“Aatmanirbhar Bharat” or self-reliant India is one of the serious movements happening in India currently, especially in critical sectors like Power.
In renewable sector, mainly in Solar power which is largely depending on Chinese suppliers, MNRE is closely monitoring the supplies and started promoting domestic manufacturing more seriously. Solar power installation is expected to last long for 25 years and hence more dependency on foreign players, precisely Chinese are very harmful for the sectors.
In Solar Inverter segment, barring one or two renowned manufactures based in India, most of the supplies (> 80%) are made by Chinese companies either through direct import or through assembly line in India which raise many concerns on their existence itself.
Indian solar sector, after reaching to the 6-7 years of full fledge operation and Inverters worth of 5-6 GW going out of warranty, has already started experiencing serious threat for the availability of critical spares for Inverters and local service support for many imported brands and hence, they are desperately looking for an indigenous company for replacement of those inverters installed at site.
In one of the Industry forums recently, MNRE minister told the panel, “My advice to you is to stop importing from countries which are of concern, we will examine those imports with a magnifying glass for two to three years. So, the best thing to do is not to import at all from these countries.
He added that world had lost its faith in China, and they want to come here to set up manufacturing in India, “And by manufacturing, I don’t mean assembly lines, I mean 50-60% value addition.”
MNRE is also building barriers such as the ‘approved list of modules and manufacturers (ALMM) for Solar similar to wind. Earlier, in January 2019, MNRE issued an order that it would be mandatory to enlist the eligible models and manufacturers of solar PV cells and modules complying with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and publish it as the ALMM list.
Only those products enlisted in this list by manufacturers would be used in government-owned projects and those set up for the sale of electricity to the government. Prior to inclusion in the ALMM, a MNRE team would be inspecting the facility to conduct production and sale audit of the firm.
The government aims to increase manufacturing in India, curb imports to save foreign exchange, and bring in foreign direct investment to boost manufacturing.
To ensure these goals are achieved, the ministry has proposed to levy basic customs duty (BCD) on solar cells, modules, and solar inverters. By imposing BCD, the government intends to make manufacturing in India cheaper than importing to India.
Under this scenario, when Solar sector is seriously looking out for more options for Inverters and preferably “Make in India” that’s where, Medha Servo Drives, Hyderabad has strategically positioned themselves and poised to enter in Solar with advance technology Inverters for Utility scale Solar power projects.
After supporting Indian Railway for more than 35 years and maintaining leadership position over the decade for Railway Electronics for mission critical applications, Medha has put their best talents and resources to develop 250kW String Inverters and 3.5MW Central Grid tied Inverters in their R&D centre located at Hyderabad. Medha has passed all the trials runs for 3.5MW Central Inverters and completed IEC certifications process with renowned labs.
Background of MEDHA SERVO DRIVES:
Medha is an R&D focused company with 35 years of experience in designing and manufacturing components and systems for railway applications. Medha is credited with reputation of having designed many high technology products and systems. The range includes Vehicle Control System, Electronic Governor, Vehicle Remote Monitoring, IGBT Traction Converters, Electronic Interlocking, Train Control System and many more.
With highly skilled technical team of more than 600 design engineers, and corporate financial commitment to reinvest up to 20% revenue into R&D activities, continuous product improvement and new product innovation is an ever-going activity at Medha.
This has helped Medha to manufacture world-class high-tech Electronics products with cutting edge technology which dominates global players and gives tough competition even in mission critical applications.
Medha’s motto is ‘translating technology into innovative solutions’, our employees believe in making our customers’ lives better by designing better products and improving existing products. To us, the idea of innovation extends beyond building a product. We continue to train our customers and service the product throughout the design life of a product (typically 10 – 25 years). Mr. Vishwas Moktali who heads Renewable and Defence business has proudly shared their group business philosophy.
In Solar, Medha has supplied their most advanced 1.25 MW Central grid Tied Inverters to 100MW project for NLC at Neyveli TN which is running successfully over last 1 year and giving higher generation compare to other makes installed in nearby locations at Neyveli.
Medha is all set to spread their presence in Renewable sector by offering Solar Inverters, Electric Vehicles and Irrigations applications and reach to the leading position in near future in this domain too with an aim “To Power Green Revaluation in India”.
