Research by Bridge to India – a leading consultancy in renewable energy, has clearly indicated growth in India’s solar power generation capacity from 2GW of 2015 to projected 4.8 GW in 2016.

That is 140% growth in a year!

Solar Auctions in Plenty

Indian Govt. announced 100 GW target for solar power and now they are walking the talk. Recent auctions resulted in award of 10 GW of solar projects with 6.5 GW more of solar projects to be awarded in next few months. This astounding pace of activity is in stark contrast with the average rate of 1 GW capacity addition for last 3 years.

Solar EPC Contractors

This sudden jump in the award of solar power projects is bound to have the contractors on their toes as well. Compared to 2 GW added in 2015, we are already looking at a pipeline of over 16 GW. This means contractors have a steep climb ahead in terms of scaling up and delivering these projects.

Resource Crunch in EPC

The limited availability of qualified and experienced resources has the EPC executives worried. Solar contractors also face competition in attracting and retaining talent from the solar power industry.

Well qualified and experienced professionals are needed for scaling up project teams. Project management professionals are already in short supply. Art of executing mega infra projects is declining and projects are becoming ever more complex. Since actual project experience is the only way to effectively train project management professionals, they are limited in availability.

Managing Sudden Growth

EPC firms winning multiple bids, attracting talent and growing 10X, will then have to manage another challenge – that of effectively managing this breakneck growth from 10’s and 100’s to 1000’s of employees.

When a team grows 10 times bigger, rules of the game change. Processes and projects which were earlier managed with verbal communication need to change. Procedures, practices, standards become more important.

Informal processes need to be formalized, automated and electronically visible.

Project & Document Management Tools

Software tools help in achieving a lot of this business processes automation. Our team at WorkPack is already helping some of India’s leading solar EPC contractors to automate their business processes and manage this breakneck growth.

We have built project and document management solutions which are tailor made for managing engineering & construction projects.

If you also work in solar power industry, let us know how you are experiencing the growth. Leave a comment below or get directly in touch with us.