'We will soon roll out Smart Cities business unit'

Hartek Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Hartek Group

When do you expect new orders?
With the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) recently floating a tender for the allocation of 2-GW solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity across the country, we expect new orders anytime soon. At present, our focus is more on consolidating our strengths and building on our diversified portfolio rather than coming up with something new. Cashing in on India's solar overdrive to match our growth with that of the industry, we have registered a phenomenal growth of 91.1 per cent in our power systems EPC business catering to solar plants in a span of just 10 months. From just 598 MW, as on March 31, 2017, the solar power system EPC projects executed by the company have now gone up to 1,143 MW, registering nearly a twofold growth. With other 285-MW projects under execution, Hartek Power is expected to reach the 1.5-GW mark by the end of the current financial year. Focused on developing a sustainable power ecosystem, we will also be foraying into small-scale solar. In transmission  and distribution (T&D) segment, we will be going for the higher voltage class by upgrading to 400 KV and above from 220 KV, 132 KV and 66 KV.
 
How are you likely to leverage mega expo·Elecrama?
We will be primarily showcasing our services as a leading engineering procurement and construction (EPC) company which offers unmatched quality and excels in timely execution. Our focus will be on the substation projects completed by us and clean energy. Known for our uncompromising quality standards and timely execution of projects, we have been able to create immense value in the transmission and distribution value chain, which has helped us bag sizeable orders from many big players. We have executed about 150 high-voltage and extra high-voltage substations and transmission lines. On the sustainable energy front, we plan to foray into the rooftop solar segment.

We have achieved the 1-GW mark in connecting solar projects to the grid in the current financial year, relying majorly on our execution and design capabilities. In the last edition of Elecrama, we had showcased our mobile testing van service.
We will also be launching our Smart Cities business unit soon. We have already executed smart grid projects in the upcoming Smart Cities of Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar.
 
With India embarking on clean energy technologies, are demand dynamics likely to  change for power electronics?
Thanks to private enterprise and the initiatives taken by the government, clean energy technologies are becoming more and more cost-effective, which has in turn spurred demand. However, rather than depending on imports, we should promote indigenous manufacturing by offering incentives to domestic manufacturers and investing heavily in research and development (R&D) of cost-effective and efficient technologies.

Nearly half of all the solar equipments manufactured in India get exported for the simple reason that developers prefer using equipments from China which work out to be cheaper. However, in case of wind energy, most of the equipments manufactured in India are used domestically. A majority of the domestic solar gear manufacturers rely on the rooftop programme and the demand from smaller countries in Africa, where Chinese companies are not focusing as of now. The proposed renewable energy export promotion council can enable the domestic industry to compete with China through measures aimed at reducing the costs of debt, finance and electricity.