National Grid (Malaysia)

National Grid, Malaysia () is the high-voltage electric power transmission network in Peninsular Malaysia. It is operated and owned by Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) by its Transmission Division. There are two other electrical grids in Sabah and Sarawak operated by Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) and Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) respectively.
The system spans the whole of Peninsular Malaysia, transporting electricity in bulk from power generators owned by TNB and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to distributors. The grid also transports directly to large industrial customers, such as steel mills and fertilizer plants.
History.
The beginnings of the National Grid was slowly taking shape in 1964 when the Bangsar Power Station was connected to the Connaught Bridge Power Station, with the line subsequently extended to Malacca.
By 1965, a plan was set to connect the electricity generating plants that were spread out all over the country. Plants identified to be linked were located at Paka in Terengganu, Temengor, Kenering, Bersia and Batang Padang in Perak, Connaught Bridge, Kapar and Serdang in Selangor, Cameron Highlands in Pahang, Perai in Penang, Port Dickson in Negeri Sembilan, Pergau in Kelantan, Pasir Gudang in Johor and in Malacca.
The central area network with Connaught Bridge Power Station in Klang was the precursor of the energy grid; it also tapped into the Cameron Highlands Hydro scheme from the Sultan Yussuf Power Station, and was extended into a western network. Late in the 1980s, the loop was complete when Kota Bharu joined the grid.
Grid description.
Transmission system.
More than 420 transmission substations in the Peninsular Malaysia, with a total installed capacity of 105,305 MVA, are linked together by approximately 21,000 circuit-kilometers of overhead lines and underground cables operating at 132, 275 and 500 kilovolts (kV). The 500 kV transmission system is the single largest transmission system to be ever developed in Malaysia. Begun in 1994, Phase 1 involved the design and construction of the 500kV overhead lines from Gurun, Kedah in the North along the west coast to Kapar, in the central region and from Pasir Gudang to Yong Peng in the south of Peninsular Malaysia.
The total distance covered for the 500 kV transmission lines is 784 circuit-km and the 275 kV portion is 9,257 circuit-km as of February 2017. To cater for the new plant up of generators, namely 3,100 MW Janamanjung Power Plant in the west coast, 372 MW Ulu Jelai Hydro Electric Power Plant in the east coast, and 4,100 MW Tanjung Bin Power Plant in the south, the 500 kV transmission system was extended from Bukit Tarek to Yong Peng via interconnection allows for electricity of Ayer Tawar, Tapah, Bentong South and Lenggeng. The completion of this interconnection allows for electricity transmission to the load centre, which is located in the Klang Valley area of Peninsular Malaysia.
A project involving laying a 730 km high-voltage direct current transmission line and a 670 km undersea cable for the 2,400-megawatt Bakun hydroelectric dam has been considered. This may connect all three of Malaysia's electric utility companies with state grids: Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) and Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB). Many of Sabah and Sarawak's generation plants are still not interconnected to a grid.
Type of National Grid's transmission system.
Connection to Thailand.
The National Grid is interconnected in the north to Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT)'s transmission system via the 300 kV HVDC interconnection of 300MV capacity and 132 kV HVAC double circuit overhead line of 90MW capacity each, linking Bukit Ketri-Chuping in the state of Perlis with Sadao, Sadao in Thailand.
Connection to Singapore.
In the South of Malaysia, the National Grid is connected to the transmission system of Singapore Power Limited (SP) at Senoko via two 230 kV submarine cables with a transmission capacity of 200 MW each.
Power generation.
Power generation capacity connected to the Malaysian National Grid is 22,858 megawatt, with a maximum demand of 17,788 megawatt as of April 2016 according to Suruhanjaya Tenaga. The generation fuel mix in peninsular is 45.55% gas, 50.23% coal, 3.59% hydro and 0.63% from other forms of fuel.
Distribution level.
Distribution lines of 66kV, 33 kV, 22 kV, 11 kV, 6.6 kV and 400/230 volt electricity distribution network connect to the National Grid via transmission substations will have their voltages stepped down by transformers.


Field emitter array

A field emitter array (FEA) is a particular form of large-area field electron source. FEAs are prepared on a silicon substrate by lithographic techniques similar to those used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. Their structure consists of a very large number of individual, similar, small field electron emitters, usually organized in a regular two-dimensional pattern. FEAs need to be distinguished from "film" or "mat" type large-area sources, where a thin film-like layer of material is deposited onto a substrate, using a uniform deposition process, in the hope or expectation that (as a result of statistical irregularities in the process) this film will contain a sufficiently large number of individual emission sites.
Spindt arrays.
The original field emitter array was the "Spindt array", in which the individual field emitters are small sharp molybdenum cones. Each is deposited inside a cylindrical void in an oxide film, with a counterelectrode deposited on the top of the film. The counterelectrode (called the "gate") contains a separate circular aperture for each conical emitter. The device is named after Charles A. Spindt, who developed this technology at SRI International, publishing the first article describing a single emitter tip microfabricated on a wafer in 1968.
Spindt, Shoulders and Heynick filed a U.S. Patent in 1970 for a vacuum device comprising an array of emitter tips.
Each individual cone is referred to as a "Spindt tip". Because Spindt tips have sharp apices, they can generate a high local electric field using a relatively low gate voltage (less than 100 V). Using lithographic manufacturing techniques, individual emitters can be packed extremely close together, resulting in a high average (or "macroscopic") current density of up to 2×107 A/m2 . Spindt-type emitters have a higher emission intensity and a more narrow angular distribution than other FEA technologies.
nano-Spindt arrays.
Nano-Spindt arrays represent an evolution of the traditional Spindt-type emitter. Each individual tip is several orders of magnitude smaller; as a result, gate voltages can be lower, since the distance from tip to gate is reduced. In addition, the current extracted from each individual tip is lower, which should result in improved reliability.
Carbon Nanotube (CNT) arrays.
An alternative form of FEA is fabricated by creating voids in an oxide film (as for a Spindt array) and then using standard methods to grow one or more carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in each void.
It is also possible to grow "free-standing" CNT arrays.
Applications.
Essentially very small electron beam generators, FEAs have been applied in many different domains. FEAs have been used to create flat panel displays (where they are known as field emission displays (or "nano-emissive displays"). They may also be used in microwave generators, and in RF communications, where they could serve as the cathode in traveling wave tubes (TWTs).
Recently, there has been renewed interest in using field effect arrays as cold cathodes in X-ray tubes. FEAs offer a number of potential advantages over conventional thermionic cathodes, including low power consumption, instantaneous switching, and independence of current and voltage.


Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company

The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) is a private electric distributor that provides power for a total of 14 million people in 4 states of Nigeria including Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross River and Akwa Ibom. It first operated as a government-owned enterprise before being privatized in 2013. Presently, PHED is owned by 4 Power Consortium Ltd. The headquarters are located at 1 Moscow Road in Old GRA, Rivers State.
On September 1 2020, PHED announced a new electricity tariff for customers in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers states.


N-Reactor

The N-Reactor was a water/graphite-moderated nuclear reactor constructed during the Cold War and operated by the U.S. government at the Hanford Site in Washington; it began production in 1963.
It was a one-of-a-kind design in the U.S., being both a plutonium production reactor for nuclear weapons and, from 1966, producing steam to allow production of electricity to feed the civilian power grid via the Washington Public Power Supply System or WPPSS. The power rating of the N-Reactor was 4000 MWt, with a power output of 800 MWe at the power generating plant.
In an improvement on the earlier Hanford reactors, N-Reactor was built with a confinement building (although not a containment building). In the event of an accidental release of steam, air and steam would vent through filters that confined any radioactive particles present. It was partially moderated with graphite, but had a negative void coefficient due to also using moderation from the coolant water, meaning it was thermally stable.
The reactor was shut down in 1987 when the Secretary of Energy determined that no more plutonium was needed and placed on cold standby in 1988, with "final deactivation" beginning in 1994 and completing in 1998. Deactivation consisted of shutdown and isolation of operational systems and the cleanup of radiological and hazardous waste. N-Reactor (the 105-N Reactor and the 109-N Heat Exchanger Building) were placed in Interim Safe Storage (ISS) in 2012. ISS consists of the removal of the fuel storage basin, ancillary support facilities, and most portions of the shield wall that surround the 105-N Reactor. In addition, the 109-N Heat Exchanger Building was removed up to the steam generator cells. A new steel roof was installed over the remaining structures. Before and after pictures are found in the facility status change form. Final room status report of the current as-left condition of accessible rooms in the ISS has been documented.


Scroll compressor

A scroll compressor (also called "spiral compressor", scroll pump and scroll vacuum pump) is a device for compressing air or refrigerant. It is used in air conditioning equipment, as an automobile supercharger (where it is known as a scroll-type supercharger) and as a vacuum pump. Many residential central heat pump and air conditioning systems and a few automotive air conditioning systems employ a scroll compressor instead of the more traditional rotary, reciprocating, and wobble-plate compressors.
A scroll compressor operating in reverse is a scroll expander, and can generate mechanical work.
History.
Léon Creux first patented a scroll compressor in 1905 in France and the US (Patent number 801182). Creux invented the compressor as a rotary steam engine concept, but the metal casting technology of the period was not sufficiently advanced to construct a working prototype, since a scroll compressor demands very tight tolerances to function effectively. In the 1905 patent, Creux defines a co-orbiting or spinning reversible steam expander driven by a fixed radius crank on a single shaft. However, the scroll expander engine could not overcome the machining hurdles of radial compliance inherent to achieving efficiency in scroll operation that would not be adequately addressed until the works of Niels Young in 1975. The first practical scroll compressors did not appear on the market until after World War II, when higher-precision machine tools enabled their construction. In 1981, Sanden began manufacturing the first commercially available scroll compressors for automobile air conditioners. They were not commercially produced for room air conditioning until 1983 when Hitachi launched the world's first air conditioner with a hermetic scroll compressor.
Design.
A scroll compressor uses two interleaving scrolls to pump, compress or pressurize fluids such as liquids and gases. The vane geometry may be involute, Archimedean spiral, or hybrid curves.
Often, one of the scrolls is fixed, while the other orbits eccentrically without rotating, thereby trapping and pumping or compressing pockets of fluid between the scrolls. An eccentric shaft can provide the orbital motion but the scroll must be prevented from rotating, typically with an Oldham-type coupling, additional eccentric idler shafts, or a bellows joint (particularly for high-purity applications). Another method for producing the compression motion is co-rotating the scrolls, in synchronous motion, but with offset centers of rotation. The relative motion is the same as if one were orbiting.
Leaks from axial gaps are prevented by the use of spiral-shaped tip seals, placed into grooves on the tips of both spirals. These tip seals also help lower the friction and can be replaced when worn down. Some compressors use the pressurized discharge gas to push both scrolls together, eliminating the need for tip seals and improving sealing with use; these compressors are said to wear-in instead of wear-out, but other parts such as the Oldham ring can still wear out.
Another variation is with flexible (layflat) tubing where the archimedean spiral acts as a peristaltic pump, which operates on much the same principle as a toothpaste tube. They have casings filled with lubricant to prevent abrasion of the exterior of the pump tube and to aid in the dissipation of heat, and use reinforced tubes, often called 'hoses'. This class of pump is often called a 'hose pumper'. Since there are no moving parts in contact with the fluid, peristaltic pumps are inexpensive to manufacture. Their lack of valves, seals and glands makes them comparatively inexpensive to maintain, and the hose or tube is a low-cost maintenance item compared to other pump types.
Engineering comparison to other pumps.
These devices are known for operating more smoothly, quietly, and reliably than conventional compressors in some applications. Unlike pistons, the orbiting scroll’s mass can be perfectly counterbalanced, with simple masses, to minimize vibration. (An orbiting scroll cannot be fully balanced if an Oldham coupling, also known as an Oldham ring, is used.) The scroll’s gas processes are more continuous. Additionally, a lack of dead space gives an increased volumetric efficiency.
Rotations and pulse flow.
The compression process occurs over approximately 2 to 2½ rotations of the crankshaft, compared to one rotation for rotary compressors, and one-half rotation for reciprocating compressors. The scroll discharge and suction processes occur for a full rotation, compared to less than a half-rotation for the reciprocating suction process, and less than a quarter-rotation for the reciprocating discharge process. Reciprocating compressors have multiple cylinders (typically, anywhere from two to six), while scroll compressors only have one compression element. The presence of multiple cylinders in reciprocating compressors reduces suction and discharge pulsations. Therefore, it is difficult to state whether scroll compressors have lower pulsation levels than reciprocating compressors as has often been claimed by some suppliers of scroll compressors. The more steady flow yields lower gas pulsations, lower sound and lower vibration of attached piping, while having no influence on the compressor operating efficiency.
Valves.
Scroll compressors never have a suction valve, but depending on the application may or may not have a discharge valve. The use of a dynamic discharge valve is more prominent in high pressure ratio applications, typical of refrigeration. Typically, an air-conditioning scroll does not have a dynamic discharge valve. The use of a dynamic discharge valve improves scroll compressor efficiency over a wide range of operating conditions, when the operating pressure ratio is well above the built-in pressure ratio of the compressors. If the compressor is designed to operate near a single operating point, then the scroll compressor can actually gain efficiency around this point if there is no dynamic discharge valve present (since there are additional discharge flow losses associated with the presence of the discharge valve as well as discharge ports tend to be smaller when the discharge is present).
Efficiency.
The isentropic efficiency of scroll compressors is slightly higher than that of a typical reciprocating compressor when the compressor is designed to operate near one selected rating point. The scroll compressors are more efficient in this case because they do not have a dynamic discharge valve that introduces additional throttling losses. However, the efficiency of a scroll compressor that does not have a discharge valve begins to decrease as compared to the reciprocating compressor at higher pressure ratio operation. This is a result of under-compression losses that occur at high pressure ratio operation of the positive displacement compressors that do not have a dynamic discharge valve.
The scroll compression process is nearly 100% volumetrically efficient in pumping the trapped fluid. The suction process creates its own volume, separate from the compression and discharge processes further inside. By comparison, reciprocating compressors leave a small amount of compressed gas in the cylinder, because it is not practical for the piston to touch the head or valve plate. That remnant gas from the last cycle then occupies space intended for suction gas. The reduction in capacity (i.e. volumetric efficiency) depends on the suction and discharge pressures with greater reductions occurring at higher ratios of discharge to suction pressures.
Reliability.
Scroll compressors have fewer moving parts than reciprocating compressors which, theoretically, should improve reliability. According to Emerson Climate Technologies, manufacturer of Copeland scroll compressors, scroll compressors have 70 percent fewer moving parts than conventional reciprocating compressors.
In 2006 a major manufacturer of food service equipment, Stoelting, chose to change the design of one of their soft serve ice cream machines from reciprocating to scroll compressor. They found through testing that the scroll compressor design delivered better reliability and energy efficiency in operation.
Size.
Scroll compressors tend to be very compact and smooth running and so do not require spring suspension. This allows them to have very small shell enclosures which reduces overall cost but also results in smaller free volume. This is a weakness in terms of liquid handling. Their corresponding strength is in the lack of suction valves which moves the most probable point of failure to the drive system which may be made somewhat stronger. Thus the scroll mechanism is itself more tolerant of liquid ingestion but at the same time is more prone to experience it in operation. The small size and quiet operation of a scroll compressor allow for the unit to be built into high power density computers, like IBM mainframes. Scroll compressors also simplify the piping design, since they require no external connection for the primary coolant.
Scroll Expander.
The scroll expander is a work producing device used mostly in low-pressure heat recovery applications. It is essentially a scroll compressor working in reverse; high enthalpy working fluid or gas enters the discharge side of the compressor and rotates the eccentric scroll before discharging from the compressor inlet. The basic modification required to convert the scroll compressor to a scroll expander is to remove the non-return valve from the compressor discharge.


Upper Peninsula Power Company

The Upper Peninsula Power Company (UPPCO) is an electrical power utility provider headquartered in Marquette, Michigan with service centers in Escanaba, Houghton, Iron River, Ishpeming, Munising and Ontonagon.
History.
The Upper Peninsula Power Company was formed in 1947 as a result of the merging of three electric utility providers: the Houghton County Electric Light Company, the Copper District Power Company, and Iron Range Light and Power.
UPPCO joined a coalition lead by Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPS) in 1961 to create a coordination of electrical service providers in Upper Michigan and Wisconsin. Through this agreement, the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan System (WUMS) was created with the ultimate goal of increasing the electrical grid resiliency by coordinating operational tasks such as equipment maintenance and construction of infrastructure facilities.
In 1994, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPS) formed the WPS Resources Corporation which became the holding company most partnered electric utility providers (excluding UPPCO) operated under at the time. UPPCO was eventually acquired by the holding company in 1998.
In 2007, UPPCO negotiated a separation from Integrys Energy Group (the new holding company resulting from a merger between WPS Resources Corporation and Peoples Energy Corp.). The separation was effectively completed in 2017 and UPPCO resumed operation as an independent electric utility provider.
Service Area.
The UPPCO service area includes 10 counties in the central and western portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula including: Alger, Delta, Marquette, Menominee, Schoolcraft, Baraga, Houghton, Iron, Ontonagon, and Keweenaw. The company serves approximately 52,000 customers which equates to approximately 12 customers per square mile.
Power Generation.
UPPCO generates approximately 20% of the electrical power distributed to its customers. Additional power is purchased from Consumers Energy in lower Michigan and the Wisconsin Energy Corporation (WE Energies). UPPCO operates multiple electrical power generation plants primarily including hydroelectric dams. Operational facilities include:
Power Transmission and Distribution.
UPCCO operates all transmission lines at 138,000 volts and has transmission interconnections with Wisconsin Public Service Corporation as well as Wisconsin Energies and the Cloverland Electric Cooperative.
UPPCO operates sub-transmission systems at 69,000 volts and has sub-transmission interconnections with the Marquette Board of Light and Power, Alger-Delta Electric Cooperative, and Cloverland Electric Cooperative.
UPPCO operates its distribution network at 12,470/7,200 volts. The company's distribution network includes approximately 3,300 miles of both single and three phase power circuits served by 58 distribution substations.


6DJ8

The 6DJ8 is a miniature nine-pin medium gain dual triode vacuum tube. It is distinguished by its very high transconductance, mostly the result of its frame grid construction. Versions of the tube are named ECC88, E88CC, 6922, 6N23P, and 6N11.
Origins.
Developed by Amperex, the American division of Philips in 1958. It was developed by Philips in the Netherlands under European designation ECC88. The series-string version 7DJ8 / PCC88 was also introduced at the same time. The 6DJ8 was designed for use as a low-noise amplifier in VHF and UHF TV tuners, an improved successor to the usual 6BK7, but due to its high gain it was used in much high-end test equipment. Most high-quality oscilloscopes from the 1950s to the 1960s have many 6DJ8 tubes.
Audio.
Although not originally designed for the purpose, it became popular in hi-fi audio amplifiers. European-produced version of the tube is designated ECC88. An industrial (improved/higher ratings) version of the tube was designated 6922 / E88CC between 1959 and 1961. Siemens introduced their own super ECC88 / 6DJ8 at the same time under CCa type. New Old Stock (NOS) 6DJ8s and ECC88s produced in the past by major American or West European vacuum tube manufacturers (such as Philips or Amperex) remain extremely popular with and highly sought by audiophiles. A version (direct equivalent) of this tube was also produced in the Soviet Union as 6N23P (Russian: 6Н23П) and in China as 6N11.
 the tube was being produced in three versions in Eastern Europe - Slovakia by JJ Electronic (ex-Tesla), and in Russia: 6DJ8 for Sovtek and 6922 for Electro-Harmonix.
References.
 - 6DJ8 tube data at DuncanAmps.


Amperex Electronic

Amperex Electronic Corporation was a manufacturer of vacuum tubes and semiconductors.
Brooklyn, New York.
Originally located at 79 Washington Street in Brooklyn, New York, Amperex was a long-established manufacturer of transmitting tubes when they were acquired by the Dutch firm, Philips, (known more widely as Norelco in the US), around 1955. Philips continued to improve and enlarge the tube plant in New York, but also used the Amperex name to distribute their new line of Dutch-made miniature tubes, (12AX7, 12AU7, 12AT7) to feed the booming U.S. hi-fi market. Classic hi-fi brands such as Marantz, Fisher, and H. H. Scott, Inc., used these tubes. Amperex also produced the 6DJ8, 6922 and 7308 frame grid tubes. Developed by Amperex in 1958 when transistors were beginning to supplant tubes and originally developed for video and radar use, the 6DJ8 also excelled in audio amplifiers needing its high transconductance, and it still has a niche market among audiophiles.
Amperex tubes were original equipment parts in many models of Tektronix and Hewlett-Packard test equipment. Although Amperex stopped making vacuum tubes long ago, hoards of new old stock (especially the original "Bugle Boy" series) are traded for profit, and other manufacturers produced compatible tubes more recently.
Hicksville, New York.
A new factory was constructed at 230 Duffy Avenue, Hicksville, New York, to manufacture electron tubes and semiconductors. Miniature receiving tubes, magnetrons, X-ray tubes, Geiger-Muller tubes, and large transmitting tubes were also manufactured at this location. This location became the headquarters for North American Philips (NAP). The factory was completed in 1953 and closed in 1989. All assets were then sold to Richardson Electronics of rural Lafox, near Batavia, Illinois.
The Hicksville factory had a company-sponsored softball team that played at Eisenhower Park (then called Salisbury Park) in East Meadow, New York.
Slatersville, Rhode Island.
North American Philips Corporation built a plant at 100 Providence Pike, North Smithfield, Rhode Island (Slatersville) on a plot in 1959. The 15-acre property is recorded by the Town of North Smithfield Tax Assessor as Lot No. 60 on Plat No. 4, and Lot No. 385 on Plat No. 5. There are five buildings located on the property. The property is bordered to the north by Industrial Drive; to the south by Comstock Road, to the east by a grassy area; and to the west by Providence Pike. The plant was operated by one of Philips' fully owned subsidiaries, Amperex Electronics, to supply IBM, one of Philips' largest customers, with high speed, gold-doped germanium logic diodes. Millions of these diodes were manufactured at the Slatersville plant every year. With the advent of silicon diodes in 1962 there was a decreasing demand for these germanium diodes, so Philips transferred their germanium Post Alloy Diffused Transistor (PADT) manufacturing to Slatersville to take advantage of the site's capacity.
In 1960 Philips invented an imaging tube called the Plumbicon to replace the vidicon and Image Orthicon tubes used in studio television cameras. The technical advantages of this new tube allowed true color fidelity to be seen in television broadcasts for the first time. In 1967 the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presented Philips with an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development" for the invention of the Plumbicon tube.
The popularity of the Plumbicon tubes was so great that Amperex, built a second plant adjacent to the 1959 building on the Slatersville site to meet the demand. The new plant was , and at the time of construction employed the largest and cleanest clean room facilities in the world. The plant was officially opened in 1967 and is still making Plumbicon camera tubes today. Although the original use of Plumbicon camera tubes was in broadcast television, current demand is primarily in for use in medical imaging equipment.
In 1973, several years after its acquisition by Amperex, the manufacturing operations of Advanced Micro Electronics were transferred to Slatersville. The products transferred from Advanced Micro Electronics included small signal silicon planar transistors for military and industrial applications, Leadless Inverted Devices (LIDs) and hybrid circuits using both thin and thick film technology. Manufacturing of these three products and the sales office for Philips Semiconductors were housed in Slatersville until 1992 when this business unit was sold.
In 1998 Philips Components purchased, from English Electric Valve (EEV), the only other lead oxide camera tube business still in existence and so became the World's sole lead oxide camera tube manufacturer.
Cranston, Rhode Island.
Amperex had a manufacturing facility at 99 Bald Hill Road, Cranston, Rhode Island, that manufactured monolithic integrated circuits .
It was acquired by Micro Components Corporation, later renamed Cherry Semiconductor, moved to 2000 South County Trl, East Greenwich, RI. then sold to ON Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Motorola until 1999.
Other divisions.
Ferroxcube, in Saugerties, New York, manufactured components for data processing equipment, namely, electromagnetic cores, memory planes, stacks of memory planes with controlled networks, shielding beads, threaded slugs, choke coils, filters, resistors, magnetic recording head assemblies, memory systems, Peltier batteries with or without control networks, capacitors, and magnetostrictive ferrites. Ferroxcube now belongs to Yageo Corporation.
Amperex also operated a site in North Smithfield, RI . In the 1980s it was used for marketing, sales, QC and Engineering R&D of their discrete semi-conductor business. Before any components were shipped to US based customers QC staff would run some or all pieces through EATON testing equipment. Engineers at customer sites would work with Amperex engineers to determine the best use and components for the customer needs.
Other products.
For a brief time Amperex distributed a dot matrix printer, model GP-300.


First Philippine Holdings Corporation

First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH) is a management and investment company whose major business is power generation and distribution, with strategic initiatives in manufacturing and property development. FPH is a member of the Lopez Group of Companies.
Its power generation subsidiary, First Gen Corporation (First Gen), is a renewable energy producer, with power plants that use geothermal, hydro, and natural gas for fuel. Today, it has a total installed capacity of 2,832.6 MW, or 18.2% of the country's total installed capacity. First Gen manages the world's second largest geothermal power producer, Energy Development Corporation, which searches for indigenous, low-carbon energy alternatives.
FPH's manufacturing subsidiary, First Philippine Electric Corporation (First Philec), operates the country's first large-scale silicon wafer-slicing facility called First Philec Solar Corporation (FPSC), which supplies some of the world's photovoltaic companies. FPSC is a joint venture of First Philec and SunPower Corporation, in the solar industry.
In property development, FPH expands its reach through Rockwell Land Corporation (Rockwell Land) and First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP).
FPH maintains its corporate headquarters at Rockwell Business Center Tower 3 in Ortigas Center at Pasig, Philippines.
The founder.
In the 1950s, then-President Carlos Garcia pushed for a larger Filipino role in the nation's economic activities. Among the many Filipino entrepreneurs whose businesses flourished in this period was Eugenio Lopez Sr., a businessman who would soon establish a conglomerate that would become First Philippine Holdings Corporation.
Lopez graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1919, with an AB Degree, "Cum Laude". He went on to study law in the University of the Philippines and after passing the bar exams, he underwent a year of post graduate studies in law at Harvard University.
Lopez had various businesses. In 1932, he established the Iloilo Negros Air Express Company. He also made his mark in sugar milling, with the acquisition of the Binalbagan-Isabela Sugar Company (BISCOM). He was a power in media, owning "The Manila Chronicle" newspaper and ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation. He was also one of the founders of the Philippine Commercial and Industrial Bank (PCI Bank). In 1962, Lopez acquired Meralco.
History.
The first decade (1961–1970).
FPH Timeline
Meralco was so large that many Filipino businessmen believed that its acquisition by a Filipino was nearly impossible. By 1960, Meralco was worth $66 million and served more than 360,000 customers. In 1961, "Fortune Magazine" cited that the company's operations and equipment were comparable to the best US power firms.
But although Meralco was a stable and highly profitable enterprise, the government's decree of pushing for more Filipino participation in the business prodded General Public Utilities (GPU) president Albert F. Tegen, to find a buyer for the company. Tegen approached a number of the leaders in the Manila's business community, including the Araneta-Zobel group, which balked at buying only 5% of the company.
Eventually the key people involved in the buyout of the company – Tegen and Roberto T. Villanueva, BISCOM's Chairman of the Board, crossed paths in New York. Villanueva was pursuing the owners of Victorias Milling Company, a Negros-based sugar company, to make an offer for their firm. However, the owners remained unwilling to sell.
Knowing that Villanueva was instrumental in the successful Filipino buyout of several companies, Tegen asked him to explore the possibility of the Lopez Group buying Meralco.
Even Lopez knew how risky the Meralco deal would be, for none of his previous business acquisitions amounted to its sale price. Buying Meralco and running it well required tremendous capital, managerial talent, and personal focus. But Don Eugenio was a visionary – he recognized the opportunities in the power industry.
Two syndicate of banks were established to handle this big transaction – one was a US Bank headed by Citibank and another local bank headed by PCI Bank. The Lopez Group paid a 10% down payment and the balance was paid over a 10-year period.
So on June 8, 1961, Tegen and Villanueva signed a preliminary agreement between GPU and the Lopez Group. Lopez needed a new corporate entity to take over the Meralco assets. Two days after, Meralco Securities Corporation (MSC) was established. It was principally organized to acquire ownership of the Manila Electric Company and manage its business. In the years that followed, MSC went beyond being an acquisition and management tool for Meralco – it also became an important company in its own right.
Initially, its capital stock was at Php 450M and the number of initial stakeholders was 605. Its 14 initial incorporators comprised some of the brightest businessmen at that time: Rafael Anton, Salvador Araneta, Antonio Delgado, Senen Gabaldon, Emilio Gonzales La'O, Ricardo Ledesma, Eugenio Lopez, Eugenio Lopez, Jr. (Geny), Alfredo Montelibano, Ernesto Oppen, Jr., Ernesto Rufino, Sr., Jose Soriano, Dolores De Tuazon, and Roberto Villanueva.
For the first few years, MSC had no independent life; its fate was tied to the success of Meralco. Because it was primarily focused on acquiring Meralco, it was virtually unknown. But after 1966, MSC's time to shine came.
Up to 1962, Meralco was greatly dependent on the National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) for 35% of its power requirements. While NAPOCOR had a program for expansion, the program was delayed and it took them more than two years to put up a power plant. It built a new power plant every 18 months, and expanded its generating capacity fivefold, from 300,000 kW to 1.5 million kW in 10 years. At this time, Meralco's rates were among the lowest in the world.
The second decade (1971–1980).
MSC's management had two main goals in mind: to pay for the buy out of Meralco and run it far better than it had been before. Lopez recruited Filipino managers, such as Meralco Chief Finance Officer Vicente Paterno, Antonio Ozaeta and Christian Monsod, while retaining some of the American managers like Lee Garner, Russ Swartley and Steve Psinakis. Eventually, most of these managers headed various local and multinational corporations.
By 1966, its initial financial pressures were beginning to ease. Paterno's success in tapping new funds from international capital markets freed the company from major financial worries for at least the next four years. In late 1966, Meralco shareholders received dividends for the first time. In the same year, Don Eugenio created a Department of Economic Research and Development headed by his son, Oscar M. Lopez. Together with Ernesto "Ernest" Rufino, Jr., Oscar sought to make MSC as broad as possible. Their efforts focused on the following areas: expanding the Meralco franchise area, computer services, construction, banking, and financial services.
Oscar and Ernest saw the need to bring fuel from Batangas to Sucat in the cheapest possible way. As a result, MSC created the first commercial pipeline in the country. The pipeline transported bunker oil to Meralco power plants. Even oil companies such as Pilipinas Shell and Caltex needed to transport white oil products more efficiently from Batangas to other oil depots, as they were still using barges and trucks. Thus, two pipelines were created. One transported black oil products which included bunker fuel and crude oil, and the other ferried white oil products such as gasoline, diesel, and LPG. This new company, called Meralco Securities Industrial Corporation, was created on March 31, 1967. It was later renamed as First Philippine Industrial Corporation (FPIC).
Aside from the pipeline industry, MSC created Philippines Engineering Construction Corporation (PECCO) with Lorenzo R. Funtanilla project superintendent Pililla Rizal thereafter was the sister company became ECCO-Asia now Philec and many other subsidiaries.
But during the term of then-President Ferdinand Marcos in 1970, the Philippines was confronted with its worst economic crisis which stemmed from economic mismanagement, affected the government's ballooning debt, the peso devaluation, and other factors. The crisis lasted for 25 years and Meralco, the cornerstone of the MSC conglomerate, was the hardest hit. The annual increase in electricity demand was anemic while the company's net income dropped from Php 62.2M in 1969 to Php 10.3M in 1971.
It was not only the financial crisis that challenged Meralco. At that time, the Philippines was also plunging deeper into a political crisis. While Philippine society was modernizing and becoming more diverse, politics was becoming increasingly polarized between the conservative elite and emergent forces calling for political, social, and economic change.
Public discontent with the administration grew from alleged issues of corruption and human rights violation. Consecutive protests took place – showing the Filipinos' grievances over the social injustices they were witnessing. This was what later became known as the First Quarter Storm.
On September 21, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation No. 1081, placing the entire country under martial law. Along with this, he also issued Letter of Instruction 2 which instructed the military to take over all public utilities such as Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company and Meralco. And shortly after the midnight of September 22, elements of the 51st Army Engineering Brigade entered the Meralco compound and took over the power company.
The Marcos regime used various tactics to force Don Eugenio to hand over his controlling stake in MSC and Meralco to the dictator and his cronies. Two of which included a government-imposed cut in power rates and the imprisonment of Geny, his eldest son, on trumped-up charges.
Under duress and with fear of not seeing his son Geny set free, Don Eugenio was forced to sign an agreement on November 29, 1973, ceding ownership of MSC to Benjamin "Kokoy" Romualdez, brother of First Lady Imelda Marcos and an alleged Marcos bagman. Despite this, Marcos reneged on his promise to set Geny free even until Don Eugenio's death on July 6, 1975, in San Francisco, US.
In 1978, MSC was renamed First Philippine Holdings Corporation. First Holdings went on a huge expansion program, which included the acquisition of 25% of Pilipinas Shell. First Holdings also organized another wholly owned subsidiary, First Holdings International (FHI), to coordinate the overseas activities of Engineering and Construction Corporation of Asia and the Pacific Engineering Company, Inc. The establishment of FHI positioned the company for expanding its contracting and project management services abroad, particularly in the Middle East, which was then regarded as the primary source of profitable undertakings.
But the magnitude of its investments and the unfavorable conditions in the financial market, led to the near-collapse of First Holdings by the mid-1980s. The country was experiencing a prolonged recession in the second half of 1983. The country's fallout resulting from the assassination of Senator Benigno S. Aquino spared no one. Massive capital flight of international investors immediately followed. Almost overnight, credit from both foreign and local sources dried up. Forcing bankruptcy, management of corporate debt became a major concern of the company. To eliminate its debt, First Holdings sold its equity in Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation while First Holdings Center in Makati was sold to a group of banks.
Amidst divestment of assets and scaled down activities, the company suffered years of consolidated net losses. In 1985, this situation was further aggravated with the termination of its subcontract for the Hail electrification project in Saudi Arabia.
With the national economy in ruins and failure of the electoral process, calls for reform were coming from the local and foreign community. President Marcos was hounded by pressure from many sides – an increasingly restive people, a rapidly failing economy, growing doubts by foreign creditors, a hostile international press, and unbridled corruption of his closest allies.
With the economy in ruins and increasing pressure, both internal and external, Marcos called for "snap" elections. What was once an unruly and fractious opposition came together in time to put up one presidential candidate, Corazon "Cory" Aquino, widow of Ninoy. The election took place with international media representatives and invited observers of foreign governments covering the event. Many Filipinos volunteered as poll watchers – guarding the ballot boxes with their life. Such courage, however, did not prevent the widespread fraud and terrorism which caused the failure of the electoral process.
Subsequently, members of the military, led by the Minister of National Defense and the Vice Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces broke with President Marcos and announced their support for Corazon Aquino, whom they regarded as the duly elected president of the Philippines. Filipinos from all walks of life gathered together – giving birth to the historic EDSA revolution. The dark days of dictatorship had ended and democracy was reborn. For First Holdings, these turn of events eventually made its rehabilitation possible.
The third decade (1981–1990).
After the EDSA Revolution, the Lopezes regained control of First Holdings. Oscar Lopez took the helm of a battered company, which was nearly bankrupt with over Php 1.2 billion in debt.
But it was not only the parent company which needed rehabilitation. Even its subsidiaries had to get moving. There were two principle tasks which had to be done: generating more cash flow and a respectable rate of return for the stockholders. Both of these turned out to be considerable challenges, but the people in First Holdings took them one step at a time – and they prevailed.
After one year, the company was able to reschedule and rearrange most of its debt load by selling some assets. It also began the long process of reacquiring part of its stake in Meralco. And in 1990, the company made its first profit since 1983 of Php 28 million.
The fourth decade (1991–2000).
In 1992, First Holdings re-entered the power generation business through the building of a 225 MW diesel plant under Bauang Private Power Corporation (Bauang Power). At that time, Bauang Power held several distinctions: it was the only predominantly Filipino-owned fast track power plant in the country to offer the cheapest power among many fast track plants, the largest medium-diesel plant in the world, and the fastest commissioning for a plant of its type in the world.
It diversified into more businesses and opened new plants. The company took part in developing the Malampaya Project, the largest and most significant industrial investment in the history of the Philippines which signals the birth of the country's natural gas industry. In partnership with British Gas plc, First Holdings created First Gas Corporation Holdings to build and run the first gas-fired combined-cycle gas turbine power plants in the country. Under First Gas are the 1,000 MW Sta. Rita and 500 MW San Lorenzo power plants, both located in Batangas.
This decade also marked the company's entry into infrastructure with the development of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), an 84-kilometer highway – the longest toll road in the country in terms of lane-kilometers.
In 1994, the First Philippine Infrastructure Development Corporation (FPIDC) was formed to enter into partnership with the Philippine National Construction Corporation for the NLEX project. FPIDC incorporated the Manila North Tollways Corporation (MNTC) in February 1997 as the operating company for the NLEX project.
The beginnings of the fifth decade (2001-present).
The NLEX project was the first project financed toll road undertaking in the country and also the first project to achieve financial close outside the power sector despite the global economic crisis.
The company also won the bid for the Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) in 2007. SCTEX links three prime economic zones in Central Luzon: Subic Bay Freeport and Special Economic Zone, Clark Special Economic Zone, and Central Techno Park.
However, in 2008, First Holdings sold its toll road business to Metro Pacific Investment Corporation, a company with interests in real estate, utilities, and shipping.
In November 2006, First Gen won the bid to acquire the 112 MW Pantabangan-Masiway hydroelectric power plant complex from the Power Sector Assets & Liabilities Management. The following year, First Gen acquired a 60% economic interest in Philippine National Oil Company – Energy Development Corporation (EDC). EDC was established in 1976, to wean the country from its dependence on imported fuels by developing renewable sources of energy. It is active in wet steam field technology and is primarily engaged in the exploration, development, and optimization of geothermal fields.
Also, in 2008, the first large-scale silicon wafer-slicing plant was inaugurated in the Philippines – First Philec Solar Corp. This subsidiary, a joint venture between First Holdings and the Sunpower of the United States, aims to develop the solar energy industry in the Philippines and to compete with companies providing wafer-slicing services in China, Japan, and Germany.
The Philippines was not spared from the global financial crunch of 2008, and so was First Holdings. While the company enjoyed a favorable business climate in the past years, it was affected with the economic crisis. Currency movements, high finance costs, and other factors caused First Holdings to sell 20 percent of its ownership in Meralco to Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT).
Management and employees.
Each of First Holdings' subsidiaries has its own Human Resources departments and systems, but the parent company handles the talent management of the executives who are deployed in various subsidiaries as seconded employees.
The HR departments of the First Holdings Group are part of the Lopez Group HR Council, where they discuss and exchange their best practices in the group.
Corporate governance.
First Holdings was among eight companies that received a gold award (a rating between 95 and 99%) for garnering the highest ratings, among 169 publicly listed companies, in the 2008 Corporate Governance Scorecard Project (CG-Sc), conducted by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), Philippine Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission.
Corporate initiatives.
First Holdings has adopted a manual on Corporate Governance, Corporate Code of Conduct, and Manual on Anti-Money Laundering.
The company's corporate governance has been entrusted to the board of directors. To ensure that independent, objective, and reasoned views are part of its board deliberations, First Holdings has more than what the law mandates of having at least 2 independent directors or at least 20 percent of a company's board membership. To date, the company has five existing independent directors.
In 2009, First Holdings marked two milestones in the company's corporate history.
First, it achieved triple certification when it successfully passed the audits for the ISO 9001, 14001, and OHSAS 18001 standards. It is the only holding company in the Philippines to receive an IMS certification from Certification International.
Second, it received a gold award from the ICD for its commitment to good corporate governance. First Holdings was among only eight companies who received a gold award (a rating between 95 and 99%) for garnering the highest ratings, among 169 publicly listed companies, in the 2008 CG-Sc, jointly conducted by the ICD, Philippine Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission.
The corporate initiatives also include standards based systems, management tools, and recognition awards. Part of its management tools include the environment, safety, and health programs (ESH) and the Six Sigma program. The prominent standards systems in use are ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
Meanwhile, ESH started in 1998 as a corporate initiative for companies in the First Holdings Group which was eventually rolled out for the whole Lopez Group.
Major investments.
First Holdings has core investments in power generation and distribution, as well as infrastructure, with strategic investments in manufacturing and property.
Power generation.
First Holdings, through First Gen Corporation, has investments in gas-fired, bunker-fired, hydroelectric and geothermal power generation plants.
Power distribution.
First Holdings has core investments in power distribution through Manila Electric Company and Panay Electric Company.
Infrastructure.
First Holdings has investments in infrastructure. First Philippine Industrial Corporation is First Holdings' subsidiary engaged in pipeline services. Another subsidiary, First Balfour, Inc., is a construction company.
Manufacturing.
First Holdings has strategic investments in manufacturing under First Philec Corporation.
Under First Philec, the Electricals Division support electric utilities and comprises Philippine Electric Corporation, First Electro Dynamics Corporation, and First Philippine Power Systems, Inc. The Electronics Division, through First Sumiden Circuits, First Philec Solar Corporation, and First Sumiden Realty, continues to provide much-needed employment and foreign exchange.
Property.
First Holdings has strategic investments in property through Rockwell Land Corporation and First Philippine Industrial Park. The project is a joint venture with Sumitomo Corporation.
Subsidiary.
Rockwell Land Corporation is a real estate development company initially tasked to develop Rockwell Center, a 15.5 hectare prime residential and commercial property located in Makati near the Central Business District.The Rockwell Center used to be the site of the Meralco-owned 130 MW Rockwell Thermal plant named after James Chapman Rockwell, Meralco's 2nd and 4th president.
Other subsidiary.
FPIP is a 315-hectare, modern industrial estate. It caters to wide range of industries such as light and medium manufacturing for export as well as the domestic market, high technology and non-pollutive industries and IT.


Unipro (company)

Unipro (former names: E.ON Russia, The Fourth Generation Company of the Wholesale Electricity Market or OGK-4) is a Russian power generation company formed by merger of five generation companies. 83.73% of the company is owned by the German energy company Uniper, the rest of the shares are owned by minority shareholders.
History and operations.
Unipro was founded in 2006 with the merger of the following power plants:
The installed capacity of all five thermal power plants is about 10,296 MW, which comprises about 5% of the generating capacity of RAO UES.
The output of the Unipro power plants in 2007 was around 54.5 TWh. According to the current investment program, there are plans to increase the original capacity of the power plants by 9.03 GW to more than 11 GW in 2011 with spending for these purposes by US$2.89 billion.


Solar power in India

Solar power in India is a fast developing industry. The country's solar installed capacity was 36.9 GW as of 30 November 2020.
The Indian government had an initial target of 20 GW capacity for 2022, which was achieved four years ahead of schedule.
In 2015 the target was raised to 100 GW of solar capacity (including 40 GW from rooftop solar) by 2022, targeting an investment of 100 billion. India has established nearly 42 solar parks to make land available to the promoters of solar plants.
Rooftop solar power accounts for 2.1 GW, of which 70% is industrial or commercial.
In addition to its large-scale grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) initiative, India is developing off-grid solar power for local energy needs.
Solar products have increasingly helped to meet rural needs; by the end of 2015 just under one million solar lanterns were sold in the country, reducing the need for kerosene.
That year, 118,700 solar home lighting systems were installed and 46,655 solar street lighting installations were provided under a national program; just over 1.4 million solar cookers were distributed in India.
The International Solar Alliance (ISA), proposed by India as a founder member, is headquartered in India. India has also put forward the concept of "One Sun One World One Grid" and "World Solar Bank" to harness abundant solar power on global scale.
National solar potential.
With about 300 clear and sunny days in a year, the calculated solar energy incidence on India's land area is about 5000 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year (or 5 EWh/yr). The solar energy available in a single year exceeds the possible energy output of all of the fossil fuel energy reserves in India. The daily average solar-power-plant generation capacity in India is 0.30 kWh per m2 of used land area, equivalent to 1400–1800 peak (rated) capacity operating hours in a year with available, commercially-proven technology.
Installations by region.
Andhra Pradesh.
Installed photo-voltaic capacity in Andhra Pradesh was 3,531 MW as of 31 August 2020. The state is planning to add 10,050 MW solar power capacity to provide power supply to farming sector during the day time. The state has also offered five Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects with a total capacity of 12,200 MW to developers under renewable power export policy outside the state. Andhra Pradesh is endowed with abundant pumped hydroelectric energy storage to make available solar power in to round the clock power supply for meeting its ultimate energy needs. The state is planning to construct 33,000 MW pumped storage projects to mitigate the intermittency associated with renewable energy.
In 2015, NTPC agreed with APTransCo to install the 250-MW NP Kunta Ultra Mega Solar Power Project near Kadiri in Anantapur district. In October 2017, 1000 MW was commissioned at Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park which has become the world's largest solar power plant at that time. In August 2018, Greater Visakhapatnam commissioned a 2 MW Mudasarlova Reservoir grid-connected floating solar project which is the largest operational floating solar PV project in India. NTPC Simhadri has awarded BHEL to install a 25 MW floating solar PV plant on its water supply reservoir. APGENCO commissioned 400 MW Ananthapuram - II solar park located at Talaricheruvu village near Tadipatri.
Delhi.
Delhi being the Capital and a city state in India, has limitation in installing ground mounted solar power plants. However it is leading in rooftop solar PV installations by adopting fully flexible net metering system. The installed solar power capacity is 106 MW as on 30 September 2018. Delhi government has announced that the Rajghat thermal power plant will be officially shut at the 45 acre plant site and turned into a 5 MW solar power PV plant.
Gujarat.
Gujarat is one of India's most solar-developed states, with its total photovoltaic capacity reaching 1,637 MW by the end of January 2019.
Gujarat has been a leader in solar-power generation in India due to its high solar-power potential, availability of vacant land, connectivity, transmission and distribution infrastructure and utilities. According to a report by the Low Emission Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP) report, these attributes are complemented by political will and investment. The 2009 Solar Power of Gujarat policy framework, financing mechanism and incentives have contributed to a green investment climate in the state and targets for grid-connected solar power.
The state has commissioned Asia's largest solar park near the village of Charanka in Patan district. The park is generating 345 MW by March 2016 of its 500 MW total planned capacity and has been cited as an innovative and environmentally-friendly project by the Confederation of Indian Industry. In December 2018, 700 MW Solar PV plant at Raghanesda Solar Park is contracted at 2.89 Rs/unit levelised tariff.
To make Gandhinagar a solar-power city, the state government has begun a rooftop solar-power generation scheme. Under the scheme, Gujarat plans to generate 5 MW of solar power by putting solar panels on about 50 state-government buildings and 500 private buildings.
It also plans to generate solar power by putting solar panels along the Narmada canals. As part of this scheme, the state has commissioned the 1 MW Canal Solar Power Project on a branch of the Narmada Canal near the village of Chandrasan in Mehsana district. The pilot project is expected to stop of water per year from evaporating from the Narmada River.
Haryana.
State has set the 4.2 GW solar power (including 1.6 GW solar roof top) target by 2022 as it has high potential since it has at least 330 sunny days. Haryana is one of the fastest growing state in terms of solar energy with installed and commissioned capacity of 73.27 MW. Out of this, 57.88 MW was commissioned in FY 2016/17. Haryana solar power policy announced in 2016 offers 90% subsidy to farmers for the solar powered water pumps, which also offers subsidy for the solar street lighting, home lighting solutions, solar water heating schemes, solar cooker schemes. It is mandatory for new residential buildings larger than to install 3% to 5% solar capacity for no building plan sanctioning is required, and a loan of up to Rs. 10 lacs is made available to the residential property owners. Haryana provides 100% waiver of electricity taxes, cess, electricity duty, wheeling charges, cross subsidy charges, transmission and distribution charges, etc. for rooftop solar projects.
In December 2018, Haryana had installed solar capacity of 48.80 MW, and in January 2019 Haryana floated tender for 300 MW grid-connected solar power, and additional 16 MW tender for the canal top solar power.
Karnataka.
Karnataka is the top solar state in India exceeding 5,000 MW installed capacity by the end of financial year 2017–18. The installed capacity of Pavagada Solar Park is 2050 MW by the end of year 2019 which was the world biggest solar park at that time.
Kerala.
Kerala's largest floating solar power plant was set upon the Banasura Sagar Dam reservoir in Wayanad district, Kerala. The 500 kW (kilowatt peak) solar plant of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) floats on 1.25 acres of the water surface of the reservoir. The solar plant has 1,938 solar panels which have been installed on 18 Ferro concrete floaters with hollow insides.
Kochi international airport is the first airport to run completely in solar energy . CIAL solar farm is responsible for it. Moreover solar power plants are to set up at Idukki Wayanad Malappuram and palakkad districts. It has been planned to install floating solar plants in Dams and reservoirs across the state. KSEB to insists to put domestic solar panels across each and every homes , offices , railway stations etc to cater for domestic use and the extra energy to national grid. Wind farms and other barren lands are converted to solar fields .
Ladakh.
Ladakh, though a late entrant in solar power plants, is planning to install nearly 7,500 MW capacity in few years.
Madhya Pradesh.
Madhya Pradesh had a total photovoltaic capacity of 1,117 MW by the end of July 2017. The Welspun Solar MP project, the largest solar-power plant in the state, was built at a cost of on of land and will supply power at per kWh. A 130 MW solar power plant project at Bhagwanpura, a village in Neemuch district, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is the largest solar producer, and Welspun Energy is one of the top three companies in India's renewable-energy sector. A planned 750 MW solar-power plant in Rewa district, the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar plant, was completed and inaugurated on 10 July 2020. Spread over 1,590 acres, it is Asia's largest solar power plant and was constructed at a cost of ₹4,500 crore.
Maharashtra.
The 125-MW Sakri solar plant is the largest solar-power plant in Maharashtra. The Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust has the world's largest solar steam system. It was constructed at the Shirdi shrine at an estimated cost of , which was paid as a subsidy by the renewable-energy ministry. The system is used to cook 50,000 meals per day for pilgrims visiting the shrine, resulting in annual savings of 100,000  kg of cooking gas, and was designed to generate steam for cooking even in the absence of electricity to run the circulating pump. The project to install and commission the system was completed in seven months, and the system has a design life of 25 years. The Osmanabad region in Maharashtra has abundant sunlight, and is ranked the third-best region in India in solar insolation. A 10 MW solar power plant in Osmanabad was commissioned in 2013. The total power capacity of Maharashtra is about 500 MW.
Rajasthan.
Rajasthan is one of India's most solar-developed states, with its total photovoltaic capacity reaching 2289 MW by end of June 2018. Rajasthan is also home to the world's largest Fresnel type 125 MW CSP plant at the Dhirubhai Ambani Solar Park. Jodhpur district leads the state with installed capacity of over 1,500 MW, followed by Jaisalmer and Bikaner.
The Bhadla Solar Park, with total installed capacity of 2,245 MW, is the biggest plant in the world as of March 2020.
The only tower type solar thermal power plant (2.5 MW) in India is located in Bikaner district.
In March 2019, the lowest tariff in India is ₹2.48/kWh for installing the 750 MW solar power plants in the state.
Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu had the 5th highest operating solar-power capacity in India in May 2018. The total operating capacity in Tamil Nadu was 1.8 GW. On 1 July 2017, the solar power tariff in Tamil Nadu has hit an all-time low of Rs 3.47 per unit when bidding for 1500 MW capacity was held.
The 648-MW Kamuthi Solar Power Project is the biggest operating project in the state. On 1 January 2018, NLC India Limited (NLCIL) commissioned a new 130 MW solar power project in Neyveli.
As of 2021, total installed capacity stands at 4.3 GW, with plans for capacity to double by 2022.
Telangana.
Telangana ranks second when it comes to solar energy generation capacity in India. The state is trailing behind Karnataka with a solar power generation capacity of 3400 MW and plans to achieve a capacity of 5000 MW by 2022. NTPC Ramagundam has placed work order on BHEL to install 100 MW floating solar PV plant on its water supply reservoir.
Electricity generation.
Including both ground and roof mounted plants, the country's installed solar power capacity was 39,083 MW as of 28 February 2021.
Solar electricity generation from April 2019 to March 2020 was 50.1 TWh, or 3.6% of total generation (1,391 TWh).
Installations by application.
As of July 2019 by far the largest segment of solar PV installed in India was ground mounted at 27,930 MW installed capacity. This sector comprises mostly larger scale solar projects and even larger utility solar projects that generate power centrally and disperse it over the grid. The next largest segment was rooftop solar at 2,141 MW which can be divided into residential solar, commercial and industrial solar roofs as well as a range of installations including agricultural buildings, community and cultural centres. 70 percent of rooftop solar in 2018 was in the industrial and commercial sectors, with just 20 percent as residential rooftop solar. Rooftop solar as a proportion of total solar installations is much less than is typical in other leading solar countries but was forecast to grow to 40 GW by 2022 under national targets. A rough calculation would imply that India had around just 430 MW of residential rooftop solar, whilst the UK with around half the overall solar capacity of India had over 2,500 MW of residential solar in 2018. The smallest segment was off-grid solar at 919 MW which could help play a role in reaching villages and dwellings without access to the national grid.
Major photovoltaic power stations.
Below is a list of solar power generation facilities with a capacity of at least 10 MW.
Solar photovoltaic growth forecasts.
In August 2016, the forecast for solar photovoltaic installations was about 4.8 GW for the calendar year. About 2.8 GW was installed in the first eight months of 2016, more than all 2015 solar installations. India's solar projects stood at about 21 GW, with about 14 GW under construction and about 7 GW to be auctioned. The country's solar capacity reached 19.7 GW by the end of 2017, making it the third-largest global solar market.
In mid-2018 the Indian power minister RK Singh flagged a tender for a 100GW solar plant at an event in Delhi, while discussing a 10GW tender due to be issued in July that year (at the time, a world record). He also increased the government target for installed renewable energy by 2022 to 227GW.
Solar thermal power.
The installed capacity of commercial solar thermal power plants (non storage type) in India is 227.5 MW with 50 MW in Andhra Pradesh and 177.5 MW in Rajasthan. The existing solar thermal power plants (non-storage type) in India, which are generating costly intermittent power on a daily basis, can be converted into storage type solar thermal plants to generate 3 to 4 times more base load power at cheaper cost and not depend on government subsidies. In March 2020, SECI called for 5000 MW tenders which can be combination of solar PV with battery storage, solar thermal with thermal energy storage (including biomass firing as supplementary fuel) and coal based power (minimum 51% from renewable sources) to supply round the clock power at minimum 80% yearly availability.
Hybrid solar plants.
Solar power, generated mainly during the daytime in the non-monsoon period, complements wind which generate power during the monsoon months in India. Solar panels can be located in the space between the towers of wind-power plants. It also complements hydroelectricity, generated primarily during India's monsoon months. Solar-power plants can be installed near existing hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity, utilizing the existing power transmission infrastructure and storing the surplus secondary power generated by the solar PV plants. Floating solar plants on the reservoirs of pumped-storage hydroelectric plants are complementary to each other. Solar PV plants clubbed with pumped-storage hydroelectric plants are also under construction to supply peaking power.
During the daytime, the additional auxiliary power consumption of a solar thermal storage power plant is nearly 10% of its rated capacity for the process of extracting solar energy in the form of thermal energy. This auxiliary power requirement can be made available from cheaper solar PV plant by envisaging hybrid solar plant with a mix of solar thermal and solar PV plants at a site. Also to optimise the cost of power, generation can be from the cheaper solar PV plant (33% generation) during the daylight whereas the rest of the time in a day is from the solar thermal storage plant (67% generation from Solar power tower and parabolic trough types) for meeting 24 hours baseload power. When solar thermal storage plant is forced to idle due to lack of sunlight locally during cloudy days in monsoon season, it is also possible to consume (similar to a lesser efficient, huge capacity and low cost battery storage system) the cheap excess grid power when the grid frequency is above 50 hz for heating the hot molten salt to higher temperature for converting stored thermal energy in to electricity during the peak demand hours when the electricity sale price is profitable.
Solar heating.
Generating hot water or air or steam using concentrated solar reflectors, is increasing rapidly. Presently concentrated solar thermal installation base for heating applications is about 20 MWth in India and expected to grow rapidly. Cogeneration of steam and power round the clock is also feasible with solar thermal CHP plants with thermal storage capacity.
Bengaluru has the largest deployment of roof-top solar water heaters in India, generating an energy equivalent of 200 MW. It is India's first city to provide a rebate of on monthly electricity bills for residents using roof-top thermal systems, which are now mandatory in all new structures. Pune has also made solar water heaters mandatory in new buildings. Photovoltaic thermal (PVT) panels produce simultaneously the required warm water/air along with electricity under sunlight.
Rural electrification.
The lack of an electricity infrastructure is a hurdle to rural India's development. India's power grid is under-developed, with large groups of people still living off the grid. In 2004, about 80,000 of the nation's villages still did not have electricity, 18,000 out of them could not be electrified by extending the conventional grid due to inconvenience. A target of electrifying 5,000 such villages was set for the 2002–2007 Five-Year Plan. By 2004 more than 2,700 villages and hamlets were electrified, primarily with solar photovoltaic systems. The development of inexpensive solar technology is considered a potential alternative, providing an electricity infrastructure consisting of a network of local-grid clusters with distributed electricity generation. It could bypass (or relieve) expensive, long-distance, centralized power-delivery systems, bringing inexpensive electricity to large groups of people. In Rajasthan during Financial Year 2016–17, 91 villages have been electrified with a solar standalone system and over 6,200 households have received a 100W solar home-lighting system.
India has sold or distributed about 1.2 million solar home-lighting systems and 3.2 million solar lanterns, and has been ranked the top Asian market for solar off-grid products.
Lamps and lighting.
By 2012, a total of 4,600,000 solar lanterns and 861,654 solar-powered home lights were installed. Typically replacing kerosene lamps, they can be purchased for the cost of a few months' worth of kerosene with a small loan. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is offering a 30- to 40-percent subsidy of the cost of lanterns, home lights and small systems (up to 210 Wp). Twenty million solar lamps are expected by 2022.
Agricultural support.
Solar photovoltaic water-pumping systems are used for irrigation and drinking water. Most pumps are fitted with a motor powered with a 1,800 Wp PV array which can deliver about of water per day from a total hydraulic head of . By 31 October 2019 a total of 181,521 solar photovoltaic water pumping systems were installed and total solar photovoltaic water pumping systems would reach 3.5 million by the year 2022 under PM KUSUM scheme. During hot sunny daytime when the water needs are more for watering the fields, solar pumps performance can be improved by maintaining pumped water flowing/sliding over the solar panels to keep them cooler and clean. Agro photovoltaics is the electricity generation without losing agriculture production by using the same land. Solar driers are used to dry harvests for storage. Low cost solar powered bicycles are also available to ply between fields and village for agricultural activity, etc.
Rainwater harvesting.
In addition to solar energy, rainwater is a major renewable resource of any area.
In India, large areas are being covered by solar PV panels every year.
Solar panels can also be used for harvesting most of the rainwater falling on them and drinking or breweries water quality, free from bacteria and suspended matter, can be generated by simple filtration and disinfection processes, as rainwater is very low in salinity.
Good quality water resources, closer to populated areas, are becoming a scarcity and increasingly costly for consumers.
Exploitation of rainwater for value-added products like bottled drinking water makes solar PV power plants profitable even in high rainfall and cloudy areas by the increased income from drinking water generation.
Refrigeration and air conditioning.
Thin-film solar cell panels offer better performance than crystalline silica solar panels in tropical hot and dusty places like India; there is less deterioration in conversion efficiency with increased ambient temperature, and no partial shading effect. These factors enhance the performance and reliability (fire safety) of thin-film panels. Maximum solar-electricity generation during the hot hours of the day can be used for meeting residential air-conditioning requirements regardless of other load requirements, such as refrigeration, lighting, cooking and water pumping. Power generation of photovoltaic modules can be increased by 17 to 20 percent by equipping them with a tracking system.
Residential electricity consumers who are paying higher slab rates more than per unit, can form in to local groups to install collectively rooftop off-grid solar power units (without much battery storage) and replace the costly power used from the grid with the solar power as and when produced. Hence power draw from the grid which is an assured power supply without much power cuts nowadays, serves as cheaper back up source when grid power consumption is limited to lower slab rate by using solar power during the day time. The maximum power generation of solar panels during the sunny daytime is complementary with the enhanced residential electricity consumption during the hot/summer days due to higher use of cooling appliances such as fans, refrigerators, air conditioners, desert coolers, etc. It would discourage the Discoms to extract higher electricity charges selectively from its consumers. There is no need of any permission from Discoms similar to DG power sets installation. Cheaper discarded batteries of electric vehicle can also be used economically to store the excess solar power generated in the daylight.
Grid stabilisation.
Solar-power plants equipped with battery storage systems where net energy metering is used can feed stored electricity into the power grid when its frequency is below the rated parameter (50 Hz) and draw excess power from the grid when its frequency is above the rated parameter. Excursions above and below the rated grid frequency occur about 100 times daily. The solar-plant owner would receive nearly double the price for electricity sent into the grid compared to that consumed from the grid if a frequency-based tariff is offered to rooftop solar plants or plants dedicated to a distribution substation. A power-purchase agreement (PPA) is not needed for solar plants with a battery storage systems to serve ancillary-service operations and transmit generated electricity for captive consumption using an open-access facility. Battery storage is popular in India, with more than 10 million households using battery backup during load shedding. Battery storage systems are also used to improve the power factor. Solar PV or wind paired with four-hour battery storage systems is already cost competitive, without subsidy and power purchase agreement by selling peak power in Indian Energy Exchange, as a source of dispatchable generation compared with new coal and new gas plants in India”.
India experiences morning peak power demand for nearly 6 months from January to June and the solar power generation during 6 am to 10 am is not adequate to meet morning peak demand as its availability peaks at midday time. However solar power panels are oriented/fixed towards south eastern direction (nearly 10° towards east from the south direction) to capture more sun light for enhanced solar power generation during peak hours. Higher solar tariffs during morning hours enable the solar power plants to cater the maximum peak demand of the national grid reducing the load on peaking hydro power or load following power plants.
Battery storage is also used economically to reduce daily/monthly peak power demand for minimising the monthly demand charges from the utility to the commercial and industrial establishments. Construction power tariffs are very high in India. Construction power needs of long gestation mega projects can be economically met by installing solar PV plants for permanent service in the project premises with or without battery storage for minimising use of Standby generator sets or costly grid power.
Challenges and opportunities.
The land price is costly for acquisition in India. Dedication of land for the installation of solar arrays must compete with other needs. The amount of land required for utility-scale solar power plants is about for every 40–60 MW generated. One alternative is to use the water-surface area on canals, lakes, reservoirs, farm ponds and the sea for large solar-power plants. Due to better cooling of the solar panels and the sun tracking system, the output of solar panels is enhanced substantially. These water bodies can also provide water to clean the solar panels. Floating solar plants installation cost has reduced steeply by 2018. In January 2019, Indian Railways announced the plan to install 4 GW capacity along its tracks. Highways and railways may also avoid the cost of land nearer to load centres, minimising transmission-line costs by having solar plants about 10 meters above the roads or rail tracks. Solar power generated by road areas may also be used for in-motion charging of electric vehicles, reducing fuel costs. Highways would avoid damage from rain and summer heat, increasing comfort for commuters.
The architecture best suited to most of India would be a set of rooftop power-generation systems connected via a local grid. Not only the roof top area but also outer surface area of tall buildings can be used for solar PV power generation by installing PV modules in vertical position in place of glass panels to cover facade area. Such an infrastructure, which does not have the economy of scale of mass, utility-scale solar-panel deployment, needs a lower deployment price to attract individuals and family-sized households. The cost of high efficiency and compact mono PERC modules and battery storage systems have reduced to make roof top solar PV more economical and feasible in a microgrid
Greenpeace recommends that India adopt a policy of developing solar power as a dominant component of its renewable-energy mix, since its identity as a densely-populated country in the tropical belt of the subcontinent has an ideal combination of high insolation and a large potential consumer base. In one scenario India could make renewable resources the backbone of its economy by 2030, curtailing carbon emissions without compromising its economic-growth potential. A study suggested that 100 GW of solar power could be generated through a mix of utility-scale and rooftop solar, with the realizable potential for rooftop solar between 57 and 76 GW by 2024.
During the 2015-16 fiscal year NTPC, with 110 MW solar power installations, generated 160.8 million kWh at a capacity utilisation of 16.64 percent (1,458 kWh per kW)—more than 20 percent below the claimed norms of the solar-power industry. The annual net peak solar power generation is around 20,000 MW only (nearly 60% of name plate DC rating of 34,000 MW) after accounting the applicable derating factors and system losses before feeding in to the high voltage power grid since the name plate capacity of solar PV plants is actually the gross DC capacity of the installed PV modules.
It is considered prudent to encourage solar-plant installations up to a threshold (such as 7,000 MW) by offering incentives. Otherwise, substandard equipment with overrated nameplate capacity may tarnish the industry. The purchaser, transmission agency and financial institution should require capacity utilisation and long-term performance guarantees for the equipment backed by insurance coverage in the event that the original equipment manufacturer ceases to exist. Alarmed by the low quality of equipment, India issued draft quality guide lines in May 2017 to be followed by the solar plant equipment suppliers conforming to Indian standards.
Government support.
Fifty-one solar radiation resource assessment stations have been installed across India by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) to create a database of solar-energy potential. Data is collected and reported to the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET) to create a solar atlas. In June 2015, India began a project to measure solar radiation with a spatial resolution of . This solar-radiation measuring network will provide the basis for the Indian solar-radiation atlas. According to National Institute of Wind Energy officials, the Solar Radiation Resource Assessment wing (121 ground stations) would measure solar radiation's three parameters—Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI), Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) and Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (DHI)—to accurately measure a region's solar radiation.
The Indian government announced an allocation of for the National Solar Mission and a clean-energy fund for the 2010-11 fiscal year, an increase of from the previous budget. The budget encouraged private solar companies by reducing the import duty on solar panels by five percent. This is expected to reduce the cost of a rooftop solar-panel installation by 15 to 20 percent.
Solar PV tariff.
The average bid in reverse auctions in April 2017 is per kWh, compared with per kWh in 2010, which is around 73% drop over the time window. The current prices of solar PV electricity is around 18% lower than the average price of electricity generated by coal-fired plants. By the end of 2018, competitive reverse auctions, falling panel and component prices, the introduction of solar parks, lower borrowing costs and large power companies have contributed to the fall in prices. The cost of solar PV power in India, China, Brazil and 55 other emerging markets fell to about one-third of its 2010 price, making solar the cheapest form of renewable energy and cheaper than power generated from fossil fuels such as coal and gas.
India has the lowest capital cost per MW globally of installing solar power plants. However the global levelized cost of solar PV electricity fell to 1.04¢ US per kWh (₹0.77 per kWh) in April 2021, much cheaper than the lowest solar PV tariff in India. The intermittent / non-dispatchable solar PV at the prevailing low tariffs clubbed with Pumped-heat electricity storage can offer cheapest dispatchable power round the clock on demand.
The Indian government has reduced the solar PV power purchase price from the maximum allowed per KWh to per KWh, reflecting the steep fall in cost of solar power-generation equipment. The applicable tariff is offered after applying viability gap funding (VGF) or accelerated depreciation (AD) incentives. In January 2019, the time period for commissioning the solar power plants is reduced to 18 months for units located outside the solar parks and 15 months for units located inside the solar parks from the date of power purchase agreement.
Solar PV generation cost fell to per kWh for the 750 MW Rewa Ultra Mega Solar power project, India's lowest electricity-generation cost. In first quarter of calendar year 2020, large scale ground mounted solar power installations cost fell to Rs 35 million/MW by 12% in a year. Solar panel prices are lower than those of mirrors by unit area.
In an auction of 250 MW capacity of the second phase in Bhadla solar park, South Africa's Phelan Energy Group and Avaada Power were awarded 50 MW and 100 MW of capacity respectively in May 2017 at per kilowatt hour. The tariff is also lower than NTPC's average coal power tariff of 3.20 per kilowatt hour. SBG Cleantech, a consortium of SoftBank Group, Airtel and Foxconn, was awarded the remaining 100 MW capacity at a rate of per kWh. Few days later in a second auction for another 500 MW at the same park, solar tariff has further fallen to per kilowatt hour which are the lowest tariffs for any solar power project in India. These tariffs are lower than traded prices for day time in non-monsoon period in IEX and also for meeting peak loads on a daily basis by using cheaper solar PV power in pumped-storage hydroelectricity stations indicating there is no need of any power purchase agreements and any incentives for the solar PV power plants in India. Solar PV power plant developers are forecasting that solar power tariff would drop to /unit in near future.
The lowest solar tariff in May 2018 is Rs 2.71/kWh (without incentives) which is less than the tariff of Bhadla solar park (₹2.44 per kWh with VGF incentive) after the clarification that any additional taxes are pass through cost with hike in the tariff. In early July 2018 bids, the lowest solar PV tariff has touched per kWh without viability gap funding incentive. In June 2019, the lowest tariff is /kWh for feeding in to the high voltage interstate transmission system (ISTS).
The tariff for rooftop installations are also falling with the recent offer of with 100% locally made components. In February 2019, the lowest solar power tariff is per kWh for 50 MW contracted capacity at Pavagada Solar Park.
In May 2020, the discovered first year tariff is per KWh with per KWh levelized tariff for round the clock hybrid renewable power supply. In November 2020, Solar PV power tariff has fallen to per KWh.
In March 2021, the discovered levelized tariff was per KWh after imposition of basic customs duty (BCD) on imported solar PV panels and cells.
Incentives.
At the end of July 2015, the chief incentives were:
Indian initiative of International solar alliance.
In January 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President François Hollande laid the foundation stone for the headquarters of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in Gwal Pahari, Gurgaon. The ISA will focus on promoting and developing solar energy and solar products for countries lying wholly or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The alliance of over 120 countries was announced at the Paris COP21 climate summit. One hope of the ISA is that wider deployment will reduce production and development costs, facilitating the increased deployment of solar technologies to poor and remote regions.
Solar-panel manufacturing in India.
The 2018 manufacturing capacity of solar cells and solar modules in India was 1,590 MW and 5,620 MW, respectively. Except for crystalline silicon wafers or cadmium telluride photovoltaics or Float-zone silicon, nearly 80 percent of solar-panel weight is flat glass. 100-150 tons of flat glass is used to manufacture a MW of solar panels. Low-iron flat or float glass is manufactured from soda ash and iron-free silica. Soda-ash manufacturing from common salt is an energy-intensive process if it is not extracted from soda lakes or glasswort cultivation in alkali soil. To increase installation of photovoltaic solar-power plants, the production of flat glass and its raw materials must expand commensurately to eliminate supply constraints or future imports.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India, has issued a memorandum to ensure the quality of solar cells and solar modules. Compliance with the requisite specifications will grant manufacturers and their specific products an entry in the ALMM (Approved List of Models and Manufacturers.) Indian manufacturers are gradually enhancing the production capacity of monocrystalline silicon PERC cells to supply better performing and enduring solar cells to local market.
For utility scale solar projects, top solar module suppliers in 2016-17 were: Waaree energy ltd, Trina Solar, JA Solar, Canadian Solar, Risen, and Hanwha.


Service drop

In electric power distribution, a service drop is an overhead electrical line running from a utility pole, to a customer's building or other premises. It is the point where electric utilities provide power to their customers. The customer connection to an underground distribution system is usually called a "service lateral". Conductors of a service drop or lateral are usually owned and maintained by the utility company, but some industrial drops are installed and owned by the customer.
At the customer's premises, the wires usually enter the building through a weatherhead that protects against entry of rain and snow, and drop down through conduit to an electric meter which measures and records the power used for billing purposes, then enters the main service panel. The utility's portion of the system ends, and the customer's wiring begins, at the output socket of the electric meter. The service panel will contain a "main" fuse or circuit breaker, which controls all of the electric current entering the building at once, and a number of smaller fuses/breakers, which protect individual branch circuits. There is always provision for all power to be cut off by operating either a single switch or small number of switches (maximum of six in the United States, for example); when circuit breakers are used this is provided by the main circuit breaker.
Residential.
North American.
In North America , the 120/240 V split phase system is used for residential service drops. A pole-mounted single phase distribution transformer usually provides power for one or two residences. The secondary winding of the transformer provides 240 volts between its ends and is center tapped. The service drop is made up of a neutral line connected to the transformer's center tap and two lines connected to the ends of the winding which provide 120V with respect to the neutral line. When these lines are insulated and twisted together, they are referred to as a triplex cable which may contain a supporting messenger cable in the middle of the neutral conductor to provide strength for long spans. The neutral line from the pole is connected to a ground near the service panel; often a conductive rod driven into the earth. The service drop provides the building with two 120 V lines of opposite phase, so 240 V can be obtained by connecting a load between the two 120 V conductors, while 120 V loads are connected between either of the two 120 V lines and the neutral line. 240 V circuits are used for high-demand devices, such as air conditioners, water heaters, clothes dryers, ovens and boilers, while 120 V circuits are used for lighter loads such as lighting and ordinary small appliance outlets.
European.
In many European countries and other countries that use European systems, three-phase service drops are often used for domestic residences. The use of three-phase power allows longer service drops to serve multiple residences, which is economical with the higher density of housing in Europe. The service drop consists of three phase wires and a neutral wire which is grounded. Each phase wire provides around 230 V to loads connected between it and the neutral. Each of the phase wires carries 50 Hz alternating current which is 120° out of phase with the other two. Several slightly different voltage standards have been used in the past as well: 220Y380, 230Y400 and 240Y415, with plans for future "harmonization" towards 230Y400. In this notation, the first number is the voltage between a phase wire and neutral, and the second number, after the "Y", is the line voltage (between any two-phase wires).
Other countries, such as the UK and Republic of Ireland, generally provide a single phase and neutral per house, with every third house on the same phase. In this case the available current is higher. Single-phase supplies with a supplier's fuse of up to 100 A are common, while the 3-phase domestic supplies are generally of lower current rating (often less than 50 A) per phase.
Commercial and industrial.
Commercial and industrial service drops can be much bigger, and are usually three phase. In the US, common services are 120Y/208 (three 120 V circuits 120 degrees out of phase, with 208 V line-to-line), 240 V three-phase, and 480 V three-phase. 600 V three-phase is common in Canada, and 380-415 V or 690 V three-phase is found in European and many other countries. Generally, higher voltages are used for heavy industrial loads, and lower voltages for commercial applications.
In North America where single-phase distribution transformers for service drops are the norm, three-phase service drops are often constructed using three single-phase transformers, wired in a Y configuration. This is called a "transformer bank".
Underground.
Service conductors for a customer may be run underground, from a padmount transformer to a customer's meter.


Arvind Victor Shah

Arvind Victor Shah (born 1940) is a Swiss electronics engineer, educator and scientist. He founded the Centre For Electronics Design And Technology (CEDT) at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 1974, where he was co-director during its first four years. Thereafter, he became full professor for electronics at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Because of his interest for the field of photovoltaics, he initiated in 1985 the Photovoltaic Laboratory within the "Institute of Microtechnology (IMT)" in Neuchâtel. In 1987, Shah became part-time professor of electronic materials at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in addition to his duties at the University of Neuchâtel. He pioneered, together with his team at IMT, a new type of thin-film solar cell, the "micromorph" tandem solar cell.
Life.
Shah was born in India to an Indian father and an Italo-Swiss mother. His family left India in 1945 and settled in Switzerland in 1948. Arvind V. Shah was educated in Zurich. He studied Electrical Engineering at the ETH Zurich, where he received his diploma (1964) and his Ph.D. degree (1969) at the Institute of Applied Physics. He remained at this Institute of the ETHZ as lecturer, student advisor and coordinator for projects with industry until 1975. During this period, he pursued his plan to contribute to the education of engineers in India. For this purpose, he contacted the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) as well as the relevant authority in India (Electronics Commission of the Government of India). Both parties agreed to his proposal for establishing a new Electronics Centre in Bangalore as part of the Indian Institute of Science. As a consequence, he moved back to India to become co-director, together with his Indian colleague Prof. B. S. Sonde, of the new "Centre for Electronics Design and Technology (CEDT)". In 1979, Shah accepted a call to become professor at the University of Neuchâtel in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. He specialized in materials science and thin-film technology. In particular, he studied the design and fabrication of optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells. In 1986, his team developed a process for "Very High Frequency Plasma Deposition" (VHF plasma). In 1987, Shah took on an additional, subsidiary position as part-time professor of electronic materials at the "École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)", one of only two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology. Using VHF plasma technology, his group was able to deposit microcrystalline silicon layers as a new photoactive material for solar cells. By combining a microcrystalline with an amorphous silicon layer, a new type of thin-film tandem solar cell was introduced by Shah's group in 1994, under the name of "micromorph" solar cell. It features high conversion efficiency over a wide spectrum of infrared and visible light. Shah drew on his experience for cooperation between universities and industries to find licensees for the industrialization of the solar cells pioneered by his group. The Swiss company OC Oerlikon took a license in 2003 to provide manufacturing equipment for the fabrication of such cells. This activity was subsequently sold to Tokyo Electron (TEL) and became integrated into the TEL Solar Division.
In 2007, Shah was recipient of the Becquerel Prize for his lifetime contributions to solar cell technology. This prize was initiated by the European Commission to honour one person for outstanding merits in photovoltaics every year.
Shah retired in 2005. Thereafter, he continued working as consultant to companies and organizations in various countries. For this purpose he founded the company Elmvoltaics GmbH. He also became active as politician of the Green Party of Switzerland. To create a level playing field for solar cells imported from China, he proposed a label to identify solar cells adhering to ecological standards. As expert on solar panels, he voiced his concerns about Swiss regulations to achieve more usage of alternative energy sources.
Arvind Shah is married to Brigitte Shah and has three daughters.