What are the recent developments in Numeric Power Systems?
In the domestic market, we are enhancing the product range from 500VA to a very
large capacity to address total industry power needs, which could be several MWs.
The upper limit is normally not fixed, as it could be one machine of 100KVA or
10 machines of 500KVA.
More models starting from 500VA to industrial power ratings of several MWs
would be rolled out shortly. Different models with more digital options, which
can provide digital information on single touch and network interface options or
can facilitate remote operations, would be included in the soon to be launched
product range.
What initiatives are you taking for renewable energy products?
We are looking at powering home needs for light, essential loads, banks, etc
through solar power. We have around 300 projects in hand of which 100 are
already complete. It's an ongoing activity, where our existing UPS would be
interfaced with solar panels on the rooftop through an electronic system called
Maximum Power Point Tracking Technology (MPPT). We deploy MPPT charge
controllers. The panels are installed over the rooftops, and power is passed
through a MPPT charge controller, which charges the battery.
We are also doing mid-range to large capacity solar powered installations. We
are working on this on a larger scale. Also, Numeric owns wind energy firms and
is exploring more opportunities in the renewable energy area.
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R Chellappan
MD, Numeric Power Systems |
What happened to Numeric's inverter business?
We were little slow in launching our inverters, as our focus was on the
online UPS segment, but now we have launched the products. Four models have
already been launched and they are successfully moving into the market. We are
doing very well in the export market, also now we are increasing our domestic
presence. Recently we launched the HPX series of sine wave inverters, which are
highly durable to run ACs and more powerful loads in homes and commercial
enterprises.
Do you have a different set of channels for inverters and UPS?
We have a team called Power Product group, whose job is to promote the sales
of batteries and inverters. We have tied up with around 100 partners, who are
all part of electrical contracting system and building construction groups. We
see a lot of opportunities in the construction sector. Electrical contractors
are the right people to carry this out, as they are familiar with the wiring and
modifications involved in the incoming switchboard. We also have plug and play
inverters, which need no change in the electrical wiring. The current order
position for the export of inverters is around 2,000 plus units and it is
improving everyday and in the domestic market, it's much more than that. Our
distributors have already picked up quite a big quantity.
What would be the focus of Numeric for this year?
Our focus would be to expand across India, to even D and E-class towns, as
we have a good presence in A, B and C-class cities.
How important is channel for Numeric?
For any product-centric company, channels are very important. Now we are
supporting our channels, not only in offline and line interactive products, but
also in online products with special schemes and training. Using our own
efficient service network, we are going to support the channels with special
schemes and additional training programs. Selling online UPS is the very new
initiative for channels. Last year channels would have sold 30,000KVA equivalent
of online range of UPS and this year they are going to triple that and we are
pretty confident about reaching our targets.
How do you intend to drive channel sales?
The success of offline and line interactive products lays in the successful
management of channels through incentives and logistics. It is a number game and
is all about pushing the boxes. However, online needs lots of understanding on
the site, server, thermal stability of the room and many other things. Every
location needs to have technical support for successful installation, where the
customer starts monitoring the uptime every minute. Numeric enjoys maintaining
high uptime in this country and all the credits goes to the network. This is our
main tool that is going to bring more channels to our fold.
Lots of UPS manufacturers are focusing on data centers, which is a sweet spot
for all the UPS vendors. Is Numeric focusing on that segment?
We do focus on data centers and do quite large capacity installations, both
inside and outside India. But we don't involve ourselves in complete data center
set-up. As a manufacturer, we concentrate more on manufacturing transformers,
sheet metal boxes, batteries, etc. Manufacturing extensively and getting into
data center building, needs a little more expansion from our side.
What is Numeric's contribution to green IT?
We cater quite a lot to green IT. All our new product ranges have low heat
emission, very low reinjected harmonics and higher input power factor. Adding to
that, our solar initiatives also make us a green IT company. We not only claim
but are also working towards carbon credit.
Most of your solutions are price conscious. Do you think that would have any
effect on quality of products?
Not most but all of our solutions are price conscious. That is the area
where technology enables us to offer high performance and manage cost pressure
internally. Right from the component selection, we follow higher standards like
EMI, EMC, which conform to ISC standards. When we say that we produce high power
factor inputs and high-efficiency systems, obviously the thermal stability is
pretty high, so the reliability is high. While designing such products, we also
make sure that the consumption of raw material like copper and iron is
comparatively low. Internally, we control the usage of copper and iron by
changing the design with the help of technology.
NR Sethuraman
(sethuramannr@cybermedia.co.in)