Published in Jul-Aug 2017
Syed Wajeeh-ul-Hasan Naqvi
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Homage pushes for solar
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The severe electricity shortage in the country has increased the demand for solar panels in Pakistan.
Homage recently launched their new solar power inverter system, marking the company’s foray into the solar panel product category. The product comprises an inverter, solar panels and a chargeable gel battery.
Explaining the reasons behind the launch, Parsa Rafiq, Director Marketing, Homage, says that Pakistan’s ongoing energy crisis and spiralling electricity costs are not going to end anytime soon. Therefore, it is anticipated that there will be an increased demand for sustainable power-backup systems, especially solar systems.
“We were already selling solar power inverters and batteries and considering the high demand for alternative power solutions, we decided to add solar panels to our portfolio.” Rafiq adds that given that most areas in Pakistan receive an average of six to eight hours of sunlight most of the year, solar panels are well-suited to our local weather conditions.
According to industry reports, the current market demand for solar panels has grown from 350 megawatts (MW) per year in 2013 to approximately 1500 MW this year and this trend is expected to continue in the forthcoming years. Most of the demand is currently met through imported solar systems from China, Germany and the US; local production capacity is limited to approximately 10 MW per year, leaving a demand gap of 1400 MW.
According to industry reports, the current market demand for solar panels has grown from 350 megawatts (MW) per year in 2013 to approximately 1500 MW this year.
Apart from the electricity shortfall, multiple reasons have contributed to the increase in demand of solar-powered systems in Pakistan. Key among them, thanks to the waiver of the 17% GST and five percent customs duty imposed on imported solar panel components and systems, is the reduction in the price of solar products. Other factors include a growing awareness about the benefits of alternative energy solutions and the increased availability of these products at affordable prices.
According to Rafiq, the irregular supply of electricity in rural areas, particularly in Punjab and northern areas, is a major reason why sales of Homage solar panel products are significantly higher there compared to Pakistan’s metropolitan cities. “We have been doing a lot of geographical targeting, especially when setting up our sales and distribution networks in remote locations,” says Rafiq.
Yet, despite Homage’s strategic targeting and extensive marketing budget, the company is facing fierce competition. The market is flooded with non-branded, imported solar panels and components, and thanks to their comparatively lower prices they control 90% of the market. The competitive landscape in solar power technology includes local manufacturers who, in a bid to get ahead of brands like Homage, have acquired the globally recognised TUV certification (a document confirming that a product meets international safety requirements and quality standards) from the EU for their solar panel systems. This can turn into a significant advantage for them as most of commercial (industrial and office) customers prefer brands that carry this international certification.
Homage is confident that despite competition, their solar panel inverter systems will gain a stable market position, because according to them, unlike the imported, unbranded solar power systems, they make no compromise on quality; Homage maintain they use the latest technology and procure the solar panels from top-of-the-line international manufacturers, all of whom have international quality certifications.
According to Rafiq, “although non-branded importers present a challenge, they are mostly dumping faulty or poorly manufactured products in the market and are swiftly losing consumer trust. Homage has strong brand equity and a loyal customer base.”
In terms of locally-made panels, Homage’s products are priced lower than TUV-certified ones and this gives them a distinctive cost edge. Homage also offers customers a variety of package options depending on their budget and power requirements.
The brand also faces competition from the manufacturers of lead-acid based batteries (mostly used in cars) where the established players (AGS, Exide and Volta) control 80 to 90% of the market.
Acid batteries are more cost-effective than the gel-based batteries which Homage offer as part of their solar inverter system. Despite this, Homage believe that their brand’s identity as the country’s largest home energy solutions provider will help them stay ahead of the lead-acid battery manufacturers.
According to Rafiq, “this is the first year these brands have started promoting themselves as UPS or solar system battery providers. I am not in a position to say whether they have made significant changes in their car batteries before marketing them as a battery source for power backup systems or not. What I can say is that Homage has been specialising in this category for years and we have established our expertise in this category.”
“People still have doubts about the effectiveness of solar power systems and don’t want to invest a lot of money there. Even minor differences in price per watt make a huge difference because one solar inverter system is powered by thousands of watts.”
It is this brand image that Homage has been promoting in a series of TVCs that were developed for the launch. According to Kamran Ali, Creative Director, Aray Wah (Homage’s creative agency), “we used humorous situations and simple words to explain to the aam admi how the solar panel inverter system works and drive home the point that not only will they have uninterrupted electricity, they will also end up saving a lot of money.” This is why the tagline of “Bachat aur aqalmandi ka poora package” (an intelligent system that yields cost savings) for the campaign is very apt.
However, retailers dealing in solar-powered appliances are of the opinion that brand recognition alone is no match for the lure of lower prices of non-branded products. As Muhammad Ahmad, a retailer on Hall Road in Lahore, puts it, “people still have doubts about the effectiveness of solar power systems and don’t want to invest a lot of money there. Even minor differences in price per watt make a huge difference because one solar inverter system is powered by thousands of watts.”
Only time will tell to what extent Homage will succeed in grabbing a major share of the solar power market. However, their massive distribution network and advertising campaigns should provide a major push to the brand and encourage more people to install alternative energy systems in their homes and offices.
Most of us take the mains ac supply for granted and use it almost casually without giving the slightest thought to its inherent shortcomings and the danger posed to sophisticated and sensitive electronic instruments/equipments. For ordinary household appliances such as incandencent lamps, tubes, fans, TV and fridge, the mains ac supply does not make much difference, but when used for computers, medical equipments and telecommunica¬tion systems, a clean, stable interruption free power supply is of the utmost importance. Of the myriad of devices, processes and systems which rely on ac power, computers are probably the most sensitive to power disturbances and failures. Interruptions in power supply may cause the contents of a memory to be lost or corrupted, the entire system to malfunction or fail, or even variety of components failures to occur, all of which not only result in inconvenience but also loss of money.
As more and more PCs, word processors and data terminals find their way into small business, UPS systems that meet the power requirements and price range needs of even the small business organizations and offices are being manufactured.
Uninterruptible Power Supply Systems.
There are three distinct types of uninterrupted power supplies, namely, (£) on-line UPS (ii) off-line UPS, and (Hi) electronic generators. In the on-line UPS, whether the mains power is on or off, the battery operated inverter is on all the time and supplies the ac output voltage. When the mains power supply goes off, the UPS will be on only until the battery gets discharged. When the main power resumes, the battery will get charged again. In off-line UPS and electronic generators, ther inverter is off when the mains power is present and the output voltage derived directly from the mains is the same as the mains supply voltage. The inverter turns on only when the mains supply goes off.
The block diagrams of on-line UPS, off-line UPS and electronic generators are given in figs
The ever increasing importance of computers in industry and commerce will increase the need for quality, high stability and interruption free power supplies.
A clean ac power source is the fundamental to the operation of most sensitive electronic equipment, and many new and sophisticated circuits are designed to overcome the effects of disturbances normally found in the mains ac supply.
In order to protect a sensitive system from power losses and blackouts, an alternative power source is required that can switch into operation immediately when disruption occurs. An interruptible power supply (UPS) is just such an alternative source. A UPS generally consists of a rectifier, battery charger, a battery bank and inverter circuit which converts the commercial ac input into dc suitable for input to the battery bank and the inverter. The rectifier should have its input protected and should be capable of supplying power to the inverter when the commercial supply is either slightly below the normal voltage or slightly above.
Online UPS:
In case of On-line UPS, the battery operated inverter works continuously whether the mains supply is present or not. Triac T1 is on for all the times while Triac T2 has been provided to bypass the UPS inverter, only when a fault develops in the UPS inverter. When the mains supply fails, the UPS supplies power only until the batteries get discharged. However, once the mains power resumes, the batteries will get charged again. The switching times of these supplies is considered to be zero. Usually sealed maintenance free batteries are used and the running time of the inverter is low (approximately 10 to 30 minutes).
Off Line UPS:
- Offline UPS Block Diagram
In the case of Off-Line UPS, the inverter is off when the mains power is on and the output voltage is derived directly from the mains. The inverter turns on only when the mains supply fails. Its switching time is less than 5 ms. These UPS are generally used with PCs or computers or other appliances where a small duration (5 ms or less) interruption in power supply can be tolerated. Usually, sealed batteries or lead-acid batteries are used. The running time of these supplies is also low (about 10 to 30 minutes).
Electronic Generators:
An electronic generator is the same as the off-line UPS system except for one difference that switching time from the mains supply to battery driven inverter supply will not be small (over 10 ms) for the electronic generator. Also, the electronic generators will run for longer time (1 to 4 hours) than off-line UPS systems because, usually large size lead-acid batteries are used with/electronic generators. These are meant for household applications to run fans, coolers, fridge, lights, TV and VCR.
The demand is the highest for the electronic generators meant for house hold applications, followed by the off-line UPS, and then the on-line UPS systems. The off-line or online UPS systems are mainly used in places where PCs or computers are used. The demand for on-line UPS systems is less than for off-line UPS systems because the price of the on-line UPS systems is higher.