Two days of blackout – a bitter experience of the people of the city -- has led to spurt in demand for inverters and generators.
Panic-stricken people thronged various shops dealing with the sales of inverters and generators due to fear of more blackouts, water woes and missing of their favourite serials and news bulletins on the idiot box. The sales also went up unusually making it difficult for the dealers to rise to the occasion. “Though there were no immediate takers, it has created a lot of awareness on solar power. I was flooded with enquiries about cost and benefits of installing solar panels,” M.V. Narayana Rao, one of the leading solar panel dealers in the city, told The Hindu.
At Bhavana Arcade, one of the apartments in PM Palem, the residents had to hire a generator fearing continuation of blackout. “We hired it by paying hefty amount to run the lift and to draw groundwater. Maybe we have to discuss and explore buying one to avoid such problem in future,” one of the flat owners said.
Veerababu, a generator dealer, said there were a lot of enquiries. “Though there were no sales as generators are expensive, many wanted to know the difference between a 5 kv generator and a portable generator,” he said. He said the users should know that generators should not be operated continuously to ensure better performance.
Sunil G of Aditya Enterprises, who deals with inverters of a reputed company, said the demand for inverters for residence purpose was overwhelming during the two days. “There was heavy demand and we have no stocks to meet the demand,” he said. Any standard inverter for domestic purpose costs around Rs.10,000 to Rs.20,000. For office purpose, inverters with higher capacity are used.
Taking advantage of the situation, some people dealing with renting generators, made a fast buck. Photostat copy dealers doubled the charge saying using inverter/generator was entailing a heavy burden on them.
