Power related downtime causes large losses for Indian businesses

The Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), the body representing the IT hardware industry in India, and Emerson Network Power (India), have published the findings from a joint study on network power downtime.

The study, an in-depth analysis of the impact of downtime in corporate India due to the high occurrence of power outages, revealed that India Inc. lost Rs. 43,205 crores in 2008-09 due to power related downtime. This has more than doubled since 2003 and is close to 1 percent of GDP.

The study covered around eight hundred firms across seven industrial centres: namely Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune.

Mr. Vinnie Mehta, executive director, MAIT said, "Contingency planning is part of the India Inc. mindset, based on traditional experiences with infrastructure limitations. This trend will continue in the light of global power failures encountered in Western countries. Firms will need to pay more attention to maximizing uptime if they are to remain competitive in a globally networked economy."

Commenting on the findings of the study, Mr. Sandeep Nair, MD, Emerson Network Power (India) Pvt Ltd said, "In India, while the metros have a good power supply, the interiors reflect a different picture altogether. As one moves towards the hinterland, one realizes that there are frequent power cuts. The problem is further compounded by unclean power and other basic constraints like earthing, cabling and lack of a viable infrastructure. This has necessitated deployment of business critical continuity solutions for growing businesses. Today, we are moving towards a borderless world and constant supply of electricity is crucial to stay connected 24X7."

Other highlights of the study:
* Nearly 62 percent of the firms polled were extremely dependent upon IT and automation;
* Power disruption frequency is highest in Delhi followed by Pune and Bangalore;
* The average speed of restoration is 71 min. Bangalore was the most affected with high frequency and longer outages. In Hyderabad outages are infrequent but long;
* The telecom sector had the fastest restoration, while it was slowest in pharma/biotech, hotels/hospitals and manufacturing;
* Downtime losses across all verticals averaged Rs 54,434 per hour and were highest in telecom and infrastructure companies, lowest in SMEs;
* The biggest impact of downtime is employee productivity and customer management;
* Companies, without alternative sources of power, were highly dependent on the grid. Mumbai continues to be most dependent on the grid for power.

www.mait.com
www.emersonnetworkpower.co.in

•Date:28th May 2009• Region: India •Type: Article •Topic: Power management
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