In the forthcoming years, shunt reactor market will grow at a healthy rate. Eyeing the environmental concerns, use of cables is increased in off-shore wind parks and overhead lines. However, cables generate reactive power than overhead lines, which necessitates use of shunt reactor for transmittiong active power in the grid. Besides, the demand for shunt reactors in remote villages (located close to the sub-station) is high, without the need for a high voltage step down transformer.

In addition to the aforementioned factors, even government plays vital role in the growth of shunt reactor market. They are focusing on renewable energy projects as they provide long-term sustainable and environment-friendly solutions. Government has initiated various efficiency programs to meet international regulations by setting up new energy plants that harness renewable sources of energy like wind and solar. For instance, Brazil being Latin America’s largest renewable energy market is expected to generate its one-third of electricity from photovoltaic sources by 2040. Government has a significant role in the Brazilian electricity sector as Eletrobrás holds nearly one-third of total installed capacity. Besides, Brazil’s transmission lines are largely state owned, with Operador Nacional do Sistema Elétrico (ONS) being a nationwide operator.

Other factors that is escalating the use of shunt reactor is emergence of IoT and smart grid projects. Deployment of new technology platform-enabled infrastructure has given rise to the development of smart grids, particularly in developed economies.

Type Segment

In the shunt reactor type segment, oil-immersed shunt reactors is anticipated to dominate the market in the forthcoming years. Oil-immersed Shunt Reactors are mainly used for transmission lines including voltage levels greater than 40kV. Oil-immersed reactors are sometimes core-less or with gapped iron core. They have three-phase or single-phase design with or without fan cooling. These are installed within tanks which hold oil & act as metallic magnetic shields. The oil-immersed shunt reactors are highly compact, cost-efficient and suitable for high voltage transmission lines. The factors such as, consistently growing global energy demand, expanding power transmission & distribution infrastructure in developing regions and the addition of high voltage transmission lines will be drive the demand and adoption for oil-immersed shunt reactors.

End-user Industry Segment

In the end-user Industry segment, the shunt reactor market by end-user industry has been categorized into electrical utilities and industrial verticals. The market for shunt reactors was dominated by electrical utilities, which had the largest market share of 86.5% in 2018 and the trend is projected to remain the same during the forecast period. Electric utility industry is inclusive of firms in the electric power industry that involves distribution and generation of electricity for sale commonly in a controlled or regulated market. Electric utilities include publicly owned, investor-owned, cooperatives and nationalized entities. Electric utilities are investing in new power transmission & distribution networks and are also updating the legacy power infrastructure to meet increasing energy demand which will subsequently lead to demand for shunt reactors.

On the geographical front, global Shunt Reactor market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia-Pacific. The Asia-Pacific region dominated the market for the year 2018, and the region is also expected to grow at the highest growth rate during the forecast period. North America is the second-largest market closely followed by the Europe region. In the year 2018, Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe held 87.0% market in global shunt reactor market. The Asia-pacific market is heavily driven by the presence of heavy energy-consuming economies such as China and India. According to Chinas Electricity Council (CEC), country’s  electricity consumption has spurred to 6.84 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2018, up 8.5% compared to last year. To address this growing energy demand, China has pledged to invest USD 367 Billion until 2020, especially into renewable power generation. Similarly, other Asian countries such as India, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, and South Korea are also heavily investing in renewable power generation strategies. North America is the second-largest market with market size of USD 655.2 Million in 2018, closely followed by Europe at USD 644.1 Million market size. There are heavy investments in both regions, especially in renewable energy power generation. However, as compared to Asia-Pacific, both regions fall back moderately in terms of energy demand and power infrastructure investments.

The market is highly competitive and dominated by companies such as ABB Ltd, Siemens AG, CG Power, Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc., Fuji Electric Co., Ltd., TBEA Co., Ltd, General Electric Company, HICO America, Zaporozhtransformator, Nissin Electric Co., Ltd, and others.