Climate policymakers honor Mumbai engineers
January 27, 2023![Rajesh Joshi, told visiting members of the Norwegian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Climate and the Environment](/globalassets/images_1920x1080/_rajesh_joshi_norway_parlement.jpg?width=576&height=324&hash=c44571f44b2c8755fcec90eae686e553)
Indian energy demand has doubled in 20 years and continues to surge, yet the world’s most populous country is pursuing tough emissions-reduction targets. That means Aker Solutions’ 1,990 employees in India could now play an important role in the country’s energy transformation.
“We have a thousand engineers working on Indian, European and international projects,” Aker Solutions’ Senior Vice Present in India, Rajesh Joshi, tells visiting members of the Norwegian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Climate and the Environment, including Energy Committee Chairman, Marianne Naess and committee member, Nikolai Astrup. It was a proud moment, Joshi wrote later in a social media post.
Aker Solutions aims to play a leading role in the energy transition, and our Indian engineering teams are leveraging their decades of experience with complex onshore and offshore projects to support deliveries across our global network. Whether they’re engineering high-voltage, direct-current (HVDC) converter stations for wind energy projects or designing carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) plants, Indian engineers are enabling the energy transition.
To ensure the success of those projects, a number of recommendations were shared with the delegation, including more policy and strategy to drive technology exports and the free flow of knowledge.
Energy Committee chairman, Naess, says she’s impressed by the country’s energy targets. India plans to be a zero-emissions country by 2070 while addressing the rapid rise in energy demand that comes with recent economic growth.
“Your company has both the competence, the green technology and the solutions to partner with Indian companies and solve their challenges toward being a net-zero society,” Naess says.
Astrup says India’s energy transition efforts must succeed “or the world will fail”, a reference to emissions targets carefully agreed between nations. “It’s extremely important that India manages the transition at a pace and scale in accordance with the planet’s needs.”
“So, we have people, planet and profit going hand-in-hand, and I believe that Aker Solutions is a company that really contributes to that happening,” Astrup added.
CCUS pioneers & HVDC excellence
Mumbai’s engineers have been busy — and not just on Indian projects. They have also been supporting the NZT and Keadby-3 CCUS projects in the UK. “It would be fair to say a large proportion of the engineering manhours are carried out from Mumbai, across a range of disciplines,” says Aker Solutions’ Senior Project Manager, Sarah Tierney.
Both projects are competing to get to the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase, and Mumbai would be integral to this, she says, adding, “These are not identical in scope. Both projects represent year-long Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) for the carbon capture and compression of new, combined-cycle, gas-turbine power plants.”
“Mumbai’s engineers have been an integral part of FEED execution for the NZT project and have been involved in process work related to the carbon capture unit’s hydraulics and for updates of its piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs),” says Project Director, Sandeep Sharma.
Aker Solutions has carried project-wide development of key, licensed carbon capture equipment, including carbon conditioning and compression.
“Mumbai is key to the success of these projects, and we are building HVDC competence in Mumbai through three ongoing projects to ensure our competitiveness in future.”
Indian engineering work on carbon-mitigation projects:
CCUS:
- FEED & detailed design, Brevik CCS (NOR)
- Northern Lights Phase 1 (NOR)
- Northern Lights Phase 2, extending scope (NOR)
- FEED, Net Zero Teesside Power (UK)
- FEED Keadby-3 (UK)
HVDC:
- Sunrise
- East Anglia 3
- Norfolk
Electrification:
- Troll West Electrification