Augmented distribution capacity may reinforce power transformer business

There has been a surge in demand for power in India which has been fostered by an increase in capacity utilisation, industrialisation, population, and urbanisation. Industry leaders tabled few suggestions to uplift the transformer business and reduce transformer losses.

The Indian power and distribution transformer market is anticipated to witness ceaseless growth from 2020–2026 owing to various government initiatives that will boost the electrification rate and uplift the operational efficiency of DISCOMs in the nation. Currently, India has the fifth largest installed capacity in the power sector worldwide. Further reforms such as “Power for All” and plans to add 175 GW of capacity by 2022 would surge the demand for power transmission and distribution equipment.

Transformer quality plays a key role at the transmission level for T&D losses. With active participation from international brands, Indian transformers today are being developed to meet global standards, and players are investing more in research and development. The renewable energy sector too is contributing towards the transformer market, mainly for inverter duty transformers and power transformers, for power evacuation and transmission.

According to Sanjib Mitra, Country Head Sales – Transformer, Electrotherm India Limited, a lot of technologies have streamed from Japan and other developed countries for modern manufacturing techniques and scale of economy. Fine magnetic materials are also nowadays available to support manufacturing of low-loss transformers. Mitra adds, “The Indian government has already mandated the use of BIS-licensed transformers which helps in reduction of power loss to a great extent.” This further resulted in the creation of multiple-stage measurements in manufacturing processes to become quality-oriented in terms of stage inspections and accuracy measurement. Insulation materials across industries are also being developed on a large scale.

Divyansh Kohli, Executive Director, NDL Power Limited feels that the market is heading towards better power supply as today’s power generation is a much-diversified field with various streams of renewable energy coming in. Installations of solar power plants across the country are vastly increasing the generation capacity and location/geographical availability, whereas transmission and supply is something where the industry itself is working for. On the other hand, with the evolution of smart grids, there is a significant burden on the industry to reduce the technical and commercial losses of the transmission and distribution system.

Challenges of the existing power network

The power sector is already facing quite a couple of challenges in the three main areas of generation, transmission, and distribution. T&D network being the pillar of electricity flow in any country, there is an ample need of aggressive reviews of loss mitigation technique all across national and state grid connections. Mitra says, “PGCIL along with other central bodies such as Central Power Research Institute are already working towards less complexity and less dependency of the power network across state borders.” However, networks are still to be strengthened and low-loss transformers are the only solutions there. Utilisation of old transformers at the power networks is incurring heavy loss. Extended usage of level-2 transformers can further minimise network losses by at least 30 percent.

On the other hand, Ajay Shankar, Distinguished Fellow, TERI feels that the revenue collected from consumers would suffice to pay the generators. He says, “So, eliminating the gap between cost and the revenue realised per unit can be enough to invest for improvement of the power network. This can be achieved by increasing the tariff and reducing the AT&C losses so that as much revenue can be collected as possible without leakage of electricity or non-payment for consumption of electricity. This challenge varies from state to state. So, I think the ideal approach would be for the central government and its agencies to focus state by state and try to work out how a turnaround can be brought about in each state.”

Curbing the technical and commercial losses for improving power tariffs

As per the Indian Constitution, power is crucial and the responsibility of distribution and supply of power to rural and urban consumers rests with the government. The government of India provides assistance to states through several central sectors or centrally sponsored schemes for improving the power sector.

Observing the losses, Kohli suggests, “Addressing technical and commercial losses can make space to improve power tariff. There are two essential points in it; first is the increasing burden on the generation capacities which can be reduced through a diverse portfolio of conventional and renewable energy sources. Several hydro projects are being initiated in Eastern and North-eastern India, installation of solar plants in the remote locations, among others. These advancements will further result in generation of additional power and will subsequently decrease the generation cost. Secondly, the generation location; earlier, our thermal plants were usually located in isolated locations, primarily dependent on conventional logistics and availability of fuel where power transmission was a challenge. But the increasing installation of renewable energy plants, mini power generation and micro power generation plants will further reduce the burden on the transmission lines.”

According to Mitra, “The certification of energy efficiency transformers by BIS has also been a great initiative in terms of collecting data across country and publishing online about manufacturers’ database regarding their stage of progress in achieving various certifications from NABL-accredited lab.”

Selective solutions for enhanced performance

According to Shankar, “Demand has to keep on rising as our per capita consumption needs to be doubled and tripled. The infrastructure should be ahead of demand, so that robust quality supply is ensured for every consumer.” In Delhi and Mumbai, the carrying capacity is now good enough. When there is a sudden rise in peak demand due to high temperature in summer, the power network is not under stress.

Highlighting the significance of condition monitoring of transformers, Kohli says, “Intense monitoring and trending analysis of transformers’ functional operations and management of these assets are highly recommended. Thorough conditional monitoring of transformers is very critical as it is very effective particularly through oil testing, non-destructive analysis, and the available stake to control the fault, and prevent it from generating further trouble to the transformers, even during environmental or climate changes. Apart from these aspects, if the transformers assets are thoroughly conditional monitored and are very well managed, then it is possible to resolve and even avert such incidents at the inception level and can be rectified instantaneously.”

He adds, “With active condition monitoring and analysis, although there are outages, they are planned and controlled quite well and will also cut down the chances and amount of damages that can be caused due to these faults. Moreover, with planned outages, we can have a better power supply and can give the biggest benefit to the companies owning capital assets, because this will reduce the cost of downtime and the loss of capital assets. It has a high RoI and I think as far as the DISCOMs and consumers are concerned, we should be investing in these technologies.”

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The Indian government has already mandated the use of BIS-licensed transformers which helps in reduction of power loss to a great extent.

Sanjib Mitra, Country Head Sales – Transformer, Electrotherm India Limited

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Eliminating the gap between cost and the revenue realised per unit can be enough to invest for improvement of the power network.

Ajay Shankar, Distinguished Fellow, TERI

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Intense monitoring and trending analysis of transformers’ functional operations and management of these assets are highly recommended.

Divyansh Kohli, Executive Director, NDL Power Limited