Power surplus: A dream come true

Reducing the power consumption with the introduction of energy saving luminaires in the area of lighting is a notable feature.
Sharmila Kumbhat, Director, K-Lite Industries
Industrial growthElectricity consumption has become yardstick to indicate the lifestyle, believes Sharmila Kumbhat, Director, K-Lite Industries. Sharing her views on power surplus, she says, “When it happens, it is a ‘dream come true’ for every Indian in general and the industrialists in particular. From agriculture to the state–of-the-art missile technology and basic living, electricity has a direct impact in the sustenance and growth. The level of electricity consumption has now become the yardstick to indicate the standard of living in a country. I am sure we will now grow faster in all walks of life including the industrial growth.” 
Game changerAccording to Sharmila, the game changer is the open acceptance by the political decision makers and government. She observes, “Way back in 2000 that the crisis of the power shortage problem has been mainly due to the so called populist measures of government at various periods in the past and their negligence to pay serious attention towards long term investments in power generation. This acceptance gave way to the Electricity Act 2003 and things started happening from thereon.”
K-Lite’s contribution to this transformation is less as its a small scale company, acknowledges Sharmila. She says, “Our contribution, per se, is negligible for this transformation since we are a small scale industry and we limited ourselves to provide interim solutions through energy saving measures and installing generator sets for our requirement.” A miniscule contribution from the viewpoint of enhancing the power generation capacity.  However, reducing the power consumption with the introduction of energy saving luminaires in the area of lighting is a notable feature of K-Lite products. “We developed and marketed various energy saving luminaires, first with compact fluorescent lamps and then with LED and we can consider this as a humble contribution for this transformation,” she adds.
Business opportunitiesPower surplus are expected to push manufacturing activities in India. Sharmila says, “When we are self sufficient in power supply without any power cuts, and with quality power we can definitely produce our products at cheaper rates and hence compete in the world market. Even the failure of equipment due to poor power quality is eliminated and hence reduced recurring expenditure.”
Over and above, when the power position improves, possibilities for optimisation and decreased generation cost using efficient and economic resources will be automatic to enable further reduction in production cost. “When the power supply is available with a good quality, consumer demand for domestic products and services increase and the dynamics of the market become vibrant,” Sharmila concludes.