Socomec Innovative Power Solutions Pvt Ltd, part of France-based Socomec Group, has a complete suite of solutions for control and safety of low-voltage electrical networks. We have Sushil Virmani discussing at length the Socomec’s UPS business in India. With the national “Digital India” mission now gaining steam, Virmani explains why data centres would be in the limelight, and how this would be a big business driver for Socomec’s UPS business in India.
Do you see any perceptible impact on the UPS business or the outlook of your UPS business, with the “Digital India” campaign?
In the last two years we have seen India’s leadership intensely accelerating digitization. All attention is towards ‘digital’ because of the exponential rate at which it is changing the traditional processes and the established conducts. Technologies such as cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), mobility, e-commerce, social platforms and real time analytics are emerging and challenging the enterprises to be innovative, increasing efficiency and improving their engagement with customers round the clock.
As most companies still have legacy IT infrastructure that doesn’t fully adapt with evolving application architectures; there is demand for more datacenters to handle today’s growing need. According to PwC, Asia Pacific’s data center services market size will exceed the European market size by 2021. The region’s data center services market size in 2016 is US$12 bn and is expected to grow by 27 per cent per year.
We enjoy very good market share in medium to higher power rating UPS systems that cater to market segments like data center, building, industry, infrastructure, healthcare etc.
Socomec has strategies to tap this evolving segment. We feel proud to have established strategic relationships with most of the global and Indian players that provides data centre services and we have been considered as one of the most preferred vendors to supply UPS, automatic transfer switches and multifunction meters for their power management application.
Socomec invests heavily in pioneering research and product design in order to deliver world-class innovations to solve our customer’s greatest challenges in terms of energy availability, efficiency, capacity, flexibility and sustainability. Our UPS solutions are engineered to meet evolving system architecture.
Being a UPS specialist, our unique blend of innovative spirit and experience, helps us deliver effective solutions to various challenges. Socomec offers fail-safe UPS solutions using the most advanced expertise and cutting-edge technologies. Thanks to the company’s wide range of continuously evolving products, solutions and services, our UPS solutions starting from 600VA are available up to 5.4 MW.
We enjoy very good market share in medium to higher power rating UPS systems that cater to market segments like data center, building, industry, infrastructure, healthcare etc.
Energy storage solutions for solar power are emerging as a key area. What are your offerings in this sector, and what is your business outlook?
Socomec group offers totally innovative featured SUNSYS PCS² energy storage solution for smart integration of PV energy in electrical grids. Matching intermittent energy sources (solar or wind power) with fluctuating demand is a major obstacle for smart grids. Socomec is facing up to this challenge by offering a system that converts and stores the renewable energy produced and compensates the intermittent nature of the energy source. But this solution offers more than that: SUNSYS PCS² optimizes self-consumption of smart grids, alleviates variances between the energy available and demand and meets islanding requirements.
We are evaluating the market potential in India and will bring this solution at a suitable time to make it available for our customers.
Socomec group offers totally innovative featured SUNSYS PCS² energy storage solution for smart integration of PV energy in electrical grids.We are evaluating its market potential in India
The low-rating UPS market is dominated by players in the unorganized sector. What is your view?
The UPS industry is an open ground with organized and unorganized players. As per market reports, organized sector accounted for nearly 61 per cent of the total revenue while 25 per cent came through semi-organized sector while 14 per cent share still remains with the unorganized operators. We focus more on organized market sector as we can differentiate ourselves in terms of product innovation, service etc. and have competitive advantage over the other players.
The low-rating UPS market is the most unorganized high volume, low margin segment and is catered mostly by the low cost imports from China and Taiwan. Socomec does not operate in the sub-600VA range.
UPS is regarded not only as a standby-power solution but it is also expected to be a source of “quality” power. What is your reading of the situation?
By guaranteeing the availability of electrical power to the system, modern high efficiency UPS systems can be the best solution. These models are ideal, in that they act as a linear load with a unity power factor. Not only they do decouple the load and its electrical characteristics from the supply network, but they contribute to bringing the total power factor of the system closer to unity.
A well-designed system is one that achieves the best compromise between cost and benefit, based on an effective exchange of information between buyer and supplier. Before choosing an UPS and system architecture it makes sense to consider downtime costs and the environmental impact that your system may have.
In practical terms, if estimated downtime costs linked to the useful life of the system exceed costs derived from the complexity of the system, it’s worth asking yourself whether you are making the right choice. Even the European Code of Conduct for Data Centres advises that 2N architectures should only be utilized when strictly necessary. Ultimately, however, the decision of whether or not to go green is determined by personal preference and operating cost savings. In both cases, the UPS supplier will aid the right decision based on the needs and requirements specified.
It is often said that India lacks self-sufficiency when it comes to power electronics used in power continuity equipment like UPS. What is your view? In this context, what is the overall extent of localization of Socomec’s UPS business in India?
At the present context, localization is very much needed, if we have to be highly competitive in the market and to provide faster response time to our customer demands. We already started localizing most demanding products in India and producing at our Gurgaon facility.
Delphys MP Elite+ is already an industrial proven product and now it is now available in the range of 60-200kVA manufactured here in India. We are producing this product at our Gurgaon facility to meet the local market demand. In near future, we have plans to add more UPS lines to support evolving market needs.
Socomec has a complete portfolio of low-voltage power distribution solutions. Please discuss how the UPS vertical helps Socomec provide a comprehensive solutions portfolio.
While we interact with the customers we understand the customer pain points and offer the solution that are suitable for their needs.
Which sectors do you currently regard as the growth drivers of your UPS business?
Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems are essential for guaranteeing the business continuity of any critical load be it industrial or commercial enterprise. All business critical equipment’s must have a faultless and clean power supply if they have to operate efficiently.
Data center market is a result of demand pooled from enterprises across verticals like BFSI, IOT Telecom, e-commerce, manufacturing (majorly around ERP on cloud), education, healthcare, etc.
We observe critical equipment is growing significantly and UPS business is also growing in tandem. Socomec has good presence in IT & ITES, manufacturing and process industry, BFSI, government, educational institutions, infrastructure, medical and healthcare.
