Solar O&M - Key Issues & Challenges

Insight into key issues and challenges in solar O&M space in India that need to be addressed for smooth market growth and better services....

The total addressable market for solar PV operations and maintenance (O&M) has crossed the 30 GW mark in India. It is likely to more than triple by 2022 to exceed 100 GW. This presents a significant business opportunity for solar O&M players.

While outsourcing O&M for the projects, investors/ developers focus on various aspects. One is if the O&M contractor can provide safe services, because the investors don’t want to have their names in the press in relation to an accident at a solar site. Another aspect is the technical capability of an O&M player. The third aspect is price. It is not the most important aspect but it is a key one.

While the O&M story is on a growth path and people in the solar industry are just portraying a rosy image of the situation when actually, it is not that easy a space to operate in. There are some key issues and challenges in this space that needs to be addressed.

Key Issues & Challenges

Grid problems are one of India’s major challenges. Grid fluctuations and instability sooner or later leads to loss of equipment and higher downtime.

In addition, there is handful of unique technical and operational challenges facing utility solar operators in India that poses challenges for O&M service providers to keep plants running in optimum conditions.

These can be broadly be categorised into challenges related to location and cost among other related challenges and the crucial one being Nonavailability of adequate supply of water along with incomplete EPC work … Cost Challenges: Of the many challenges in the solar O&M space, cost is one of the major challenges faced by the service providers, particularly when maintenance is more crucial.

Safety, followed by workforce at the site and module cleaning process, is the biggest contributor to costs. Plant owners while cutting down the costs expect service providers to deliver the best of services at the lowest price possible.

While O&M costs have notably over the years however plant owners expectations for inclusion of additional services within the contract – poses major challenge for O&M service providers. Thus, with price reductions, the pressure and need is increasing for optimisation of processes so as to optimise cost.

Consequently, increased reliance on technology for plant monitoring, module cleaning and remote plant performance monitoring will be necessary to reduce critical cost components and stay competitive on the market.

players in the solar power space, but there are a number of other players who are only price conscious. If O&M is not done properly, over a year or two, issues start cropping up.

That’s where industry best practices come into the picture, but to follow the best practices one need sufficient funds and budget where small service provider’s face challenges. Remote Location Challenges: Since most of the utility scale plants are located in remote locations, local problems also begin to appear such as burglary, theft, agitation, etc. In addition, a dedicated workforce is necessary because projects on the ground need more attention.

However, O&M service providers find it difficult to establish an experienced team for remote sites. Furthermore, the O&M team faces another challenge of insufficient basic facilities at these remote locations.

Though these issues, to some extent - can be addressed and eased through focus on sustainable development and CSR initiatives - including provision of skills training and the creation of jobs to ensure local inclusion helps toward smooth functioning of the plant. Water Availability Challenges: The availability of water is another issue. The shortage of water supply in India is a problem for almost 50 per cent of the utility scale projects. In large-scale projects, there is an enormous water crisis as for proper cleaning the water is not available satisfactorily.

Robotic cleaning may be a choice as the modules can be cleaned every night before the moisture sticks the dust on the following morning. Nonetheless, it depends again on the type of dust or soil deposition of the components.

On the other hand, especially in the rooftop space it is difficult or practically impossible to clean because the dust is settling on the modules throughout the day. The next morning due to moisture this dust sticks to the plates. Where solar projects are built on industrial rooftops, as it is a difficult task to obtain entry permits and work permits in which a lot of time of the working day just goes away.

Thus the availability of water is very important; otherwise O&M service provider has to depend on dry cleaning. The dry cleaning services increases the cleaning costs while the effectiveness of cleaning decreases.

Therefore, water has an incredibly important role to play along with the Water quality, which is very critical again. The majority of industries do not provide the right water quality and the module gets affected by the hard water or recycled water.

responsibility begins - an incomplete EPC work, too, leads to uncalled for problems for an O&M service provider in the field. This is on account of cost cutting by the EPC and the investor during the execution of a project with which the O&M supplier has essentially to work with.

For example, it is important to have a centralised control room and a SCADA system that can be centrally monitored in a large-scale venture. If for cost cutting an investor or EPC did not install central monitoring, then it becomes difficult to zero down on the equipment unit underperforming.

Way forward:

Over time, the Solar O&M industry in India has grew in line with growing business models and adopting the most promising technologies. In today’s solar O&M space, we are seeing a growing role in digitisation and automation.

Though there is price pressure, however, and O&M companies should try to adopt new technologies to see how the costs can be decreased and how quality reliability can be sustained.

Since O&M falls in the service space, customers will always expect something more and something better, so there is need for continuous innovations. n

Industry Insight Transformer Industry

Power & Distribution Transformer

The Indian transformer industry has reported steady growth in recent years, with an annual compound increase rate of more than 8 per cent from FY15 to FY19. On the other hand, in addition to increasing its manufacturing capacity, the industry has also matured on technology front. Power Insight takes an insight into industry growth, opportunities and challenges, while looking into future prospects ...

In the context of the extremely unbalanced distribution of energy resources and consumer centers in India, a strong base of T&D infrastructure is of the greatest importance. Now with increasing integration of renewables into the grid, the government has started focusing more on strengthening the country’s T&D infrastructure.

The main components of the power grid are transformers. The voltage of electricity needs to be regulated while its transmission from generation centres to the end user. The transformer industry is on a growth path with steady investment in the transmission sector and on-going initiatives in the distribution sector.

Industry Overview

In recent years, the Indian transformer industry recorded steady growth recording an annual compound growth rate of over 8 per cent between FY15 and FY19. According to IEEMA, the

size of the domestic transformer industry in 2018-19 was estimated at INR 148 billion by Indian Electric and Electronic Manufacturers Association (IEEMA). The industry registered a growth of approximately 10 per cent over the last financial year 2018.

As per IEEMA, the distribution transformers growth index stood at 21.5 per cent and power transformers at negative (-) 3.1 per cent during 2018-19. While the distribution transformers accounted for a 60 per cent share on the transformer market, while power transformers hold the remainder 40 per cent of the market share.

Over the years, the Indian transformer market has not only expanded its manufacturing capacity, but has also matured in terms of technology. The well-established players in the market are - ABB, Crompton Greaves, Eaton, General Electric , Siemens, Ormazabal , Transformers and Rectifiers , SGB-Smit Group , Wilson Power Solutions , Lemi Trafo JSC , Hyosung Corporation , Celme S.R.L , Brush Electrical Machines Ltd. , Emerson Electric, Eremu SA , Hammond Power Solutions, Hitachi, Kirloskar Electric, Schneider Electric , Vantran Industries, Wenzhou Rockwell Transformer, etc. Growth Trends In recent years, the highest growth was observed in the 220 kV and 400 kV categories while the HVDC segment remained more or less constant. Thus the most important product on the transformer market with a total capacity of 356 GVA currently is the 220 kV voltage transformers. In view of the expected capacity increases for the coming years, more high voltage substations (HVDC, 765 kV) will become more prevalent. Particularly, the category of 765 kV is designed In addition, as PowerGrid Corporation is taking charge of developing and expanding intra-state transmission projects, and demand for power transformers is expected to grow dramatically at 400 kV and below. Demand Drivers: Government is taking major steps to strengthen the power transmission & distribution network to enhance the electrification in the country has added to the increase in demand for transformers. In addition, various schemes and initiatives undertaken by the government in recent years such as Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana; Saubhagya and Integrated Power Development Scheme to strengthen sub-transmission and distribution networks in rural and urban areas, have also increased demand for distribution transformers in utilities. Meanwhile, with the continuous growth of power generation through renewables, significant investments to strengthen transmission network, along with a rise in per capita electricity consumption and emerging trends of electricity charging stations for electric vehicles and so on, will keep the demand for transformers increasing further. In addition, replacement demand of old transformers with energy efficient transformers will add to this growth trend. For the future, increase in per capita consumption is expected as well as potential maximum loads are also expected to reach 230 GW by 2021-22, requiring estimated investment in the transmission sector by INR 2.6 trillion - this bodes well towards boosting demand for transformers .....

to increase capacity from the current level of 213,000 MVA, to over 280,000 MVA.

The demand for transformers has been increased in recent years due to significant growth seen in the country’s transmission sector, especially in the 765 kV, 400 kV, and 220 kV alternating current voltages (AC) and 800 and 500 direct current (DC) voltages. Also, increased demand for distribution transformers will be driven by ‘Metro & Railway’ electrification projects due to higher government spending within the industry.

Key Challenges

CRGO Supply Issues: Smooth supply of cold-rolled grain-oriented (CRGO) is one of the major challenges facing the transformer industry. CRGO is

an important raw material of transformers but is currently not being produced in India. As manufacturer needs to import the CRGO, its price fluctuations and low supply hinders the production of transformers industry in the country. Also, this lack of satisfactory supply of CRGO steel leads to the enormous volume of low grade CRGO steel entering the market that severely affects the quality and cost of transformers. Quality Control: As per quality control program of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) transformer industry requires double certification of transformers one from the Bureau of India Standards (BIS) and the other from BEE. While we have seen that the quality of transformers has been improved and the failure rate reduced under BIS certification programme. On the other hand, the BEE star labelling has helped fostered the use of modern technology to produce transformer with higher energy efficiency. However, it itself is a time consuming process to obtain this dual certification and sometimes the processing of renewal requests takes even 2-3 months that leads to controversy in acceptance of that transformers by discoms. Other concerns include a lack of adequate transformer testing facilities, especially in segments with high voltage and ultra-high voltage along with delays in payment by state distribution companies. Furthermore, industry faces challenges relating to Although transformer quality has improved and failure rates have decreased under the BIS certification program, this dual certification is a time consuming process. Sometimes it take 2-3 months to process leading to controversy in acceptance of these transformers by distribution utilities....

the lack of obligatory instructions for the installation and maintenance of transformers, transformer overloading, meddling with protection equipment, material and oil theft that leads to fire and transformer failure.

Future Outlook

The government is undertaking

crucial measures to improve the country’s power T&D network and has projected to invest INR 146,000 crore in electricity transmission by the year 2019.

Going forward, the potential peak load is expected to reach 230 GW by 2021-22, that would require an estimated INR 2.6 trillion investment in the transmission sector – and also fillip to power transformers demand.

In addition, on account of old transformers replacement with new ones, the demand for energy efficient and intelligent transformers will also rise.

While, the idea of smart transformers will see further implementation in the system as there is an increasing focus on reliability of supply and reducing system failures.

The demand for transformers will increase in the next few years, with the growth of generation capacity and consumption per capita.

According to recent report by 6Wresearch - by 2022, India is expected to reach $2.9 billion in power & distribution transformer markets.

However, there is an urgent need to take concrete steps to encourage manufacturing of CRGO steel locally as well as streamlining the process for faster quality certification approvals.

Also there is need to take necessary measures to overcome the other challenges faced by the domestic industry to support growth in coming days. n