Sizzling summer and long power cut spells bad news for consumers, but for inverter sellers and distributors the season is a boon. In fact, it led to severe shortage of inverters in the city.
The distributors have not anticipated such a high demand. They literally ran out of stocks. “There was no other go. The consumers will have to wait for four days,” says Sk. Baji, an inverter seller in Patamata.
The power authorities’ decision to impose power cut during nights has pushed up the sales overnight. Orders began pouring in, and consumers have made advance payments. “The situation was totally different till the authorities announced power cut during night. We used to install inverters even if the consumer made partial payment. Now, there is no such possibility,” says Mr. Baji.
To ensure one sale a day, the sellers used to offer instalment packages also. Rotation of finances was also not a big issue then. As the demand suddenly went up, it may not be possible to offer such packages now, he explains.
This rise in demand has lead to good profits for the inverter sellers. The growth in the demand for inverters is also being attributed to the increase in the purchasing power of consumer, says Parvataneni Rajeswara Rao, proprietor of Star Power Products.
The sales have soared with increasing load-shedding hours. Traders said that sales of these power back-up devices had jumped 30 percent compared to the summer season last year. “We are doing brisk business as people are turning to inverters to get relief from the load-shedding,” he says. The unorganised inverter market is thriving hugely on account of the power cut. There are about 50 sellers in the city.
