugurated its 1.2 MW solar microgrid at its largest facility in India that employs over 3,000.
The microgrid’s rooftop photovoltaic field and its innovative battery-energy storage system will support the factory’s productivity and enable green power supplies in the evening hours or during cloudy periods during the day. ABB’s Ability control and automation system will serve as the brain of the microgrid, ensuring the maximising the use of renewable energy. The use of renewables will lower the facility’s carbon footprint by approximately 1,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
ABB also inaugurated the ABB PowerTEC institute, which will act as power technology and knowledge centre with a team of experts providing hands-on training on advanced high-voltage equipment, with the latest digital technologies.