Green transmission, the future of sustainable transmission

Consumer awareness on the essentialities and benefits of green cables, allowing them to survive in fire and smoke accidents.
Manoj Verma, Executive President and Chief Operating Officer (CE), Polycab India Ltd

Discussing the vitalities of green cables for transmission Manoj Verma, Executive President and Chief Operating Officer (CE), Polycab India Ltd tells Megha Iyer of EPR about the reaping benefits of green transmission for the consumers and for the industry.

What kind of cabling infrastructure should be in place for an efficient supply?
I don’t think that the cabling infrastructure is the core issue; it is the distribution grid system where majority of the losses are taking place. So, when you give electrical supply from an electricity board or from a NTPC up to a susceptible point, thereafter the cables take over; the losses from that point to the point of consumption gets reduced. The real loss takes place between the generating power station and the point where the cable takes over, so that is where the distribution losses happen. Considering the same, the power minister is also having thoughts to work on distribution losses. Because there was a time when distribution losses were as high as 45 per cent which means if I generated 1 watt, only 0.55 was reaching home, and .45 is getting lost. But today, they have done a lot of work on HVDC lines where these losses have come down to about 20 per cent. This is definitely a huge improvement, but I think we have yet to go a long way.

There were reports of Power Ministry bringing in norms to promote green transmission cables. What are your thoughts on the same?
When we talk about green cables and green wires, price is not a big concern. We already have green wires and green cables in our product portfolio and with the adjoining perks and benefits on green cable, cost can always be regulated by the consumers. Cost can be a concern only when The point is when a buyer wants to see the cost of the purchase then there is an issue, the buyer must think, ‘If I am buying a normal cable at ₹ 100 and I am about to buy green at ₹ 120. So what will be the reaping benefits of spending this additional money? The day consumer is cognisant about the benefits of these cables and wires they will know that the investment we made on this cable will in our home safely for more than 25 years. So it’s important that you also consider the flip side of a coin. Because the energy efficiency or power loss reduces by 20 percent, we decided to promote green wires as they are smoke free, non-hazardous. Moreover, these wires installed in any buildings or houses are safe even during incidents of fire. In case of fire accidents, it does not allow the flame to spread across, and gets contained with low smoke.

Interestingly, most deaths in fire do not happen because of fire they happen because of the suffocation in the smoke, and these are absolutely no smoke or low smoke wires. So even if it burns it just changes into powder. So, I would say that green wire is going to be the next big thing and we are prepared for it. The primary concern is that awareness about the green wires and their benefits are away from the consumers and that is why we are now creating promotional campaigns, and all our grinding campaigns will be about the reaping benefits of green wires. It’s educating the consumer. What happens is when you buy the house you don’t buy the wire, the builder buys the wire, the contractor fixes it, now once the builder and the consumer gets aware about benefits of green wire, the builder will ask for it, if the builder doesn’t ask for it you as a consumer will ask for it.

What are ways to curb these fire incidents?
Framing regulations and effective implementation of the same is important. These are the minimum and critical requirement, especially in any high rise buildings. We need strong regulation for certification; for example, if a builder won’t be issued with a certification, unless and until he has not utilised fire protective products. So, as industry players, we cannot do anything but make the product available in the market, and ensure on meeting the regulatory standards. But, again, it’s the government, who must look keep a tab if the guidelines are being meted.

What kind of regulations is required for cable safety?
We already have some of the key regulation like BIS, BEE among others. Moreover, there are regulations for almost everything, but the question remains on the implementation and adherence to it. The government must take required mandate, laws are there, specifications are there and standards are there, and here, though we may not match the European and American standards, but still we are good in what we have been doing. But they have very strong implementation that is where we lack.

With so many technologies, how do you manage with price centric people in India?
We have product range to meet almost every requirement of the society. We don’t want to make a particular sect of people feel depriwved. So we have a solution for even somebody who has 1 bedroom house and wants a simple thing, I also have a product for a villa. So depending on the consumer we have solutions. I have a fan which I will sell for ₹ 40,000 which will have all functions, where as I can also give you a fan for ₹ 1,400. So we have solutions right across. Our belief is only way we can handle that is if we make it ourselves then we have control on the cost, on the efficiency, on the reliability, on the quality. Our quality rejections rate is by far the lowest in the industry.

What kind of R&D is required?
We have a different research and development system and team for every single product. We have a team for designing fans, located in Rurkee, our design team for lighting operates from Baroda, our design and technology team for cables operates from Halol among the other teams. Our R&D centre and testing laboratory for was planted in Baroda before venturing into the field of lighting. That centre is basically NABL accredited and certified by the government of India. With this testing centre, we don’t have to reach out to the government’s testing laboratories when we launched a lighting product I don’t need to go to any government test house to get it tested. I can test it myself, and get it certified, as it is applicable and accepted by all government agencies. Because I am a NABL accredited man, we are doing same for geysers, for fans, across the border. Over the period of time polycab will have a global R&D, which will again be NABL aggravated across all the lines that you could see there.

Where do you see yourself with all these inventions 5 years down the line?
Our belief is that, whatever you do, we must ensure on listing our self in the top three names. And if that doesn’t happen, then we will must rethink on our capabilities and resurface our self with a better understanding with our capabilities. But if we are in a business 5 years from now, whichever is the business that I am in I will be among the top 3, that’s the clear objective that we have.