“With great power comes great responsibility” is an adage popularized by Spider-Man, the superhero. Today, Bender can rewrite it as “With great electrical power comes greater electrical safety and quality.” As human functional dependency on electrical power grows, so does the demand for global electrical safety and quality. Quality and safety in electrical distribution systems ensure the protection of human life and the protection of machines/property.

Lack of quality and safety in the electrical distribution system causes earth faults and short circuits in the installations, technical systems, or machinery. That is the most common cause of loss of human life and machine/property damage. These accidents could wreak havoc and mayhem, especially in industrial, commercial, and building systems. Furthermore, corrective actions are not the solutions for these reoccurrences. Hence prevention is the only way to avoid all such incidents in the future. Bender is committed to the same.   

According to Bender India’s Jt. Managing Director, Srinivas Rao G, preventive fire protection is becoming the key issue in the organization’s safety and security field because operational interruptions, damage to property, and loss of human resources due to fire incidences can threaten the organization’s existence. “No company can afford this.” Therefore, a Major part of all fire incidence in India causes due to poor quality and safety monitoring of electrical installations. All persons responsible for electrical safety should place enormous demands on preventive fire protection.

“And we give you our word that we make electricity completely safe,” insists Srinivas adding, “Electrical safety costs little; human life is priceless. We create tailor-made solutions for your needs. Let us be your partner and take advantage of our more than 75 years of expert knowledge!”

An Unbreakable Promise of Protection

“Bender India is a subsidiary of Bender Group, Germany. Bender is a worldwide known technology expert and innovator of state-of-the-art Electrical Safety Solutions. Bender, over the years, has evolved as the only global company to provide customized, high technology, high quality, and long life online electrical safety solutions almost in every field of electrical systems, including the present-day hot topic of eMobilty ecosystem,” reveals Srinivas.

He adds, “We are committed to driving innovation to find solutions for your particular sector and application to guarantee the ultimate electrical safety for human life and machines/property.”

Bender’s ‘Online Condition Monitoring’ for electrical power distribution systems spans various categories of Industries and Commercial Establishments. Power Generation and Distribution, Oil and Gas, Mining, Shipping, Defence, Railways, Telecommunication, Process Industries, Hospitals, Data centers, and Core Manufacturing industries covering Steel, Cement, pulp, and paper. Last but not least for the e-vehicle ecosystem. 

He ensures, “We are always there for our customers, providing them comprehensive advice and supporting them in planning to implement the tailor-made Bender solutions’. In urgent cases, our Service team is available round the clock, enabling you to contact us whenever you need us.”

An Edge of Strategic Intelligence

In the last 75 years, Bender has always been thinking ahead in a strategic future-oriented manner to provide customer needs for tomorrow, which gives Bender an edge over its competitors. “Thanks to our Global Customer awareness programs and strong customer base, Bender is a known face in industry, hospital, power generation, and ships electrical safety aspects.

As a Jt. Managing Director, I am responsible for discussing our competitively new but fantastic safety solutions in the eMobility ecosystem.”

eMobility product solutions can be leveraged in e-Vehicles, AC/DC charging infrastructure, and backend energy and customer management system.

· For e-Vehicles: Onboard Insulation Monitoring device complying with global standards like ISO 6469-3, UL-2231-1, and IEC-61557-8 and for careful coordination for various voltages (on-board network) Models are: IR155, iso165, and iso175 

· At DC charging station monitoring of DC charging circuit using Insulation Monitor Model isoEV425 +AGH-E up to 1000V DC complying to IEC61851-3

· For AC charging station Type B residual current device (RCD) complying with IEC 61851-1, IEC60364-7-722, and IEC 62020 required for complete protection and safety against leakage current (Residual Current). Offered Model: RCMB121.

· In AC Charging Station, the Charge controller must communicate with all backend systems for proper customer management. OCPP communication protocol compatible Bender Charge controller model CC613 makes charging stations smart and intelligent. The charge controller is according to IEC-61851-1 mode-3 charging.

A Perpetual Safety Mantra

Telling more about the immense benefits of the services that Bender India offers to its clients, Srinivas says that Bender, with its extensive and continuous R&D, has utilized the best and latest measurement and monitoring technology in its devices and equipment with user-friendly programmable interfaces and elaborate communication system for user data for logging, analysis, and troubleshooting. Leading to a one-stop solution for all customer needs.

He shares, “Our mantra is a continuous market survey, user interaction, and feedback to enhance and optimize product design and solutions. This makes our product not only up to date but also ahead of our competitors.”

Srinivas commenced his professional journey very humbly by joining a German MNC. After two years, he moved to another MNC JV, and after this stint, he moved to the cement industry and served there for nearly six years. Later, he joined ABB in 2004, changing his career path from Manufacturing to Technology Sales. During this period, he created a strong brand value for ABB, especially in Pulp and Paper, and travelled to almost every corner of India to scale the business.

During his learning years, Srinivas decided to try a career in the software industry. Thus, leaving ABB, he joined a software technology company in Bengaluru as a Business Head- Custom Build Products. 

However, he soon realized his love and passion for technology and engineering and moved back to ABB in 2010. In the next couple of years, he showed exemplary dedication and commitment to his work, and his role changed every two years. Finally, before moving into Business Management, he served as Regional Sales Head for India, the Middle East, and Africa for Process Industries Business Unit in ABB.

A Passionate Tech Leader Par Exemplar

In 2017, Srinivas moved from Core Sales and Marketing to Business Management and was made Regional Business head (India and SAARC countries) for the Control Technologies Business (Automation) unit and served till 2018. Again, in 2019 he was given the responsibility of heading another business unit called Measurement and Analytics. During his first two years, he has taken this business unit to the next level regarding profitability and productivity. 

Srinivas aligned his business policy with make in India and expanded manufacturing with state-of-the-Art Industry 4.0 enabled SMART factory and doubled the production capacity with the same workforce. Soon global management realized his potential and gave him additional responsibility to head the regional operations for Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Finally, in 2021 he decided to try something different.

In 2021 he moved away from ABB and joined Bender India in 2022 as Jt. Managing Director with a mission to scale up the business and partner in India’s growth journey to make it a $5 trillion economy. 

Srinivas is very upbeat about the growth and sees great potential for Bender in all the segments. He believes EV–a segment he handles directly–has seen exponential growth. “We wish to provide the people of India with safe and secure electric cars/buses, trucks with Bender technology,” he states. 

Being an experienced leader, Srinivas shares his opinion on how adopting modern technologies like AI and ML impacts the EV sector and how Bender India is adapting to the change. 

An Ever-Connected AIM Learning

According to him, AI and ML have made their presence felt in suitable yet important ways in the EV domain. One of the recent emerging trends is that of “connected” vehicles, which utilize AI technologies powered by the relevant data fed into them. These vehicles learn by studying the changing user behaviour and environment around them.

AI/ML is quite beneficial in the following vertices in the EV segment:

·        Battery/PDU Maintenance:

Hardware circuits enabled with AI/ML to monitor, predict, identify, and to an extent, PDU unit and battery defects. As explained earlier, Bender’s “On board online condition monitoring system” work as an important hardware part in this aspect

• Route Optimization:

Based on various navigation solutions, artificial intelligence, and satellite imaging for nearest charging station identification.

• Better Charging infrastructure:

AI-based decentralized charging networks with monitoring, maintenance, tracking, and control system. “Our AC charge controllers are facilitated with an optional RFID module consisting of RFID card readers and LEDs.” Consumers can initiate their vehicle’s charging by holding a valid RFID card close to the reader or remotely by the backend system via OCPP. 

• Autonomous Vehicles:

AI-assisted autonomous driving for optimal routing considering urban real-time traffic data and route planning. “However, many things related to AI/ML will come into the EV ecosystem soon,” feels Srinivas.

Minimizing the Challenges

When probed considering the current industry scenario, what kind of challenges they face, and what drives Bender India to overcome them, Srinivas reveals that at present their biggest challenge is global supply chain failure and shortage of semiconductors worldwide as Bender is an electronic equipment manufacturer, “So we cannot avoid it.”

According to Wired Magazine, semiconductor demand grew nearly 30% between August 2020 and August 2021. Some companies are seeing a backlog of orders extending well into 2023. He adds, “Therefore, 2023 will also not be very easy for us. We need support from our reputed customers for some delayed delivery.”

He informs, “The component shortage remains constant; hence, to overcome the challenge, our strong R&D team is already in their job; they are in the process of re-designing the products in such a way that dependency on critical electronic components should be minimized. Though it is not an easy job, we are promised the turnaround as quickly as possible.” 

Creating the Future’s EV Ecosystem

Offering a piece of advice, he says, “Our advice to entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the EV industry would be to invest in the R&D activities for the EV ecosystem, particularly for India and southeast Asian consumer requirements, and provide a safe and reliable system.” Most Indian EV manufacturers are considering European and American market requirements for designing/manufacturing/assembling their vehicles and chargers. So these markets are also open for new entrants.  

On envisioning scaling Bender India’s operations and offerings in the future, the Bender India team believes in five points:

• Think big and work hard to achieve it.
• Find a logical way to automate our process.
• “Identify our competitive edge among competitors.”
• Always Focus on the Right ways and positive things.
• Building a strong and committed network.  

Being completely honest about their client testimonials, accomplishments, and awards, SRINIVAS cites that since the EV segment is very new and they started their activity in this segment in 2020, and immediately after that unprecedented Pandemic scenario came in India. “Therefore, it will take another one- or two-years’ time to achieve such a long list of testimonials from our customers.”

“However, we got the ‘Best Trusted Supplier Award 2021’ from M/s. Amphenol PCD Chennai. They are the PDU supplier of all major E vehicle manufacturers,” concludes Srinivas.