As the smart city initiative has taken the major role, power infrastructure — especially smart wiring — becomes ever more important
The smart energy management system has established itself as one of the backbones of modern power infrastructure. Optical Fibre Composite Ground Wire (OPGW) is a revolutionary solution towards achieving the smartness in smart electricity, enabling synergies between efficient power distribution grids and high-speed optical fibre-based SCADA networks.
OPGW replaces a conventional ground wire to protect the transmission system from lightning strikes, serving as a conductive medium for carrying fault currents to ground. OPGW also helps in real-time monitoring and security of the transmission system.
Lightening presence The global wire and cable market is valued at $127 billion in 2010 and is expected to increase at a 9.4 per cent CAGR to reach nearly $200 billion in 2015. More important, about 40 per cent of the entire electrical industry is composed by wire and cable industry. As the new government is focusing on ‘Make In India” as well as “100 Smart Cities”, the industry can grow at a CAGR of 15 per cent for the next 5 years.
Driving growthThe new government, led by PM Narendra Modi, has decided to support the development of 100 smart cities in the country. According to the high power expert committee (HPEC) on investment estimates in urban infrastructure has assessed a per capita investment cost of Rs 43,386 for a 20-year period. Their estimates cover water supply, sewerage, sanitation and transportation.
All these investment opportunities have opened up the wire and cable industry. Even the growth potential in the telecom sector as well as the various policy pronouncements by the government towards bringing about improved digital connectivity has added advantage to the industry.
ChallengesThe biggest challenge for the industry is operation and service, including reduced lifetime of cables due to mishandling and deployment times. Increasing price and competition from Chinese imports is also one of the biggest challenges for the industry.
The rising price of copper has also becoming a major issue as it has squeezed the profit margins, and copper has become uncompetitive in the international market. Then there is lack of initiatives from the government to change the rules and regulations for wire manufacturers.
The futureEvery minute during the next 20 years, about 30 Indians will leave villages for urban areas. If this trend continues, India will need some 500 new cities in the next two decades. No doubt, this is the right time to focus on developing solutions for sustainable cities.
As the number continues to grow, city needs better power infrastructures, and replacing the old infrastructures is unrealistic in terms of cost and time. The good news that technology has advanced, and we can infuse our existing infrastructures with new intelligence.
Most importantly, the wire and cable industry is evolving every day.
Government initiativeEver since Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the lead role, he is working hard to turn his talks into reality. He has already launched the “Make In India” campaign and travelling around the world to attract investment. Prince of Qatar Hamad Bin Nasser A A Al-Thani, member of the ruling family, is looking at investing Rs 1 lakh crore over the next 5 years in at least 10 smart cities. Then there is so much talk about tech giants like Siemens, IBM and Microsoft are joining hands to make Indian cities better, bigger and smarter.
As the sustainability and smartness for cities has taken the major role, power infrastructure — especially smart wiring — becomes ever more important. We just need to see how long it takes the talk turns into walk.
