Engineering company Hitachi Energy India, formerly ABB Power, is betting big on growth from new data centres, electrification of railways, and implementation of renewable energy projects, a top official has said.

Hitachi Energy also plans to make India an export hub and has set a target of exporting more than a quarter of its production in India, and it has already reached 23%, said N Venu, managing director of Hitachi Energy India.

The company’s orderbook grew 13% year on year to Rs 4,730 crore in the December quarter and several of its production lines are running choc-a-bloc, he told ET.

The growth in the orderbook came primarily from utilities, renewable energy and railways, Venu said.

In the mid-term, the company is counting on new data centres and railways to drive growth.

India requires companies to store data of their Indian consumers on domestic soil, and that has resulted in new data centres being built around the country. Hitachi Energy’s electrical systems are being used in one out of every three new data centres, Venu said.

The government’s decision to manufacture 400 new Vande Bharat trains over the next three years is another “big opportunity”, he said. “We will be looking to tie up with the train manufacturers to supply our technology…400 trains will take quite a lot of our portfolio.”

In the renewable energy space, new projects will need to be connected to the grid and require automation, which offers an opportunity for Hitachi Energy. The firm can address 10-12% of a renewable project’s requirements, Venu said.

The company is also investing in developing technologies like fast charging for electric vehicles.

It made around Rs 200 crore of capital expenditure (capex) in the ongoing financial year and will make a similar capex next year, Venu said.

Commenting on the present criteria of the government to award public sector contracts to the L1 bid, or the lowest-priced bid, he said the government should not just look at the upfront cost but the lifetime cost of projects before choosing contractors. “Second, innovation, the experience, the footprint, local capabilities – all those things need to be given enough weightage in addition to the capex and opex (operating expenditure), is our view,” he said.

Recently, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) group chairman AM Naik, too, had made similar comments in an interview with ET. The current government norms for awarding projects on the basis of L1 bids do not factor in quality parameters, potentially proving costly for the nation, he had said.

In 2020, the central government had diluted key financial criteria for bidding to help firms execute contracts and projects amid the Covid-induced financial crunch.

Engineering company Hitachi Energy India, formerly ABB Power, is betting big on growth from new data centres, electrification of railways, and implementation of renewable energy projects, a top official has said.

Hitachi Energy also plans to make India an export hub and has set a target of exporting more than a quarter of its production in India, and it has already reached 23%, said N Venu, managing director of Hitachi Energy India.

The company’s orderbook grew 13% year on yea ..