To cut reliance on China, Govt to incentivise firms making critical power equipment

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has proposed to offer incentives to domestic manufactures producing critical components re-quired in the power sector such as magnets and voltage transformers in a bid to reduce reliance on China.

The Authority has pre-pared a draft list of critical items that are presently being imported, along with support required by manufacturers for indigenisation of these items. The list has been prepared in consultation with stakeholders such as the industry body, Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers’ Association.

It has invited all the stake holders, including PSUs and other industries, to decide on prioritisation of the identified critical items or any additional items which stake-holders consider as critical and support is required for their indigenous development. The last date is June 20.

CRITICAL COMPONENTS

Other countries in the list include France, South Korea, Japan, Germany and the US. The CEA has asked stake holders to share suggestions on cost, volume required and the percentage contribution of the critical item in the total cost of the product. The purpose is to prioritise items which are more critical.

The critical items identified by the CEA include voltage transformers, semi-conductor devices such as Thyristors and DC capacitors, super capacitor, printed circuit boards, neodymium iron-boron magnets, and specialised magnetic core materials. Welcoming the development, Subharth Saha, Associate Director of Power Sector Advisory at Nangia & Co, said while the current list appropriately captures major equipment categories, a key area that needs to be simultaneously addressed is the set of critical materials that directly feed into the manufacturing of these equipment.

Publication – The Hindu Businessline

By Subharth Saha