Er. Rajesh Sharma

#ENERGY #POWER
Links,retweets r not endorsements.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

"Just listen to any prophet and if you hear him speak of sacrifice - run. Where there’s sacrifice, someone's collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, someone's being served. Who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters, intends to be the master.”

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@airindia Improvement seen on many fronts however the stewards need to be bold, agile and sharp. It's just a suggestion.
All the very best.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@airindia Improvement seen on many fronts however the stewards need to be bold, agile and sharp. It's just a suggestion.
All the best ...

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@myvoltas 9129700010

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@myvoltas SR no 26042556224 AC not cooling/working since 8th April complaints done multiple times at dealer end. Technician visited without resolution. Waiting for the response and resolution in the peak summer.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@IAF_MCC Congratulations to the fresh batch of flying officers. May they soar high.

[Information And Public Relations Department, HP @dprhp]

मुख्यमंत्री के विधानसभा क्षेत्र नादौन के उपमंडल नादौन के समूं गाँव निवासी देवांशी शर्मा ने भारतीय वायु सेना में फ्लाइंग ऑफिसर बनकर हिमाचल प्रदेश का मान देशभर में बढ़ाया है। इस उपलब्धि पर मुख्यमंत्री ठाकुर सुखविन्द्र सिंह सुक्खू ने...

[Information And Public Relations Department, HP @dprhp]

...हार्दिक बधाई एवं उनके उज्ज्वल भविष्य के लिए शुभकामनाएं दीं।

उन्होंने कहा कि देवांशी ने क्षेत्र की पहली महिला फ्लाइंग ऑफिसर बनकर इतिहास रचा है। उनकी यह सफलता विशेषकर बेटियों के लिए प्रेरणा का स्रोत बनेगी।

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@myvoltas The SR has been closed by the team without any satisfactory resolution to the issue. No refund issued. The SR closed due to customer not responding. Despite umpteen no of calls and discussions. Please explain at least. @myvoltas, @cromaretail @TataCompanies

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@khurpenchh Seems the hill states are left out because they do not have access to these leaked papers. The people living in the plains are lucky getting these papers since years. Everything is business no morals no ethics, leave aside the "Doctors Oath" on passing out.

[Raghav Wadhwa @raghavwadhwa]

Spent the last few hours on this question:

Why did BHEL, L&T, and Thermax all license supercritical boiler technology from foreign players (Alstom/Mitsubishi/B&W) when these are companies that build heavy machinery for a living?

And if the technology barrier is that high, why are EBIT margins stuck at 7-9%?

Worth answering together, because India is now adding 80 GW of fresh coal capacity by 2031-32. ₹6.67 lakh crore of capex. BHEL alone has contracted 68 supercritical boilers and 63 turbines, its biggest order book in over a decade. The "dead" sector is being rebuilt at scale.

So who actually makes money here?

Start with the licensing puzzle.

The IP is not in "how to build a boiler." Indian companies can weld, fabricate, and machine heavy equipment all day.

The real IP is decades of failure data.

A subcritical boiler runs at ~200 bar, 540°C. Standard steel works fine. A supercritical one runs at 250-270 bar, 600-620°C. At these temperatures, steel suffers "creep." Tube walls thin, micro-cracks propagate, and ruptures occur after 50,000-100,000 operating hours. You need Grade 91/92 chromium-moly-vanadium steels, Inconel, and austenitic stainless.

The part nobody talks about: B&W, Alstom, Mitsubishi each hold proprietary creep-life databases built over 40-60 years of operating supercritical plants globally. At what thickness, what temperature, what pressure, how long until failure. You cannot construct this from a textbook. You operate hundreds of units for decades or you do not have it.
Even China had to license all of it. Shanghai Electric from Siemens. Harbin from Mitsubishi. Dongfang from Hitachi.

So the moat is real. Then why are margins thin?

🔹 Powerful buyers. NTPC alone controls ~70 GW. Three suppliers exist, but NTPC runs competitive bidding and plays them against each other. Oligopsony cancels oligopoly.

🔹 Lump-sum turnkey contracts. Fixed price today, executed over 36-48 months. Steel and alloy prices move 15-30%, forex shifts, scope creeps. All risk on the maker. Exactly why Thermax flagged "project cost overruns" repeatedly in FY24-25 concalls.

🔹 IP is in design, not manufacturing. 60-65% of bill of materials is commodity steel and alloy. You're not selling software at 80% gross margin. You're selling 12,000 tonnes of fabricated steel with IP embedded. Material eats the margin.

🔹 BHEL sets the floor. As a PSU, it bids at 5-6% EBIT to satisfy capacity utilization and employment goals. Private players cannot price above it.

🔹 Working capital carry. 36-48 month execution, customer advances cover 10-20%. Thermax's borrowings went from ₹368 Cr to ₹1,718 Cr partly for this.

So where is the actual money?

Not in the boiler. In what comes after.

🔹 New boiler EPC: 7-9% margin (the razor)
🔹 Spare parts: 25-35% (only OEM has exact-fit specs)
🔹 Annual maintenance: 20-30% (locked in for 30-year plant life)
🔹 Retrofits and upgrades: 15-25% (forced by emission norms)
🔹 Performance optimization: 20-30% (pure IP)

Every supercritical boiler installed today is a 30-year annuity. The installed base is still young. Aftermarket revenue has not reached scale yet.

The number to track on every concall is aftermarket/services revenue from the installed base, and its YoY growth. When this moves from ₹50-100 Cr to ₹200-300 Cr, that is the margin inflection the market has not priced.
Sell the razor at 7-9%. Service it for 30 years at 20-30%. That is the actual model.

For educational purposes only. Not a buy/sell recommendation.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@raghavwadhwa To address these, industry experts suggest fostering a collaborative R&D culture, strengthening public-private partnerships, and focusing on practical applications over mere academic publication.
However better said than done on ground.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@raghavwadhwa Brain Drain- Lower R&D spending limits high-quality opportunities, causing talent to migrate, which further reduces competitive edge.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@raghavwadhwa Weak Ecosystem:-Lack of collaboration between academia and industry, combined with bureaucratic hurdles and insufficient IP protection, stifles innovation.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@raghavwadhwa Industry Reluctance- The private sector often prioritizes short-term profitability over long-term research, resulting in negligible in-house R&D expenditure.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@raghavwadhwa Underutilization of Funds-A significant issue in India, is not just low allocation, but poor absorption, with certain scientific departments utilizing only a fraction of their allocated budget.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@raghavwadhwa This situation is exacerbated by a reliance on technology imports rather than domestic development, preventing industries from moving up the value chain, according to an analysis key challenges identified in R&D include.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@raghavwadhwa The observation highlights a critical structural weakness, where low R&D investment (often below 0.7% of GDP) and a short-term, risk-averse industry culture severely hamper technological advancement, despite the potential for high-impact innovation.

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@YashminderBans2 @raghavwadhwa So true

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@cromaretail Product is 1.5 ton 4YR ALL IN ONE AC

[Er. Rajesh Sharma @rajhydro]

@myvoltas The representative on [phone] hung up mid way during the call. This is the level of customer focus and support @myvoltas
Highly unprofessional.