Green Power

Socomec, the France based UPS major is significantly upping its ante in the
Indian market. While the company started operating as a direct entity since last
year, it has been present in the Indian UPS space for the last 16 years.
Socomecs forte is in the three phase UPS for which it forged a joint venture
with Numeric Power but exited early last year. Over the last one year Socomec
has significantly consolidated its position as one of the leading players in the
three phase UPS segment and recently forayed into the single phase UPS segment
as well. With large power back up projects across the world the company is
bullish about capturing a bigger slice of the three phase market in India. Says
Norbert Jacobsen, MD, Socomec UPS India: We have become one of the top players
in the three phase UPS space with 11% market share. We have a strong customer
base of 2,000 customers.

The IT/BPO vertical is the companys major vertical. But for the ongoing year
Socomec has put in place aggressive plans to tap non-IT verticals for its three
phase UPS offering. To increase reach and deepen its customer base the company
has signed a distribution pact with Redington India and in the bargain has
gained a pan India foothold.

Innovative Technology

While Socomec consolidates its position in the UPS market in India, it has
at the same time brought a significant technology to the Indian market called
the Flywheel technology. This technology assumes greater significance in the
green IT domain for it liberates the UPS from the battery. According to company
sources, the power of this innovative system is provided by a high speed
spinning flywheel connected to the DC bus of the UPS unit. It provides the
ride-through power to the inverter needed to stabilize the voltage during short
outages or voltage glitches. The Flywheel system can completely eliminate the
need for batteries by providing sufficient ride-through for short duration
outages or until a standby engine-generator can come online.

Flywheel can last up to 15 years and it does not contain materials like lead Norbert Jacobsen, managing director, Socomec UPS India

While Flywheel is more suited for the European markets, Socomec is confident
that it will suit the Indian market as well despite the unique power conditions
and inherent quality issues in power. The company has set up a demo and testing
center for Flywheel in its Chennai facility and successfully demonstrated the
uniqueness of this technology which lies in the fact that it does not have
battery as found in a conventional UPS.

So when we talk about five nine up times in large enterprises, a battery
based UPS faces the risk of battery going down unexpectedly leading to cold
shutdown before the DG power is switched on. It is for these transient blackout
phases that Flywheel can be effectively used for clean power. Yet another major
benefit of Flywheel is that it can last up to 15 years as against batteries
where its life depends on the usage, drain and charge cycles. On the maintenance
part too, Flywheel based UPS scores ahead as it does not contain materials like
lead. A forward looking technology, Flywheel is sold on merits of being green
and environment friendly.

However, with a predominant slice of the UPS market still driven by
batteries, Flywheel technology will only play a complimentary role where there
are limitation in using a battery based UPS. Another inhibitor is the cost
factor.

Despite the technology being at its very infancy in India, Socomec believes
that the inherent benefits of this technology will nudge customers to adopt this
in time. With so much action going on the green IT front, Flywheel technology
gives a distinct early mover advantage for Socomec to cash in on this unique
technology.

Shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.ci.in