NEC eyes India's multi-billion dollar smart energy market

SINGAPORE: NEC Asia Pacific is aiming to tap the multi-billion dollar smart energy development sector in India over the next three years, a senior official said today.


"India will be a key market in NEC's Asia Pacific business plan from this year onwards," said Manish Kasliwal, head of the company's smart energy business centre in Singapore.

"India will account for 40 per cent of the USD 200 million Asian revenue projected over three years," Kasliwal told on the sidelines of the Power and Electricity Asia 2013 conference being held April 16-17 here.

NEC is also exploring the potential of local partnerships for putting in place system integration and is discussing various business potentials with telecom and tower operators.

"For the long-term, NEC is looking at assembly and manufacturing base in India in order to reduce the cost of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and related services," said Kasliwal, who has spent over 20 years in telecommunication, IT and services industry globally.

The lithium ion-based energy storage and management systems were estimated at USD 3 billion in the coming years in India, said Kasliwal, citing industry data.

The smart grid market is projected at USD 1.9 billion by 2015, he added.

More than 4 lakh telecom towers in India are facing energy operation related issues, while the industry is expected to install some 130 million wifi-based smart meters, he said adding that electricity theft and the challenges of reading meters are among the main issues in the country.

NEC, he said, has positioned itself to tap the potential of these huge markets in India as well as in Asia.

The market for services required to store electricity was expected to grow tenfold in the next 10 years in Asia, Kasliwal pointed out.

He also cited the Asian Development Bank cautioning the Asian markets on environmental disasters and economic problems if radical changes were not made in energy use.

Attracting smart energy businesses would need support of the Asian governments and subsidies for reforming the power sector, he added.