November, 27, 2012, Mumbai - "By 2013 all substations of Powergrid will be unmanned. There will be cameras observing the functioning of the devices and equipment and the stations will be totally virtually managed remotely by the National Transmission Asset Management Centre at Manesar," according to Mr R N Nayak, CMD, Powergrid. Mr Nayak was speaking at IEEMA's SurgeProtech - an International Conference on HV Surge Arresters Technology and Applications, organised jointly with CBIP and Powergrid. He added that having 8 persons per substation was a waste of human resources.

Mr Nayak assured all help to the industry for indigenous manufacture of new products and technology; and advised the industry to manufacture line arresters and MOV devices domestically in the coming years. Mr Nayak further said that, ''Line arresters are the future. We are ready to give our full support to the industry, but they should focus on manufacturing line arresters as these are urgently needed in the transmission lines in north Bengal, evacuating power from the North Eastern States."

Appreciating the manufactures for developing the 1200 kV system in India, Mr Nayak said India needs more technologies to be indigenously manufactured. These kinds of technical conferences are majorly beneficial for the manufacturers as well as the user utilities and Mr Nayak urge IEEMA continues to organise such international technical conferences in the future as well.

Surge arrester is one of the most critical equipment for safe and reliable operation of electrical power system. Surge arrester plays an important role in limiting switching and lightning surges on main equipment like transformers, reactors and circuit breakers, etc., by diverting these surges to ground. The Indian Surge Arrester Industry has come of age and has been able to design, test and supply surge arresters up to 1200 kV operating level. Surge arresters required for the 1200 kV National Test Station at Bina have been developed indigenously which are in operation since February, 2012. The Indian industry has also developed the polymer housed surge arrester technology up to 1200 kV to meet the market requirements.

To set the ball rolling J G Kulkarni, President, IEEMA spoke about the importance of the surge arresters in the modern India. "This country requires a robust and healthy domestic electrical equipment industry, encompassing the complete value chain in power generation, transmission and distribution. The electrical equipment industry is not only crucial for the economy but also of strategic importance of the nation," said IEEMA President J G Kulkarni.

Mr Kulkarni further added that Indian electrical industry has developed a good global image over the years. "The Indian electrical equipment industry has developed a diversified, mature and strong manufacturing base, with robust supply chain, and a rugged performance design of products. There is also an emerging global reputation of Indian electrical equipment for sourcing of base products and components and also of Indian transmission and other EPC contractors"

Mr N S Sodha, Executive Director, Powergrid and Chairman Conference Organising Committee spoke about the need of surge arresters in the country.

Prof Volker Hinrichsen, Chairman of the Surge Arresters Technical Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission, Geneva, gave the keynote address at the Conference.

This Conference cum Tutorials were conceived to help and understand the latest technological developments that this product has undergone for the benefit of power sector.

The audience included professionals from industry, utility engineers, developers, public lending agencies, researchers and international experts.