After a 10 year Run, Ramesh Kymal Moves On, Navin Dewaji Takes Over at Siemens Gamesa India

Siemens Gamesa, which has had a solid run over the past decade under its India CEO Ramesh Kymal, is making a big change. Kymal will be stepping down to pursue other interests, even as he hands over to another company insider and long term colleague, Navin Dewaji, till now, an executive vice president in the firm.

Dewaji, with a long history of exposure to the energy and power industry in particular, including at ABB and Alstom, will take over in March. His move comes at an interesting time or the sector, with wind energy firms, including Siemens Gamesa, hit by the overall issues faced by the power sector in India. Be it the pressure on tariffs, which have been passed on by developers to suppliers like Siemens, or even the many other constraints and obstacles that have reared up in the past two years.

Siemens has emerged as the market leader in India in terms of installed capacity, with over 6.2 GW installed till date in the country. It has also gone on record to highlight how its Indian manufacturing operations are among the most efficient in the world, creating export opportunities from operations here, even as competition heats up.

Dewaji will be reporting to the onshore Chief Regions Officer, Enrique Pedrosa, based in Bilbao, Spain. Of course, the focus in India continues to be on onshore wind power, as offshore is still not considered low enough to be a serious consideration for power generation in the country. An emerging opportunity in the country is the replacement opportunity for the first and second generation wind turbines installed during the early years for the sector in the 90’s , which have far smaller generation capacities than today’s massive turbines of 1 MW plus and beyond.