—Sarvesh Kumar, Deputy Managing Director, RRB Energy Ltd
RRB Energy Ltd is a leading player in the wind energy segment. Apart from manufacturing wind turbines, the company offers turnkey solutions ranging from site selection to commissioning of wind farms.
Sarvesh Kumar tells
Venugopal Pillai that India’s wind power potential must be tapped aggressively as no form of renewable energy is as matured and reliable as wind.
India’s renewable energy pursuits have so far been dominated by wind energy with around 2GW of new installations in recent years. How does the future look to you?
The future looks great. No form of renewable energy is as matured and reliable as wind energy. Technologically advanced products along with the strong support from the government will further push the wind energy to greater heights at a much faster pace in India and we don’t have any doubt in that.
It is said that India can significantly augment its wind power installation base through “re-powering”, and that too without increasing the geographical footprint. What is your view?
Re-powering is certainly a good idea. But, more detailed study is required whether re-powering can be done without increase in geographical footprint.
How has the Indian wind energy market grown in recent years and at what rate do you think it will grow in the coming years?
Wind energy is the fastest growing renewable energy sector in the country. With the cumulative deployment of around 17,000 MW capacity, it accounts for about 70 per cent of the installed capacity in the renewable energy sector in the country. The wind energy sector is growing rapidly with around yearly capacity addition of about 3,000 MW. The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has been providing all out support to wind energy for the accelerated development through proactive policy and regulatory interventions to help more investment in wind energy by independent power producers (IPPs). We hope that with the strong support of both the state and Central governments, the industry would strive towards greater and greater heights in the coming years.
RRB has been amongst the pioneering Indian players in the field of wind energy. Tell us how RRB has evolved since its inception in 1987.
RRB Energy Ltd started its operations in 1987 when the wind energy was little known in India and the technology was also not matured. RRBEL had technical and financial collaboration with the world leader of wind energy technology, Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Denmark, for more than two decades.
Vestas is known in the world as the producer of quality and reliable wind turbines. RRBEL has also followed the footsteps of Vestas in terms of producing world class wind electric generators (WEGs) at an economical cost. RRBEL has started selling 225kW WEGs in India initially. Subsequently the product range expanded to 500kW and 600kW WEGs. RRBEL has achieved many milestones like development of 1.8MW WEG, building world class manufacturing facilities, strong foothold in export market, indigenous development of blades and controllers which are the heart and brain of and WEG etc.
Today RRBEL is known for its quality products and the company’s WEGs are world class.
Can you describe in detail the end-to-end services offered by RRB in the field of wind energy?
RRBEL offers custom-built turnkey solutions in the area of harnessing wind energy for power generation, which includes site selection, micrositing, preparation of detailed project report, project engineering, erection, commissioning and after sales service of the wind power projects.
RRBEL manufactures its own blades and microprocessor based WEG controllers, to ensure high quality, efficiency and safety during operation of the WEG.
The goal of RRBEL is to make wind power competitive and on par with conventional sources of energy such as thermal power, oil and gas and the vision of the company is to be a technology driven Company and to produce world class WEGs at an economical cost.
We understand that RRB had planned to make turbines in the 1.8-mw class. What is the current status? What are other capacity expansion plans at your Chennai and Delhi units?
RRBEL has developed a state of the art 1.8-MW Wind Electric Generator (WEG) using the inhouse R&D expertise with the help from world class consultants. The new 1.8-MW WEG (PS-1800kW WEG) has received the C-design assessment certificates from Germanischer Lloyd (GL), Germany for two hub heights viz. 80m and 100m. A design assessment is under progress and is expected to receive the same by middle of this year. The first RRBEL prototype PS-1800kW WEG has been successfully commissioned in June 2011 at Tamil Nadu. The power curve and load measurement contract has been signed up one of the leading testing agencies in the world. The WEG will be tested and measurement will be completed during the forthcoming high wind season starting from April 2012 and shall go up to September 2012. RRBEL has adequate manufacturing capabilities in its Poonamallee plant in Chennai.
We hear of RRB’s plans to enter the South America.
While the company is looking at expanding its business in the Latin American markets, Chile comes across as a promising region. We are looking at exploring Peru, Uruguay, Mexico apart from Chile. Also, South America has planned large amount of investments in metals and mining projects over the next ten years, Chile requires large power capacities to support this expansion.
What is your reaction to Chinese companies entering the Indian wind energy equipment market?
We welcome it! We believe that wind turbine should be looked as “Technology equipment” and not as “Industrial equipment”. As a producer of quality and technology product, I don’t think we should worry about Chinese companies. Also, please remember that it is not like selling a product and vanishing. The seller has to be with the customer for 20 years, make sure that the genuine spare parts are made available at the right time and price. We as a company of repute in this field for 25 years of existence in India understand this very well.
How do you gauge the potential of offshore wind power in India?
We believe that the onshore potential in India itself is not tapped adequately and that should be addressed first. Also, technological, infrastructural and power evacuation difficulties may pose greater challenges for the offshore wind power in India.
Does RRB envisage itself to turn into a wind energy developer (IPP) in future?
RRBEL already owns some wind farms. With the addition of MW series product line, RRBEL will certainly look at the possibility of a IPP in future.
How do you rate the competition that wind energy in India might face from solar power?
Wind energy is more matured compared to solar. In my opinion, we should look both energy sources not as competition, but as complementary. More detailed R&D research can be focused on economic viability of wind-solar hybrid energy sources.
RRB has recently completed 25 years of service to the Indian wind energy market. What would you rate as your biggest achievements, and what milestones would you like to see RRB crossing in the coming years?
Over the years, RRBEL has crossed many hurdles, achieved many milestones but the basic building blocks of quality, dependability, reliability, technology and value system have never been compromised.
We would like RRBEL continue to focus its attention on achieving “zero defect” in each and every process we do. Easier said than done! It is certainly not going to be easy and also it is really challenging. But, we are confident with the excellent team available in RRBEL today, we can achieve this milestone in the near future.