Power Management Solutions: Backing Up India, Inc

One mans meat is often another mans poison. No wonder, therefore, that the abysmal report card of the Union Power Ministry (also most state power boards, barring a handful) has translated into good business for the Indian UPS industry. Hours of long power cuts and erratic power supply to homes, SOHOs as well as industrial zones have led to a thriving UPS sector, particularly in the under 5.1 kVA category. In 2006-07, this segment grew by 37% in terms of units shipped and 26% in revenue terms (the falling prices of units explains the discrepancy).

Other than the deteriorating power situation across the country, the significant y-o-y growth (the previous year it grew 42% by units and 46% by value) is also closely linked with the growth in the PC industry.

The role of the UPS too has undergone a paradigm shift. Traditionally considered a device to ensure power back up, UPS is now being seen more as a power provider, an essential component of business continuity plans of many enterprises.

The Growth Story

The increasing importance of business continuity has created a situation where businesses wish to avoid the high cost of a break in processes and the resultant loss of productivity. This worsening power situation in the country, has inadvertently further fueled the growth of the UPS market. Then again, with most of the devices offering protection against voltage fluctuations, industries are looking at it as an answer to their backup power woes, giving them adequate time to save files and run the shut down process.

Today, a UPS is not looked upon as a box but is seen as a solution. In order to sustain in a highly volatile competitive market, it has become imperative for vendors to offer and upgrade to best possible technology. As networks are becoming more complex, far-flung and are managed from remote locations, UPS need to be equipped with support for heterogeneous network management protocols and be flexible enough to incorporate diagnostics and predictive failure technologies, such as SNMP, RS-232, HTTP, and JMODBUS.

Enterprises have shown a keen interest in taking up improved specs technologies like 0.9 Input Power factor, which ensures more usable power per kVA and results in sustaining more load per UPS. Enterprise customers also moved to higher capacity UPS during FY 07 as their loads have increased. A typical example is the shift from 3 to 5 kVA units in bank branches. Also, many enterprise customers have now moved from line interactive to online systems as a result of increased consciousness among the users to recognize a UPS as a business critical product rather than just a backup device. There was a definite growth in the sales of online UPS that accounted for 6.5% of units sold in 2006-07, up from 5% the previous year.

Market Dynamics

Major brands like APC, Numeric Power Systems and WeP ruled the roost during the year garnering nearly 67% of the overall market both value and unit-wise. Next were vendors like Champion, Luminous, and DB Power who were strong in certain regions of the country. This group too accounted for 16% of the market, with many of them potentially capable of graduating to the national league. However, the UPS market was still cluttered and unsystematic at the lower end, and this encouraged the presence of a host of local players. In particular, Delhi, Pune, and Chennai were pockets that bred local UPS players virtually like a cottage industry. This unorganized segment too accounted for nearly 18% of the market: these local players primarily attracted buyers who were price conscious. But, when it came to performance, reliability and after sales service, the branded players had an upper hand and thereby gained ground.

Traditionally considered a device to ensure power back up, UPS is now being seen more as a power provider, an essential component of business continuity plans

Like many other categories, UPS too witnessed maximum traction in the BFSI, government and BPO segments. Telecom, IT services, hospitality, pharma, manufacturing, medical, and textiles too started gaining grounds during 2006-07. But, the key factor driving the growth of the Indian UPS market was the growing vertical penetration into B and C class cities.

As per IDC, the most prominent sectors prompting an exponential growth of the UPS market are the SMB and SOHO segments. With the demand for mission critical applications and saving energy on the rise, SMBs too showed keenness during the year for enhanced systems. However, even though these organizations were fast realizing the importance of network uptime, they continued to remain price conscious, causing branded players to design and offer the best possible power conditioning equipment by keeping the cost factor in mind.

The upsurge experienced by the SOHO segment has been responsible for the rapid 37% growth in UPS consumption (sub-5.1 kVA) over the past year. Though the home segment has not been categorized by Dataquest while sizing the sub-5.1 kVA market, this is another area that witnessed significant growth. Vendors like APC and Intex introduced during the year a whole set of product lines catering to this segment. The home UPS segment was also highly service based, allowing players like Intex with good after service facilities to prosper.