'Government auctions, clarity on PPA to save jobs at Siemens Gamesa India'

The workforce in India operations of global wind turbine major Siemens Gamesa may escape the axe if the Indian government comes with more auctions and clarifies on power purchase agreements (PPA), a top company official said.

Siemens Gamesa has announced restructuring impacting 6,000 workers in 24 countries and between April and September, its global revenues fell 12 per cent, as a result of temporary suspension of the Indian market.

Excluding the Indian impact, the global revenues fell just two per cent, Siemens Gamesa said.

"While the organisation is taking all possible efforts to adapt to this market conditions, it is awaiting positive signals from the Government with respect to clarity on PPA's, initiating more auctions to stabilise capacity additions etc., which will help the industry to bounce back to normalcy," Ramesh Kymal, Chairman and Managing Director, Siemens Gamesa India told IANS.

"India will continue to be a major focus for Siemens Gamesa. The company expects the market to stabilise in 2018 and fully recover in 2019," Kymal added.

According to Kymal, it is not possible to specify the countries or the number of employees affected by the parent in each country as of now because the rules of different countries have to be followed.

"The plan will be implemented in the coming months and it is a necessary step to strengthen the group and consolidate its place as a market leader. Discussions will start complying with applicable rules and regulations with each country and the company will inform about the final agreements," Kymal said.

Siemens Gamesa launched a Global restructuring plan driven by integration of legacy structures and by the change in market condition in order to establish a lean and agile organisation, he said.

In a recent interaction Kymal had told IANS: "We have scaled down our nacelle production. We started exports of blades to our sister companies in other parts of the world."

"We did not reduce our workforce as they were deployed in solar energy projects. But this situation cannot continue for long," Kymal had said about Siemens Gamesa India.

In India the government is planning three GW in central auctions up to March 2018, and the market is expected to fully recover in 2019, Siemens Gamesa had said.

--IANS

vj/in/vm