Best Power Equipments (India) Pvt Ltd, popularly known as BPE, is a longstanding homegrown supplier of power management solutions, with a track record of over 20 years. T&D India met up with Amitanshu Satyapathy, Managing Director, Best Power Equipments (India) Pvt Ltd, during Elecrama 2023, to understand the company’s current operations and future plans. Expanding its global footprint and entering the IT/ITES sector rank high on the company’s agenda, Satyapathy notes in an interaction with Venugopal Pillai.
We understand that BPE is expanding its international operations. Tell us more.
As far as international operations are concerned, we currently have a regional head office at Singapore and a representative office at Taipei. We have also started appointing system integrators in Malaysia and Indonesia. Our products are generally finding acceptance globally.
For instance, Singapore Airlines is using our UPS systems. We also recently won an order from a major data centre in Singapore wherein we provided server racks, modular UPS, etc. We delivered the project in just 30 days. These orders will definitely help us increase our footprint in the South East Asia market.
How do you address the domestic market?
As far as domestic market, we sell our solutions through our dealers and distributors. We equip them with thorough training in our full suite of solutions. They in turn go to the market to sell our UPS. We are now trying to deploy a new team that will go to big industries where our UPS solutions can be promoted by direct interaction with CIOs. With this team, we are trying to address a market slice of Rs.200 – Rs.300 crore.
What about product certification when you are selling in international markets?
Yes, every country requires a different set of certifications. We have developed most of our certifications from India and these are globally valid.
Returning to your international market, are there some geographies that you would like to specifically tap?
We are trying to enter Australia. Europe is also still largely untapped. As I said, we have earned good acceptance for our products in South East Asia.
Do you have any plans to expand manufacturing capacity?
Yes, we recently acquired another factory at Greater Noida where we are trying to do assembly of Li-ion battery. This is an upcoming area. In the Li-ion space, we don’t want to focus on e-mobility but rather on high voltage DC solutions for our UPS systems.
Data centres are coming up in a big way and lithium battery is a preferred solution because of fast charging and a long life of around 10 years.
Ours is the only Indian company addressing the data centre market. Generally, this market is dominated by multinational companies. BPE products have inspired confidence in data centre customers and we are deepening our presence in this field.
Where are your plants located?
We already have four factories in Greater Noida. The acquisition that I spoke of will be our fifth.
Does BPE have any formal technical collaboration?
No. Our internal R&D team is competent to develop new products and solutions, understanding the needs of the markets and customers. As it is famously said; the power system in India is quite bad. If something is working in the Indian scenario, it can work anywhere! We are from the industry so we understand the exact requirements. We develop our product line accordingly. Our R&D team is very agile in giving solutions.
We understand that healthcare is also a big consumer of UPS systems.
Yes, in the healthcare segment, we have tied up with leading medical equipment companies for our UPS solutions. Wherever, they are supplying their equipment like CT Scan, Cath Lab, etc, our equipment goes along.
Our dealers and distributors are also approaching hospitals in a big way. We supplied to a large number of hospitals, especially during the COVID period.
We are focusing increasingly on healthcare, covering both hospitals and medical equipment.
The quality of grid power is generally improving. Does this have any impact on the UPS business?
To illustrate: USA has one of the best power systems in the world. Yet, nearly 40 per cent of the world’s UPS market is in the US. The UPS business has little to do with power quality; it is considered as a safety device for critical equipment.
You cannot imagine what damage even one second of power supply interruption could do to critical equipment. This apart, we also have harmonic variations, voltage variations, etc. A UPS is therefore not just offers power backup, it also takes care of other aspects like aberrations in power quality.
Our industry will largely remain unaffected because we are into short-time power back-up and improving power quality.
We hear that there has been a shortage of semiconductors in recent months. What is the on-ground situation?
Yes, semiconductor shortage is an issue but we have been taking care of it by planning our requirements 2-3 months in advance. Our dealers and distributors are also giving us demand projections for our products, based on which we are managing our semiconductor supplies. We also have to sometimes resort to buying from the spot market at a high price. However, over the next 2-3 months, we expect the situation to ease.
Besides, the weakening of the Indian Rupee versus US Dollar has also made imports costlier, which has had a bearing on the manufacturing cost of our products.
Do you think that Indian testing agencies are equipped to cater to the entire range of UPS products?
Generally yes, but higher higher-rating UPS systems, say beyond 20 kVA, need testing from international labs as Indian ones are unable to test them. We avail facilities of labs in Singapore and sometimes China for certification of such products.
All the same, do you feel that there has been an improvement in India’s testing capabilities over the past 20 years or so or BPE’s existence?
Yes, a lot of improvement has taken place. The Indian government is sharply focusing on testing and certification. Several testing facilities – both domestic and foreign – have now come up in India.
Can we presume that the reliance on international testing agencies has progressively reduced?
Definitely, but the cost of testing is still very high. Even if we avail the services of international labs in India, the cost incurred is very high. The government should think of a dialogue with large international agencies so as to provide some concessions or subsidy, especially for small and medium companies, for such testing and certification services.
Over the next say five years, what would be your focus areas for BPE?
As I told you, our first focus will be on the international market. We perceive a gap in the market. Multinationals are present at the top end while there are Chinese suppliers at the lower end. There is a big gap in pricing. We want to address the middle segment where we can give them right value for money. We perceive high profitability in that segment.
For the domestic market, we want to address the IT and ITES sector. Our plan in the next 3-5 years is to reach out to a new market of Rs.1,000 crore. We are working in that direction.
Photographs show Amitanshu Satyapathy interacting with visitors at BPE’s booth during Elecrama 2023
