With the organisations working round the clock, power is becoming more critical by the day. The enterprises are committed to using energy productively and efficiently. They are increasingly relying on reliable and energy efficient power back-up systems to keep their operations running
There has been substantial growth in the industrial and commercial infrastructure in the country over the years. However, due to unavailability of uninterrupted source of power supply and rising energy cost, the need for reliable energy efficient power back-up systems have become an essential part of an organisation set-up. However, even the power sector cannot safeguard itself from the vagaries of the political situation and the state of the PC segment.
The UPS segment has de-grown in the past year due to election in India in 2014 and also due to the slowdown of growth in the home PC segment. But the market is full of optimism, as there is high growth in the demand from tier-II and tier-III cities. This is leading to vast improvement in the opportunities for the UPS market in India. “The market has de-grown in the past year by about 2.5% to 3%.,” says Gurudutt M – Head – Mid Market and Enterprise Channel Business, IT Business – Schneider Electric India.
According to research firm RNCOS, the Indian UPS market is expected to grow at 11% in 2014-2018. “We see a growing demand from tier 2 and tier 3 cities which has led to an increase in the opportunities for the UPS market in India,” says Syed Sajjadh Ali, Managing Director – India, Electrical Sector, Eaton. He also points out that with the advancement in technologies, e-commerce, data centers, servers, electronic and medical equipment’s, there will be significant demand for high power range of UPS systems in India.
“The dynamics of the Indian market continues to change as India’s power sector develops. However, customers continue to face problems with the quality of power. Due to this, there has been a gradual rise in demand from the UPS and battery market in India,” says Ankesh Kumar, Director – Marketing, Emerson Network Power, India. He also points out that UPS solutions have functions that make them capable of handling more complex tasks than simply enabling uptime.“The rapid rise in consumer data consumption has been further driven by reliable and robust uninterrupted power supply solutions. This enables more efficient and reliable data storage and other business processes that depend on UPS,” adds Ankesh Kumar.
Growth in the BFSI and government sector plays an important role in boosting the UPS market. Both sectors contribute around 36% of the total revenue of the UPS industry in India. The industry is likely to see more demand from telecom, eGovernance, education and infrastructure sectors.
Technology gaining greater penetration
The UPS market in India is dependent on UPS systems (up to 25 KVA), constituting of over half of the total UPS market. But things are changing with the penetration of several new technologies into the UPS sector in India. There is a shift towards cloud computing which is generating the need for data storage and safety. These data centers require uninterrupted service and power backup which is also leading to the growth of the data center UPS market.
“There is a gradual inclination towards solar-powered UPS systems and the growth is fuelled by an increase in demand from new markets primarily in Tier II and Tier III cities,” says Gurudutt M of Schneider Electric India. Syed Sajjadh Ali of Eaton is of the view that with the expansion in technologies, we will see major changes taking place in the UPS systems. “Newer technologies are being adopted by players in the UPS market – a notable one being the positive shift towards solar-powered UPS systems,” says Syed Sajjadh Ali of Eaton.
Another major change which is impacting the growth of UPS market is the demand from smaller
areas. Gurudutt M of Schneider Electric India is of the view that the improvement in the rural economy of the country is leading to growth in demand for power backup equipments have from rural areas. Syed Sajjadh Ali of Eaton says that UPS technologies should focus on two critical aspects. The first being reliability, particularly in the case of mission critical applications, where failure amounts to very high costs.
When we talk about reliability we are necessarily assuming that the higher battery life and the least or preferably no downtime. This also minimises the total cost of ownership over time. The second critical aspect is energy efficiency. This is imperative in a world that has limited energy resources and high energy costs. By consuming less energy and delivering more productivity we can not only achieve cost-efficiencies but ensure that we are operating sustainably.
Echoing similar concern, Ankesh Kumar, Emerson Network Power, India, points out that factors like energy efficiency and reliability are vital for the smooth functioning of a Data Center UPS power Systems.
“If industry is eager to take better control of their equipment and improve reliability of their production plants while reducing costs, the industry must take a more proactive approach to power backup and conditioning equipment,” says Ankesh Kumar. He goes on to inform that while the prevalent technology is still SCR (Silicon Controlled Rectifier), it is the SMPS technology that leads to reliability and efficiency. It leads to reduction in the size and weight of the equipment. “The electrical performance on ripple and harmonic is much better than SCR,” he informs. “This allows more scalability, flexibility and reduces the overall cost of the SMPS technology.”
CIOs looking for Real Time Monitoring
Data is nowadays becoming the nerve center of a business strategy for all businesses be it a SMB/ SME or a large enterprise. Hence uptime and energy efficiency is critical to business continuity and its success. There have been instances where a few minutes of downtime have resulted in losses to business including monetary and non-monetary. In such dynamic and volatile business landscape, monitoring of critical assets remotely & ability to predict failures in advance is emerging as the key requirements and being desired by a CIO of today.
“CIOs are looking for tools which can predict any failure in advance so that right action can be taken on time” says Gurudutt M of Schneider Electric India.
AS the CIOs are giving lot of importance to real time reporting, the industry is increasingly moving towards Real Time Monitoring and Data Centre Infrastructure Management Solutions. These solutions enable the CIOs to manage and monitor absolutely disparate sets of equipment both in IT and Physical Infrastructure on a real time basis.
Outlook for 2015
According to the research report by firm TechNavio the increasing demand for UPS Systems is expected to boost the battery Market in India, which is growing at a CAGR of 16.5%. Sudden power fluctuations and power cuts is leading to growing adoption of UPS systems in the IT, banking and telecom sectors. The report further states that demand for lead-acid batteries from the automobile OEM and replacement battery markets are also contributing to these strong market projections.
“The numerous functional benefits of lead-acid batteries are expected to drive the growth of the Battery Market in India,” says Gurudutt M of Schneider Electric India
“The future growth of the UPS market in India is extremely positive. The increasing demand for power to meet the ever increasing needs in various industries will lead to investments in technologies that can manage power more efficiently and reliably. The industry is experiencing a shift towards energy efficient technologies that aid in conserving energy, optimising cost and reducing physical as well as carbon footprints. The shift towards green energy sources will lead to more innovations in the power back-up industry,” says Syed Sajjadh Ali of Eaton.
“Growth initiatives, fueled by the government’s ‘Digital India’ vision, are expected to drive growth for e-governance initiatives in telecom, banking, insurance and healthcare segments and that will increase the demand for data center and UPS solutions,” says Ankesh Kumar, Emerson Network Power, India.