ELMEASURE : Catylising the growth
Mr. Sam P. Cherian – Chairman, Elmeasure India Private Ltd.
Q. How did Power industry performed in 2014?
It has been a difficult year for the industry as the country suffers from an acute power shortage requiring significant power capacity addition, and yet operating power plants consistently record low capacity utilization due to the non availability of coal. As a result, operating power plants increasingly face low capacity utilization and poor revenue realization which further results in growing financial losses. The cost of operating and building power plants has recently increased sharply; creating a very real risk these plants will not be viable in the future. Such a scenario is deterring investors from further investing in the power sector.
Q. What are the future technology trend of the industry?
The power sector is now looking up to renewable energy as India is said to be the most favorable nation with abundant sunshine and wind. But today it may not be a preferred option due to the high upfront costs and low capacity utilization of these technologies. However, renewable energy resources play a crucial role to play in providing decentralized power to remote areas. Apart from continuing to provide support to renewable energy schemes, efforts should also be directed towards large-scale deployment of related technologies in order to further bring down their costs. Decentralized power generation, especially in remote locations where the grid cannot be extended, should necessarily be based on renewable energy forms to provide these regions with access to clean and reliable energy.
Q. What are initiatives carried out by your company?
Power is scarce and costly. ElMeasure being in the energy management field helps industries and large power users to reduce energy wastage and improve efficiency. Today ElMeasure is rapidly expanding its horizons to provide a wider range of products, services and solutions. Predicting future demand we are working on the development of a series of products with multiple wireless communication options, especially Zigbee, Wifi, GSM and GPRS. ElMeasure brought out several new products last year that were technologically advanced, defied industry standards with software that provides state of the art Energy Management solutions. One such product is our prepaid meter which is designed for dual source (EB and DG) and can integrate gas, water and electrical energy. In addition it has wireless features like GSM and GPRS, RF card, Zigbee and is RS485 ready. Exciting new products are in pipeline with wireless communication which are reliable and user -friendly.
Q. What will be the future of the industry?
There is no doubt the Indian power sector is going through a very testing time as it juggles increasing power demand, the poor paying capability of power distribution companies, inadequate domestic coal/gas availability, an inefficient power tariff mechanism and rising financing costs. Nevertheless, we are optimistic about the future of the Indian Power Sector with a stabilizing Rupee, a series of government reforms designed to support the electricity sector and strong impetus for power companies to increase efficiencies.
