Que: What kind of 'energy transition' are we experiencing and expecting in India over the next 5-7 years?

Ans: India, now, has a golden opportunity to shape its energy mix. Social and economic growth are at the top of the government’s agenda, and new energy sources to serve this demand are increasingly coming from renewable energy. Several factors have contributed to this. The government policy has been supportive, and more recently, a wider set of actions—incentives, infrastructure, and investment promotions were taken up.

Technology development, larger-scale projects, and the learning effect has allowed the use of efficient designs and have pushed down costs. This makes renewable energy attractive to power utilities that are contracting new long-term capacity, and also, this avoids them the burden of take-or-pay contracts and fuel risk.

An investor with a given capital can fund more projects across regions or asset-classes to diversify resource-based risks. The lower cost structure also means that an investor who is early or better-prepared gains from better returns. At this stage, many challenges remain which are still being worked upon, viz. grid integration, curtailment, counterparty risk, cost of finance, imbalance costs, etc. Market creation has not been easy but regulators are acting on this with tighter compliance standards.

Que: How would you define the 30 years’ journey of ELECRAMA? What role has the platform played in further encouraging the growth of the Indian energy industry?

Ans: There have been 13 editions of ELECRAMA before this one. And each of them has been bigger & better than the previous one. ELECRAMA has always been special for the electrical & power industry in India since its inception in the year 1990.

Starting from a small area of 2500 square meters in Godrej factory to the largest and most modern exhibition venue with a gross area exceeding 110,000 sqm., what a momentous 30 years these have been!!

ELECRAMA has been built brick by brick by our earlier Teams and it has reached the stature of being the largest multi-dimension show for Global Energy & Electrical Industry covering all energy-related sectors including the Automation, digitalization in addition to Transmission and Distribution segment.

IEEMA has constantly endeavored to add value and evolved the show to meet the expectation of the industry in this fast-changing environment. This constant adaptation ensures that exhibitors and visitors both are able to get value while investing time and resources.

The 14th edition of Elecrama has Vision & Mission to make it Global Platform where exhibitors from 60+ countries & visitors from 120+ countries shall participate to explore the growth as well as collaboration with the local unit

ELECRAMA 2020 this time will undergo a complete digital transformation and will be with full modern facilities for all the visitors, exhibitors and stakeholders to explore their business & Meetings.

Que: What are the focus areas for the 14th ELECRAMA in 2020?

Ans: ELECRAMA 2020 has major concurrent events like World Utility Summit, ETechnxt, RBSM, and DBSM, etc where exhibitors from more than 60 countries and visitors from more than 120 countries shall join. ELECRAMA shall provide more noticeable growth, increased exports in addition to new segments especially connecting our MSME units to Global Value Chains.

In this edition, for the first time, we will be focusing on the entire energy spectrum along with Renewable Energy, Energy Storage, Automation, Digitalization, Industry4.0, IoT, AI, and Electric Transportation opportunities to expose the electrical industry to new technology innovations and disruptions with information to manage the transformation.

This year we shall also focus on Women Empowerment in the electrical sector. As per the study, in all developed countries women contribute more than 50 % of the overall work force. And in the last 20 years, it is analyzed that in India the majority of the women have involved in the IT sector only. To increase the role of women in the Energy & Power sectors, we will provide a platform for them to discuss and share their experiences and learn from each other.

Que: What is the advantage of the Reverse Buyer Seller Meet at ELECRAMA 2020?

Ans: Reverse buyer-seller meet (RBSM), the biggest meeting place of international buyers who plan to source electrical products and equipment from India, concluded with a $400-million business at ELECRAMA 2018. About 52 countries attended the meet where buyers from Africa, ASEAN, CIS, and SAARC, along with Iran are participating. We have been very encouraged by the response during the last edition of RBSM and this time we plan to double the number and expect business worth $800 million coming in. Indian electrical products and services are second to none in the world and we are confident that our competitiveness will give us an edge over other global manufacturers.

Que: What will the focus technology areas at eTechNxt?

Ans: India is moving towards becoming a $5 trillion economy. The challenge of blending technology with innovative business models is real. e-TechNxt by IEEMA is the platform that enables the electrical & electronics industry to re-define its business transformation trajectory by leveraging together diverse next-generation technologies at ELECRAMA 2020.

Engineering Research & Development has a huge scope in India & Elecrama has created the Etexnext platform to promote it. This sector shall grow at 22 to 25 percent every year till 2023 and likely to reach $100 billion.