Schneider Electric to Invest 138 Cr on Vacuum Circuit Breaker Facility in Kolkata
Schneider Electric Infrastructure Ltd (SEIL), a major manufacturer of electrical equipment, has announced its plan to set up a new facility for manufacturing vacuum circuit breakers in Kolkata, West Bengal. The decision was taken in the board meeting of SEIL held on September 6, 2022
Schneider to Target Both Domestic and Exports Market from the New Vacuum Circuit Breaker Factory
Schneider’s board announced this new vacuum circuit breaker plant in Kolkata while considering a proposal for enhancing the company’s production capacity of vacuum circuit breakers.
Currently, SEIL has an annual production capacity of 80KMV (Kilo-MegaVolt) for vacuum circuit breakers and up to 90 percent of this capacity is being utilised. With the addition of this new facility vacuum circuit breaker manufacturing capacity of Schneider is expected to reach 180KMV in India.
SEIL stated that the capacity expansion will help the company meet domestic demand as well as increase export to Schneider Electric’s global entities.
Schneider’s Vacuum Circuit Breaker Facility in Kolkata to Start Production by 2025
Schneider will be spending around Rs. 138 Crore for establishing the proposed Kolkata facility. Schneider informed that the cost will be met through internal accruals and/or borrowings. The plant is expected to start production by 2025.
Vacuum Circuit Breaker Applications and Schneider’s Product Range
Vacuum circuit breaker is a circuit breaker where the arc quenching takes place in vacuum. Such circuit breakers are suitable for mainly medium voltage applications. The operations of opening and closing of current carrying contacts and associated arc interruption take place in a vacuum chamber in the breaker which is called vacuum interrupter.
Schneider Vacuum Circuit Breakers currently has the following models:
- EasyPact EXE-Vacuum circuit breaker up to 17.5kV
- HVX-Indoor MV Vacuum Circuit Breaker in 36 kV
- EvoPact HVX-O-Indoor MV Vacuum Circuit Breaker in 36 kV
- EvoPact LF-MV circuit-breakers up to 17.5 kV
- EvoPact SF-MV circuit-breakers up to 40.5 kV
- VA-MV vacuum circuit-breaker up to 38 kV
- Evolis MV vacuum circuit-breaker up to 24 kV
Schneider Electric also has recently enhanced its EasyPact EXE vacuum circuit breaker series and included thermal monitoring system with IoT sensors. This helps breaker transmit data to higher-level systems like DCS, SCADA, and predictive maintenance can be achieved to reduce downtime.
About Schneider Electric India: Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited (SEIL) was incorporated in the year 2011. SEIL is engaged in the business of manufacturing, designing, building and servicing technologically advanced products and systems for electricity network. SEIL has four manufacturing facilities in India spread over 3 locations: 2 units in Vadodara and one each in Kolkata and Chennai.
