Early summer brightens business of ACs

‘While people sweat it out, business opportunities are there for the asking’.

possible El Nino has actually brightened the prospects of electric gadgets, including power back-up devices like generators and inverters. “While people sweat it out, business opportunities are there for the asking,” says D.S. Rawat, Secretary General, Assocham. As heat and dust goes up, the market for ACs is expected to increase by 45% this year. The market for inverters is also likely to chin up. “We are out of stock because we never expected the arrival of heat so early this season,” says Kunwer Sachdev, MD & Founder SuKam. If the pattern continues, “We, at Su-kam, are expecting a healthy growth of about 25-30% this season. Since manufacturing takes time, we are aligning our manufacturing capabilities to meet such growth”.

Electricity demand and peak hour shortages have begun to haunt states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and the expectation is that these states would see up to 25% rise in demand for power back-up devices. Demand for such gadgets is likely to be more in tier-I and tier-II cities in these states. AC maintenance companies have registered a 100% jump in demand over the past week alone while residents grapple with stifling conditions at homes and offices, reveals the survey. Tough electricity generation has actually improved in the country, the distribution system (transformers etc.) seems to crumble when there is a huge load (demand) for power. In FY 17, electricity generation has gone up by about 5%, but peak shortages still haunt the system.

The overall size of domestic power back-up devices has significantly gone up to about Rs 15,000 crore of which batteries corner the major chunk.