Overall power sector looks green: Prakash Chandraker, Schneider Electric MD

In an interview to ET Now, Prakash Chandraker, Schneider Electric MD, said that overall power sector transmission, distribution, renewable, looks green.

ET Now: One of the biggest issues for Discoms is power leakage. How are you taking on that challenge?

Prakash Chandraker: You are right. One of the biggest issues for distribution companies is very high aggregate technical and commercial losses. The next is reliability of the network especially under bidirectional flow which is going to happen due to renewable integration. Schneider Electric is always focussed on innovation which helps customers to solve their problem. We have recently launched a product which is called smart feeder manager. This helps customers to track the flow from MV to LV. This feeder manager is one of its kind which will be able to give the health of the system in terms of power flow from medium voltage to low voltage. It will not only help in finding out the technical losses in the system, it will also help in reducing commercial leakage and losses. This will be very beneficial to our utility customers, especially the distribution utilities, to really address their pain points in terms of high ATC losses.

ET Now: How big is the Make in India opportunity for your company and other initiatives like smart city?

Prakash Chandraker: Schneider Electric has 29 factories in India. We have almost 21,000 people working under Schneider Electric. Out of which 11,000 people are working in various factories. Our 10 factories are actually export oriented units. So, we are already doing a lot in terms of manufacturing for the country as well as outside the country. We have a robust manufacturing process which is quite modern and gives consistent quality in line with the global standards. So, we are quite ready in terms of meeting the requirement of local market as well as the global market. When opportunity opens up in India or outside, we will be ready to supply from our global factory.

ET Now: What is your overall view and outlook for the power sector? Do you see a smooth ride ahead given some of the initiatives that have been taken by the government?

Prakash Chandraker: Distribution sector is green for us including the renewable. There are lot many activities happening. I think government is pushing these reforms to implement the transformation projects. In terms of transmission for Schneider Electric, we are actually quite active in terms of offering automation solutions. I would say that overall power sector transmission, distribution, renewable, looks green. For conventional power generation I still see challenges to continue for some more time till some ultra mega power projects come up in the mainstream.