Electrification drive boosts inverter-battery industry

Sector expects 10% CAGR as more households get electricity connection

The government’s promise to deliver ‘24x7 power for all’ would reap benefits for the power back-up industry. The inverter-battery segment expects cumulative growth of close to 10 per cent annually in the coming years as more households, urban and rural, get electricity connections.

The industry estimates the market size at five million inverters and 12 mn batteries annually. “The market grows between five and 10 per cent every year,” said an executive. Others say as grid electricity reaches tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and rural households, it spurs demand for back-up. “We largely expect growth to continue to be in line with the past five years in inverters and batteries and of over 25 per cent (annually) in solar,” said Vipul Sabharwal, managing director (MD), Luminous Power Technologies.

He said tier-3 and tier-4 towns and upcountry markets would grow faster than the larger cities and top-tier towns. Luminous has grown by 15 per cent annually in recent years.

“Power generation is not an issue in the country; accessibility is. There are infrastructural issues in reliable power supply. Power storage would emerge as a major business and the demand for inverters-batteries is going to just grow. With renewable energy coming, storage is needed more than ever, whether domestic or commercial,” said Kunwer Sachdev, MD at Su-Kam.

One major addition in the back-up segment is solar-based solutions. Sabharwal said in the past three years, the growth of such systems had increased by 30 per cent annually. Sachdev says solar storage would see the highest growth among all segments. For Su-Kam over the past three years, it has been a 100 per cent compounded annual growth. With increasing brand consciousness, the unregulated market of local batteries has fallen significantly. The share of the unregulated segment is close to 40 per cent of the market, mostly in tier-3 towns and rural areas. At the same, it has phased out diesel gensets, which used to be major competition till fairly recently.

Experts say that apart from commercial units such as telecom towers and small factory units, the inverter-battery has wiped out the diesel genset market from the domestic segment.