Electrohms envisages potential in solar pumping

Electrohms is a leading provider of current and voltage sensing solutions for today’s connected world. Gautham Krishnan, Managing Director, Electrohms outlines evolution of Electrohms, solutions and products offered by the company, Electrohm’s First EV specific Product and its demand and many more in an email interaction with Electrical India.

Electrohms is a leading provider of current and voltage sensing solutions for today’s connected world. How has your business in India evolved over the years?
We were the first manufacturers of precision PCB mountable current transformers for the digital energy meter market in the 1990s. We expanded our range of current sensor beyond AC current sensing and became the first manufacturer of DC closed-loop sensors in 2010 for the small inverter market. These were designed and manufactured with indigenous developed technology. Since then we have developed a wide range of sensors to measure DC currents as high as 3000A RMS in a range of technologies and configurations. Our voltage sensors can measure up to 2.2KV with 7.5KV isolation. Our products are sold globally and serve industrial, railway and renewable power electronics applications, monitoring solutions and IoT (Internet of Things). We are now actively working in the EV area with solutions for both onboard vehicle sensors and EV charging infrastructure.

Greenhouse gas emission has become an epidemic of sorts across the globe. How is Electrohms geared up for this challenge?
The energy transition to renewable sources is inevitable in India given our huge import bills. Pollution in all major Indian cities is a serious issue affecting health, productivity, and investments. The plan to aggressively increase renewable power generation and EV infrastructure is a critical step in the right direction. However, the truly long-range solution is in the reduction of wasteful consumption. Solar water pumping programs launched can be true game changers for India. Electrohms have products to cater to each of these verticals and many new high technology solutions in the pipeline.

What are the products and solutions you offer in the solar and wind category?
Our solar plant monitoring solutions measure the efficiency and ensure high uptime of solar power plants. The solutions measure AC/DC currents, voltages and temperatures which is fed to an IoT solution for efficient plant monitoring. Electrohms offers a number of sensors for high power electronics. We have earned the trust of quality from our global customers, who use these sensors in critical application conditions from sub-zero offshore to desert type applications. Our zone monitoring solutions for solar parks are widely being deployed for our quality and service.

The government of India has an ambitious target of generation of 175 GW of renewable energy. What kind of growth potential does envisage for your company?
Electrohms is on a high growth path as our products are field-tested for several years and are now matured to be widely deployed by all major players in this field globally. We see a great future in India too, when these generation targets are met. Currently, the industry is mired with sub-viable pricing which has halted progress in new projects. T&M and energy storage also need to be immediately addressed. We see great opportunity in solar pumping and commercial rooftop applications, where there may be fewer constraints on viability and demand.

You have recently introduced First EV specific Product. Could you tell us more about this product, its features, applications, etc.?
First EV specific product that was deployed was a voltage sensor for use in EV chargers. Now, we also have under test with customers a current sensor for measuring up to 500A of current to replace shunt based solutions in EVs. The key disadvantage of shunts is the low output levels and inaccuracy at low currents and lack of isolation. Our product will offer 3 KV isolation and excellent measurement dynamic range and accuracy.

What are your strategies to
place this EV product in Indian market?
We trust Indian automotive customers see the value of ‘Make in India’ and here we have a company that not only makes but designs in India. We can modify the design to suit to their applications and we see this as our greatest advantage over overseas competitors. Also, most of the companies still rely on imports for electronics. This is set to change in the near future as the market leaders are investing heavily in R&D and would like to work closely with design partners.

Recently, the government of
India has slashed GST on EVs. How will it help to leverage the demand for your EV specific product?
It should help as the main market presence in the EV space is two-wheelers
and 3-wheelers which are very price sensitive.

What are your near-future plans
to introduce new solutions and products in solar, wind and EV space?
We continue to innovate and invest strongly in R&D. In 2020, we will release our new range of DC voltage sensors with higher DC voltage and isolation capabilities. We will introduce busbar mountable sensors for a range of inverter applications which will reduce the end product size and reduce cost. Finally, we are working on new sensors for measuring low currents very accurately which will be in the market late 2020.

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