With the City going dark for at least four hours a day, the sale of batteries, inverters and Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems has increased manifold in the past few weeks. The demand is mostly from houses as there are longer power cuts in residential areas.
Sales, which were dull until a month ago, are seeing a sudden boom and vary between localities. Residents of localities where power cuts weren’t frequent earlier also are rushing to buy UPS systems.
Latha Shekhar, who runs Benson Services, which manufactures inverters and UPS systems, said the business was dull that earlier because there weren’t many power cuts in and around Benson Town.
“But since the last week, the business has boomed. The sale has gone by 50-60 per cent. The rush is mostly from houses as most commercial units have alternative sources,” she said.
Yamuna S, Manager of SP Enterprises located in Sudhamanagar, said the sales had gone up by 20 per cent, with people buying devices that give at least 2-3 hours of backup. Demand has increased from homes in the last one month.
Naveen K, a middleman between buyers and sellers, said people were ready to pay as they want electricity in their homes during morning hours when power cuts were high. They pay between Rs 14,000 and Rs 17,000 for a UPS and battery.
The price depends upon the brand and the storage capacity. The sale has increased by 40-50 percent in the last one month.