An exclusive interview with Dr. Charusmita, Director at Statcon Energiaa. Her focus is on discovering innovative ways of bringing knowledge of high-power electronics into common parlance.

Statcon Energiaa, specialized in sophisticated development of power converters and solutions. The company cater products to various sectors, including solar energy, hydrogen production, defence, and industrial applications.

Statcon Energiaa also received an award for innovation at the REI  for micro-grid inverter products in 2022.

Read here for Part 1.

Read here for Part 2.

Q: Who are your targeted customers for microgrid inverters?

Dr. Charusmita:

The companies are largely into rural electrification and distributed energy generation.

For example, a company puts up a proper solar plant somewhere far away from the village, and all the people can pay for and buy that energy.

Our products enable different villages’ microgrids to integrate with themselves. So if there is one village not receiving solar or a problem due to rain, the solar generation is not that much, then they can use the solar energy generated by another village if they are connected.

The other foreign brands were not able to do that either. They were not able to connect two different microgrid systems through their standardized products, which were not customized to Indian needs and thus failed at scalability.

You can connect solar, wind, biomass, and all of the other renewable energy forms at the same time with our inverters. So you just need one inverter, a containerized solution depending on what the customer wants, and you don’t need separate inverters for biomass, connecting wind, or connecting solar.

Q: Explanation of Statcon Energiaa’s involvement in the Green Hydrogen project, for example, NTPC Leh Green Hydrogen Mobility Pilot Project.

Dr. Charusmita:

The main challenge was the altitude. The site is located at a very challenging altitude of about 36,700 meters above sea level. The temperature varies from minus fourteen to twenty degrees Celsius.

They wanted something that could be kept outdoors. They wanted something that could work without requiring a whole heating infrastructure when the freezing starts. They also did not want something so insulated that the heat would get trapped when it was hot.

We set the temperature range at minus fourteen to plus twenty degrees Celsius at the site. We offered a product that provides a wider range of temperatures to work with.

The product we offered works from minus twenty-five degrees to fifty-five degrees Celsius without any disruption in its capability.

The capability and technology can work within a large temperature range, from minus twenty-five to fifty-five degrees Celsius, without any issue. It can be kept outside with no problem, even in the most extreme conditions.

The main function is to provide seamless, reliable quality, with efficient power for the electrolyzer to work.

The basic function, as per the diagram, is that there is a rectifier and an electrolyzer. The renewable power in the grid comes to the rectifier, and then the rectifier makes that electricity into a form that is very stable, usable, and reliable because the electrolyzer needs to work with very efficient power.

The electricity quality should be good for the electrolyzer to work smoothly and produce the maximum amount of hydrogen. 

So, the rectifier also plays a big role in that.

The product should be easily operable. The data should be visible at all times remotely as well. So, a sophisticated human-machine interface, the HMI, has different kinds of parameters that you can monitor remotely as well.

Q: Can you explain the role of rectifiers in the production of green hydrogen and why they are crucial for electrolysis?

Dr. Charusmita:

Statcon Energiaa manufactures High-Power Rectifiers for Electrolysers, which are crucial for green hydrogen production. Green hydrogen production typically involves water electrolysis, a process that requires a steady and reliable DC power supply.

Rectifiers convert AC power from the grid or renewable energy sources into DC power, which is then used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen inside the electrolyzer. Rectifiers used in hydrogen production are designed to provide precise voltage and current regulation.

This ensures that the electrolysis cells operate within optimal parameters, enhancing the efficiency and longevity of the cells. Proper regulation helps maintain the desired output of hydrogen while minimizing energy losses and wear on the equipment​.

The efficiency and stability of the rectifiers directly impact the overall efficiency of the Electrolyser, thereby, affecting the efficiency of overall hydrogen generation. Statcon Energiaa’s rectifiers are designed to handle high power and provide the reliable and efficient performance necessary for large-scale green hydrogen production​. Specifically, Statcon Energiaa’s Hydrogen Rectifiers are optimized to rectify:

• Input Side Power quality (including Harmonics and PF), and
• Output Side DC Power quality (in terms of stability, regulation (both against Line and Load variations), and output AC ripples in DC voltage.

Their rectifiers are also designed in a modular fashion that can be extended to meet high ratings demand up to 550V, and 6000A in a single unit, and then parallelly extendable along such units.

Statcon Energiaa’s reputation is also built on its Military-Grade power electronics, which assure long operability, minimal maintenance, and cutting-edge technology. They have been supplying high-current rectifiers to the Defence sector of India and friendly countries for 15+ years, and their rectifiers have been running successfully since commissioning at all sites.

The key features of Statcon Energiaa’s rectifiers include:

• Designed for a wide input supply range to withstand harsh tropical weather conditions
• Being a 100% Indian product of Statcon Energiaa, all spares/ services are available locally for a guaranteed service life of 25 years
• Can power Green Hydrogen Electrolyser Plants that use PEM or Alkaline Technology
• These units are designed to operate in high and low temperatures without output power degradation – outdoor units up to 50°C and indoor units up to 45°C
• Works with forced air-cooling, eliminating the use of air-conditioning (water-cooled also available on request)
• Air-cooled or oil-cooled isolation transformers available as per requirement
• High conversion efficiency owing to single conversion
• Our rectifiers are already running successfully across Indian and foreign Naval Dockyards – with some for >20 years.
• Comprises Intuitive Touchscreen Controller integrated with Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) to achieve dynamic response, and remote operation along with data history storage facility availability
• Available for both Indoor and Outdoor applications
• Trolley-mounted rectifiers available for outdoor use

Q: What are your plans for Green Hydrogen projects? What is your opinion about the position of Green Hydrogen in India?

Dr. Charusmita:

I would say that there are three different categories in which green hydrogen plants are being installed and commissioned in India. One of them is smaller green hydrogen plants, which are below five hundred kilowatts in capacity.

And then there are five hundred kilowatt-to-two megawatt-capacity plants. And then there are huge ones—above two megawatts up to hundred megawatts, sixty-four megawatts, like, really huge plants.

So right now, categories one and three, which are the small ones and the really big ones, are very, very slow to be executed.

Most of the green hydrogen plants that are being executed in India, which are moving at a faster rate and being implemented, lie between five hundred kilowatts and two megawatts.

The government projects are usually really big. And even big private players are also installing huge plants. But they’re also taking a lot of time to execute.

So what we are focusing on now is finding customers—people who are interested in installing five hundred kilowatts to two-megawatt plants. In these, the decision-making is relatively quicker and yet thorough.

And we are mostly trying to approach not just government clients but also small private players. They are looking for a group of industries, say, on the outskirts of major cities, and they are looking for a green hydrogen plant for local energy distribution.

Q: And lastly, what the future generation needs to know about the industry when they are looking for job opportunities and career ambitions. Is there any potential for long-term stable career options?

Dr. Charusmita:

Absolutely. I mean, I would say don’t think that if you haven’t done engineering in a specific field or if you haven’t been associated with technology, you cannot enter this field.

If you only talk about green hydrogen, then I would say a lot of people who want to enter the hydrogen industry are focusing on small courses or workshops or doing some sort of lecture, attending these lectures on green hydrogen, thinking that if they do a master class, then it would be easier and more lucrative for them to enter the green hydrogen industry.

It’s nothing like that.

You just have to have the basic aptitude for it and a basic understanding of how any kind of power generation plant works. And I think that would be more than enough to join the green hydrogen industry unless you are looking for a very technical position as well as to design the plant.

Unless you are doing that, you don’t have to have any special qualifications to enter the green hydrogen supply chain or the green hydrogen industry.

And if you talk about the renewable energy sector in general, my advice would be the same. I came from a communications, economics, and media background very different from the energy industry. And I just fell in love with the dynamics of it.

I mean, the energy industry, especially the renewable energy industry, is so big that everybody has a place in it.

But my advice would be to take an interest in these technologies. And whatever you are learning, do it in-depth, because these days, what happens is that a lot of people research superficial topics.

I would say that talking to industry people, seeing their perspectives, and just gathering up information on Google is not going to help. The more time you spend in the industry doing that thing, the more it is going to help.

These topics generally appear very generic, but they are not.

If there is someone who is from a very different field who wants to switch to the energy industry but is from a commerce background, journalism, social work, or an NGO, how do they make that switch?

Ultimately, it’s your transferable skills that are important. You don’t need a very special qualification for a generic role in this kind of industry. The energy industry has space for everyone, and everyone must contribute to it.

Thank you for the interview.