The total power demand of the country during December 2014 was 1, 39, 479 MW, of which 1, 34, 940 MW was met leaving a shortfall of 4,539 MW. As per the Load Generation Balance Report 2014-15, presented by Central Electricity Authority, Ministry Of Energy, anticipated power supply position for the year 2014-15, indicate that there would be energy shortage of 5.1% and peak shortage of 2.0% in the country during 2014-15. During the year 2014-15, there would be energy shortage of 5.1% and peak shortage of 2.0%. To stabilize the power supply in domestic and industrial areas and catering the projected shortfall a complete range of inverters is required in the market. Inverters not only full-fills power back-up requirements but also ensure stable power supply. We talked to some of the major players in this industry about the inverters industry of India, and here we bought to you an exclusive survey on market status of the industry.
Power shortage in entire country is probably the most important factor to be considered when talking about increasing demand of inverters. Trend towards solar & photovoltaic resources is another pushing factor towards up merging market of PV inverters. Power shortage factor can be illustrated with the fact that, during the year 2013-14, though the total ex-bus energy availability increased by 5.6% over the previous year and the peak met increased by 5.3%, the shortage conditions prevailed in the Country both in terms of energy and peaking availability as given.
All the Regions in the Country namely Northern, Western, Southern, Eastern and North-Eastern Regions continued to experience energy as well as peak power shortage of varying magnitude on an overall basis, although there were short-term surpluses depending on the season or time of day. The surplus power was sold to deficit states or consumers either through bilateral contracts, Power Exchanges or traders. The energy shortage varied from 1.0% in the Western Region to 6.8% in the Southern Region. Further to the peak power shortage, the power supply is not uniform and heavily affected with fluctuations & sudden breakdowns. Such types of bad power supply are not acceptable in industrial set-ups and companies go for complete back-up systems employing industrial inverters on large scale. Power breakdown problem is even worse in rural areas, and in such areas solar base systems is also available equal to zero. As surge growth in demand of inverters is very promising in rural areas in coming years. Comparatively in urban areas we may see overturn trend. Upto 3-tier cities we are seeing a rushing trend for solar& photovoltaic based systems. Conventional electricity backup systems are being replaced by renewable energy systems, making pace for PV inverters. But PV inverters have their own factors & figures since un-explored. This was all from EM outlook, further we talked to some of the biggest players in this industry, and here we present to you their exclusive feedbacks.
Genus Power Infrastructures Ltd.
Mr. Rajiv Satoor, President – Home & Industrial Products
As per Mr. Rajiv, demand of Inverters will increase with the integration of Solar. The inverter demand in India has increased due to power shortages, and a strong push from the government through national solar mission. Now, some state governments and bodies are coming forth to encourage users to install Solar Rooftop Systems by offering attractive subsidies and buy back tariffs. The Government of India is giving a major boost to urbanization by building 100 new cities and to upgrade and develop existing ones. There will be focused initiatives to develop smart cities, airports, highways and will also be announcing big concessions to renewable energy sector. The upcoming technology in Solar is the integration of Net Metering and sine wave inverter/UPS systems to converge both technologies coupled with communication & software technologies in smart grid- RE integration domain by developing and deploying decentralized solar roof top energy generators for residential, commercial & various industrial applications, of both OFF GRID, ON GRID & Hybrid type with storage system which shall depend on available inexpensive mix energy resources.
Uniline Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. R. K. Bansal, Managing Director
As per Mr. Bansal, Demand for inverter in urban areas will come down and in rural areas, will remain same. Now a days people are keen to buy solar inverter which serves both the purpose of domestic inverter as well as solar inverter. Now a day’s inverters are available with improved PF (power factor) upto 0.9 i.e. having capability to handle better load. This will increase the demand of inverters.
Convergence Power Systems Pvt Ltd
Mr. Sree Kumar, Director – Sales & Marketing
As per Mr. Kumar, inverter demands will pop-up in the future as long as the ever increasing demand and supply
scenario of the electricity situation continues in our country. Since the govt is focusing more on increasing the awareness in people about the importance of solar energy and certain parts govt already made it mandatory to have a certain percentage of the load from solar energy.
Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd.
Mr. Harinder Singh Jaidka, Senior Vice President – Sales & Service
As per Mr. Singh, We expect the Inverter demand to grow up exponentially in the near future owing to large scale of solarization which will need electronics to support it. Solar inverters and Hybrid inverters will be the major contributor in the enhanced market of inverters.
Emerson Network Power, India
Dr. A.S. Prasad- Head, Marketing and Products
As per Mr. Prasad, Recent initiatives and policy bolsters from the government has led to an increase in the number of new start-ups and businesses coming up in India and this is also driving the demand for 24×7 power supply. For example if we take the manufacturing sector, one needs constant electricity to ensure production goes on unhindered. Even an hour without electricity can result in the business facing a loss, thereby affecting the profit of a business in the long run. This is one of the reasons that industrial inverters and UPS solutions will see a rise in demand in the near future. Customers continue to face problems with the quality of power and we see a gradual rise in demand from the UPS and battery market in India. When it comes to energy, India has had the dubious distinction of being ‘power deficient’ and this can stunt the development of any project. Solar inverters will play a huge role in fulfilling the increasing demand of the inverter industry. With the Indian government‘s mission of promoting sustainable growth while addressing India’s power deficit, solar inverters will be in demand more than ever. Emerson Network Power, recognized this trend early on and continually researches and explores new methods to meet the power needs of customers.
- Renewable energy sources like Solar are helpful in tapping new markets, especially in the Indian scenario, as a lot of projects are coming up in smaller cities and towns with the number of SME and SMBs growing in tier II/ III cities
- With increased spending announced for mega projects for solar power, the market awareness and demand for solar inverters would increase considerably.
Emerson Network Power has invested considerably in central inverters and maintains a good market share in the off grid solar market. Emerson has also made substantial progress by working closely with the government post its registration with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and has been graded with the ‘SP2A’ rating by CRISIL for its solar projects. Emerson designs and manufactures solar inverters for the residential market as well as for and small businesses. These small-light weight and efficient solar inverters facilitate time-saving installation and helps reduce reliance on costly as well as non-renewable fossil fuel sources with their great power density and the ability to pass on excess power back to the grid.
Microtek International P. Ltd.
Mr. Manoj Jain – Vice President
As per Mr. Manoj, The demand for Inverters/UPS or you may call it Backup Power Products is need based depending on the power scenario, and in our opinion will be more or less stagnant as areas of power shortfall keep on changing and overall scenario remains more or less similar. The solar inverter/UPS will be increasing their share only when the panel cost comes down as renewable energy is going to be in focus in coming times. Microtek has already introduced models in this segment where the consumer saves electricity also.
Conclusion
Increasing power requirements in the country will definitely pop-up inverters demand and also project a positive future for Photovoltaic inverters.
