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Alstom T&D India, an arm of French multinational conglomerate Alstom, has set its eyes on about Rs 15,000 crore of new business opportunities emerging post the massive electricity blackout in India last year.
“There are series of projects coming up and they will require several new technical equipment and we at Alstom are more than ready to do it,” said Rathin Basu, President and Managing Director of Alstom T&D India Ltd.
Ekectricity grid failure
Last year, India experienced a massive blackout because of electricity grid failure that left more than half-of-the country in dark. Post that, the Government is taking several measures to technologically strengthen the grid and prevent failures in the future.
Technologically advanced devices such as Static Var Compensators and Phasor Measurement Units are used in the transmission grid.
Advanced devices
Nearly 30 SVCs would be installed costing around Rs 3,000-4,500 crore and 1,700 PMUs would be placed, which would cost nearly Rs 6,000 crore. Another Rs 3000-4,000-crore work would be initiated to enhance the grid security.
Alstom, which is already a market leader in these products, is targeting to get a bigger pie of these businesses. All these installations would be done in the XII Five-Year Plan period.
The France unit competes with Germany-based Siemens and Switzerland-based ABB Ltd in these businesses. Alstom T&D India’s share in the €3-billion Indian transmission equipment and EPC market has risen to 19 per cent from 13.5 per cent in 2007. In 2012-13, the company’s turnover stood at Rs 3,150 crore.
Alstom manufacturing units
Since 2007, Alstom has invested more than Rs 1,000 crore to set up facilities in India to manufacture equipment.
“These are good enough to carry out orders for the next five years. We may spend around Rs 50-80 crore additionally every year to take care of the emerging technologies. In 2013-14, we are investing about Rs 100 crore,” Basu told media persons.
Having manufacturing facilities in India would help Alstom to secure orders if tenders made it compulsory to source equipment indigenously. A similar clause has been introduced for the setting up of Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP).
Alstom’s India unit contributes about 15 per cent to its global sales revenues of €4 billion from grid business. India is the single largest market for the company.
Basu said that the company has a current order book of around Rs 6,000 crore that would fetch sales for the next 20-22 months.
Restructuring of SEBs, IPPs
In addition, the recent financial restructuring of State Electricity Boards coupled with corporate debt restructuring of independent power producers (IPPs) would revive investments in the power sector, Basu said.
“FRP is a strong boost to the sector. This would accelerate the investment. The States have to invest a lot to upgrade their transmission network,” he said.
Alstom T&D India Ltd stock closed at Rs 177.05, up 0.03 per cent on BSE on Thursday.
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