In an industry where guests demand nothing but the best at all times, an uninterrupted power supply is of crucial importance. Hotelier India investigates the energy management solutions that hoteliers have recourse to.
Power backup devices include generators or gensets, battery-based inverters and Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems. A wide range of these products are manufactured domestically and India is slowly developing as an exporter of generators and inverters.
According to the website www.bharatbook.com, the power backup market in India is growing at an annual rate of 15-20% varying within the three different segments.
With increasing power deficit and about 17% of demand supply gap in power generation, the power backup sector is crucial for business continuity of Indian corporates.
The India Power Electronics Market Report – 2010 developed by Dhaval Dalal and Ram Kumar, on behalf of Innovatech Switching Power India Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, says that the unprecedented growth in the Indian electronics demand (estimated at USD$50 billion for 2009), has spawned a corresponding spurt in the domestic power electronics industry.
Power backup (including batteries) is a USD$1.1 billion revenue industry in India. This industry has several facets uniquely shaped by Indian market realities of customer need and supply-demand dynamics.
The UPS systems refers to a power backup source for limited times, up to one hour or less while the inverter system refers to a power backup source for extended time of power outages, typically from one hour to eight hours or more.
The report estimates the power electronics content in the UPS and inverter markets combined at USD$494 million per year. The industry has seen declining revenues in the past two years of 8-9%, but prior to 2008 the industry grew at a CAGR of over 18% for five-six years.
The sub-5 kVA systems make up 35% (by unit volume) of the UPS and inverters sold in the Indian market. Within this, more than 70% by unit volumes shipped are rated 600 VA and below, which cater to the desk-top computer and linked to the growth of this market.
Recent growth in the penetration of laptops and net books and the erosion in desktop PC sales are perceived as the reason for declining sales in 2009 in the 600 VA and below segment.
The 10-100 kVA systems earn the highest revenues in the online and line-interactive UPS systems market, as per the report. Some of the key challenges include the presence of a large unorganised sector across all three product segments.
Increasing cost of raw materials, lack of consumer awareness and rising input costs especially of battery and packaging are the other challenges of this industry.
New Products
Being a service-based industry that maintains a high-level of consistency in its offerings, the hospitality sector has a unique set of requirements when it comes to power backup solutions. For instance, reliability is of utmost importance.
Flexibility and mobility in the backup solution are also essential to help adapt to changing needs. The latest in power backup technology offers these benefits to the sector while ensuring energy efficiency and a quick RoI.
Emerson introduced the Liebert NXr UPS in April 2010 that addresses the typical backup requirements of the hospitality sector by allowing IT managers to add more capacity whenever needed, without worrying about crucial floorspace or investment on additional equipment.
‘Online’ UPS systems such as the Liebert ITA are also well-suited for applications in hospitality sector, as they negate the transfer time or interruption in the event of a power failure.
New-age enterprise inverters such as Emerson’s In Pulse also offer the benefit of minimum consumption of space while ensuring reliability.
“The common factor that makes these products ideal for applications in the hospitality industry is that they are based on Adapative Architecture™ – a model pioneered by Emerson. Adaptive Architecture™ allows entities such as 5-star hotels – where business requirements can change almost every day – the flexibility of adapting to newer requirements.
These products also offer a low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), thereby minimising spending on a non-core activity,” says Venkat Rao – country manager – Medium & Large UPS Systems, Emerson Network Power.
An advanced Power Monitoring Software recently developed by Su-kam helps in remote monitoring of the system installed at various locations across the world.
“Recently, we have also launched Power-Doc, an intelligent alternative to stabiliser with a unique protection system for various appliances,” says Kunwer Sachdev, Managing Director, Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd.
Su-kam has also introduced SMF batteries for inverters and UPS which is a green alternative to LA or tubular batteries. APC recently launched the new 600 VA Back-UPS to protect PCs from harmful voltage fluctuation and provides 21 minutes of reliable backup time.
In the enterprise segment, APC already has a healthy portfolio of modular and scalable UPS models that can be right sized to meet business requirements.
Deployable in power modules from 4, 16 and 25 kW to 200KW, the modular form factor has the ability to adapt quickly and easily for changing technology needs throughout the life of a facility.
Trends
The current trend is to undertake capacity-based planning that allows the entity to meet the ever-changing demands for its power backup systems.
Capacity-based planning involves the entities to plan ahead and estimate their power consumption requirements over a certain period of time, and the amount it is willing to invest to fulfill these requirements.
This approach allows customers the benefit of configuring their existing power-backup solutions for anticipated future needs, without additional spending.
Generator compatible inverters are the latest products in the power back-up industry as they not only save power and reduce pollution but also cut down on the diesel cost.
These inverters also provide relief during switch over time from main power supply to generators. The inverter/generator combination will be quite beneficial for the hotel industry also as it will facilitate power saving up to 50%. Energy efficiency is of prime importance and the hospitality sector was among the earliest adopters of the concept.
“According to our research, spending on power increases when the cumulative addition to a single zone of high power consumption anywhere in the hotel, spreads to the entire system – also called the ‘cascade effect.’
On the basis of these findings, Emerson developed the ‘Energy Logic’ model that recommends the selection of the right IT equipment for energy efficiency, effective power management, and lowering energy consumption.
All our products are based on energy logic and adaptive architecture, resulting in an entire range of energy efficient power back-up solutions right from 600 VA to 4800 KVA,” says Rao.
Customised power-back-up solutions for big industries is the new trend. UPS and inverters will emerge as an economical and green alternative to generators. “For the future, we envision a leading role of alternative energy such as wind and solar for power generation.
Solar rural electrification is a trend that is rapidly catching up with corporate, government bodies and the like,” says Sachdev. Alternatives like solar and wind energy can address the challenge of power unavailability in semi-urban, rural and remote areas.
Renewable energy will not only cut down the operational expenditure by 15-20% but also address problems that arise due to power crisis. The subsidy provided by the government for solar power providers will offer major benefits to key market players.
Su-kam has a comprehensive range of solar products available in the market, with an application ranging from electrifying a small village to a whole town to a colossal Industrial unit. The range comprises of solar LED Home lighting systems, solar yard lighting system, solar inverter (10 KW to 100 KW), solar agricultural and industrial pumps, solar grid tie system (100 Kw to Megawatt), and solar telecom tower solution.
Because power back up is so important, the hospitality industry will be wise to move towards depending on nature for its electricity (renewable energy), rather than on the government grid of depleting fossil fuel sources like diesel generators.
Our Native Village, a 100% eco resort located on the outskirts of Bengaluru, generates more than 70% of electricity using renewable energy such as a wind mill, solar panels and two bio gas plants.
“All the electricity is stored in a bank of more than 200 batteries, so at all times we have electricity. We only draw 25% of our electricity from the grid, so we do not need any back up at all. Even our renewable energy sources have been de-centralised to three sources – the sun, the wind and waste for our bio gas plant. In this manner, we have electricity all the time and do not need any kind of back up at all, because as long as there is some wind, or some sun, or even of both are not there, some waste, we have electricity,” explains C B Ramkumar, founder and managing director, Our Native Village.
Adds Gaurav Burman, Director – Transaction Business, APC by Schneider Electric, India, “EcoStruxure, our new architectural approach, is modular, scalable, flexible, easy to adopt and takes maximum advantage of our existing excellence in the fields of Power, IT, Industry, and Buildings. Our integrated approach allows organizations to achieve up to a significant 30% savings through energy efficiency.”
Hospitality Uninterrupted
For hotels, power backup is of utmost importance, as being in a stringent service sector like hospitality, the guests are quite unforgiving if the power fails, making this very important for any hotel’s existence.
Regular hotels draw 70% to 80% of their power from the grid and have some back up, sometimes for the total requirement.
“Generators are very critical for hotels as it is the only back up in case of power failure. In hotels we have many electrical equipments, which need back up like elevators (in case of power failure guests may be stuck inside), fire and life safety equipments (CCTV, fire pumps), though it has UPS back up which is very limited.
Maximum demand tariffs in many areas encourage the use of diesel to come on at times of maximum demand, which in turn helps to eliminate the penalty from the electric supplier for exceeding maximum demand,” says Yogesh Mulay, Chief Engineer, Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel & Marriott Executive Apartments.
Power backup solutions are very critical to a hotel as it is part of the hospitality industry, where the focus is on guest satisfaction and eliminating any kind of inconvenience that there may be a chance of.
“A power outage at home may be an ordinary, even trivial occurrence for the average guest. But the same scenario in a five-star hotel where he is paying good money to avail of the best comforts will not go down well with him. Repeated power cuts that hamper a guest’s overall experience may even reflect on his decision to continue patronising the hotel in the future.
Power backup solutions may easily be considered the lifeline of a hotel. The public and guest room air conditioning system runs on electricity. The handheld vacuum cleaners to massive laundry machines employed by housekeeping run on electricity.
Everything in a hotel, from computer systems to electronic machines, from kitchen appliances to gadgets in the F&B outlets run on electricity. This is enough to paint a picture of how integral it is to ensure power backup solutions for a hotel,” explains Shailesh Kumar, Director of Engineering, Goa Marriott Resort.
Number Crunching
Annually, about 1% of any hotel’s repair and maintenance budget is allocated for the generators’ upkeep and maintenance. This may seem like a small figure but in actual numbers, it works out to a significant amount.
For instance if a standard five-star hotel budget is around INR200 crores, the amount set aside for power backup solutions would be INR2 crores, which is massive. Hotels need to be treated at par with a continuous process industry.
“Being at the mercy of available electricity from the state controlled electric supply companies does not work. The gap between the demand and supply of power continues to widen and hence higher power outages are the order of the day.
Backup solutions are intrinsic to the business we are in, to the extent that power back up has today become a selling point for hotels.
Power back up is an expensive solution. Not only is the initial capital cost that is incurred exorbitant but also the running cost is almost 160% more than available power,” says Ulhas Madkaiker, Director of Engineering, Hyderabad Marriott Hotel & Convention Centre and Courtyard by Marriott, Hyderabad.
A portion of the energy budget is for the diesel to be used for running the DG sets in emergency (power failure).
“For emergency lighting till the DG set runs after the power failure UPS or inverter are installed. These solutions are extremely important for hotel operations. DG sets provide the power back up and UPS provides emergency lighting.
Both the solutions ensure the health and life safety of the guests staying with the hotel, which is the single biggest criteria,” says Nishan Silva, Director of Operations, Hilton New Delhi, Janakpuri.
The hospitality sector accounts for a large proportion of energy use in commercial buildings. In any operational hotel building, electricity accounts for more than 50% of total energy utilisation and is used for air conditioning and lighting system.
Combined heat and power (CHP), also known as cogeneration, can be an excellent solution for controlling energy costs while improving the reliability of power supply.
“CHP is the production of both power and heat from a single fuel source. By making use of the waste heat from onsite electricity production for heating or cooling, CHP increases fuel efficiency and decreases energy costs. For hotels with 100 to 500 rooms, CHP system sizes typically range from 60 kilowatts (kW) to 350 kW, depending on the size and energy requirements of the hotel,” says Rajesh Mohan, Hotel Sahara Star.
The right CHP system will be determined through consultations and analysis that will include a site-specific evaluation of a hotel’s electricity and thermal loads. CHP is typically sized to match the thermal demand of the hotel and usually provides 70% of a hotel’s electricity needs.
Hotels in the 100 to 300 room size range can use small 60 to 250 kW CHP systems with reciprocating engines, fuel cells or micro turbines that supply hot water for domestic hot water, space heating, and laundry needs.
Larger hotels with central cooling systems can use larger CHP systems (i.e., 300 kW and greater) by incorporating absorption chillers that increase thermal energy recovery and provide both air conditioning and heating.
