—Suhas Joshi, Director, Delta Power Solutions (India) Pvt Ltd
Delta Group is amongst the world's largest provider of switching power supplies, as well as a major source for power management solutions, components, visual displays, industrial automation, networking products, and renewable energy solutions.
Suhas Joshi expounds on the nuances of the power continuity industry that is witnessing healthy growth rates. Joshi explains that Delta is continuously working on reducing the per-watt size of the rectifier and increasing the power efficiency and density.
India, despite its attempts at improving power availability, will continue to be bogged down by power deficit and poor power quality at least in the foreseeable future. Given this, how do you see the market for the alternate power industry comprising gensets, UPS, inverters, etc?
Various demand verticals including information technology and telecom industries are posing unique challenges for the power management vendors. Server consolidation is happening and organizations can no longer work without IT support. With the poor condition of the Indian power industry, need for a strong backend becomes imperative as seen in the banking sector. The demand in the industrial vertical is more or less stabilized and with any more growth in power market the demand will rise. The government vertical will see faster growth as accounts of many projects initiated in the field of education, infrastructure etc.
As far as suppliers are concerned, the Indian UPS market is very diverse. What is it that customers really look out for?
As far as UPS industry is concerned, following are the major factors that are in demand from customer point of view:
Technology: Technology evolves with an extensive R&D, which endeavors to make the product better by every passing day. Delta tend to spend more on improving their product footprint as per the evolving needs of the markets and their customers
After sales service: After-sales service is key to mission critical equipment such as the UPS. It is imperative to have an extensive service network well even before the launch of the product or company’s entry in the market. The multinational companies have financial muscle for setting up the best infrastructure, international experiences and best practices & processes to boast of, whereas Indian players have a little local advantage. The most important concern is that the customer gets the best service in the least possible time.
Performance: Quality and reliability defines the performance of a product. In this case, multinational brands have an extra advantage as they have more stringent quality processes and product benchmarks which ensure the product performance is unmatchable as per their global standards.
We must also note that the UPS market in India was traditionally an unorganized market where small players catered to local needs. With the entry of global players, the market is becoming more organized and is expected to consolidate.
Tell us about how Delta uses latest technology to maximize efficiency of products.
The current technological trends for the product are: energy efficient products, high power density and compact size, modular construction, detailed monitoring of UPS through LCD displays, remote manageability and controls, combined form factor of rack/tower models, user configurability for application specific needs.
In terms of configuration preference is being given to centralized UPS rather than distributed system. Also, customer expects customized solution rather than standard UPS products being offered to meet the specific need of application which vary from customer to customer, from industry to industry and from vertical to vertical. Today the expectation and preference is given to vendors who can integrate UPS with batteries, alternate source like DG sets and static/automatic transfer switch to provide for complete power protection.
How has been the market response to the Amplon series of UPS launched recently?
The newly launched Amplon IN Series has got lot of appreciation from partners and channel community. We have some good RFQs lined up for near future.
We understand that Delta was planning to launch efficient UPS systems especially for data centres and IT rooms. What is the current status?
Delta launched InfraSuite for datacenter solutions with other product infrastructure solutions like PDU/PDC/Racks and EMS in FY12. With 40 years of leadership in the core technologies of power electronics, the expert teams at Delta Electronics has developed a new generation of smart solutions for IT rooms. To be competitive in their respective business many successful companies today choose products which will meet their requirements for data center and power supply management solution effectively and efficiently.
On this basis, Delta has developed its core brand concept of "The power behind competitiveness" by offering innovative, clean, energy efficient and reliable products that reduce the TCO (total cost of ownership) and maximize users’ competitiveness in manufacturing and operation management.
Please discuss your general future plans including expansion plans if any at your Rudrapur, Gurgaon and Puducherry plants?
As part of growth strategy Delta UPS will keep launching new products for the Indian customers as per their requirements. Delta will keep hiring new talents, and investing in people and technology. Delta has become a leading choice among power solution users as it offers a good value proposition to its customers through wide array of products and services. Delta is continuously working on reducing the per-watt size of the rectifier and increasing the power efficiency and density. We are also working aggressively on designing cost-effective alternate energy solutions.