Have you ever wondered if the happenings of the 21st century will threaten to go down in history as marking the decline of our great nation, India? I am not starting on a pessimistic note but my worries are generally centered around the question where did it all go wrong?
Today, IT has become an integral part of our lives due to the rapid PC penetration, but it’s sad that power cuts – load shedding, blackouts is an accepted way of life. Don’t we realize that without adequate electricity all the computers, processors and vista windows will not be anything but ugly pieces of useless furniture?
We must also note that the demand for power will only increase as we march ahead. The demand for power in India, according to estimates, is likely to go up by another 100,000 mega watts by 2010 and beyond. Thanks to various factors; these could be lack of political will, ineffective planning process or even the Enron damp squib – or combination of all – no one has really bothered to plan a time bound solution for handling power shortage.
What we have so far, are only high-level deliberations and strategies worked out by successive planning commissions and state electricity boards – but nothing really moves.
Even closer home in Maharashtra, which has had surplus electrical power in the past, we are facing a shortage. The state of Maharashtra alone is expected to be short of some 5000 mega watts this year which include both scheduled and unscheduled load shedding.
Also enterprises, especially SMBs, as well as the channel partners have hardly paid any heed to the issue of power backup. On an average, partners say, for every 5 PCs sold only one Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) system gets sold.
Interactions with resellers reveal that during the last summer and the following monsoon; demands for UPS fuelled up in smaller cities like Jalgaon, Bhavnagar or Ankleshwar. “The power crisis here is not as bad as many neighboring states like Maharashtra. Yet, erratic power supply has opened up good avenues for UPS business,” says Paresh Patel, Creative Infotech Solution from Ankleshwar in Gujarat.
With PC sales crossing over five million; UPS vendors have benefited and will continue to do so considering the good performance of the desktop and fast growing PC penetration, noted another partner friend R S Wagh of Ganesh Infotech in Jalgaon.
As per IDC, the branded UPS market in India grew at 35% in 2005 compared to 29% in 2004. The growth in sales of UPS continues abundantly high in 2006 and even 2007 opening ample avenues for partners to exploit the situation.
For players like American Power Conversion (APC) in 2005 business grew up to Rs 656.7 million by Quarter 2 from Rs. 403.2 million in Quarter 1. In fact, APC claimed a national market share of 47% by then.
Emerson Network Power, WeP Peripherals, GE India and TVS-E are now the leading UPS vendors in India while TVS-E, WeP Peripherals and APC have maintained a leading position in the low-end UPS segment.
At the regional levels, brands like Champion, Luminous, Asia Powercom, Numeric, HCL and Intex have been doing well and giving several small time native UPS manufacturers a run for their money.
I am aware; I am only reopening the Pandora’s Box for debates that erratic power supply is not the singular driver for surge in sales of UPS. The opponents of this theory would argue that if it were singularly for power shortage, then countries like Japan and US would not have had vast UPS market. But, can it be denied that by and large power shortage has pushed UPS in smaller towns in India as end users primarily relate it to a power backup machine.
The demand for various kinds of power back up systems – both for commercial and domestic use – can only pick up in the days to come. I could sound channel agnostic to those of you who deal with UPS; but is power shortage worth the business UPS is generating for you? Any takers?