If there has been one beneficiary to the long power cuts that the city has faced over the last fortnight, it is the manufacturers of inverters. The demand for inverters has skyrocketed and sales gone up manifold. Major distributors are, however, are short of batteries, adding to the customer woes

For the last one-and-a-half years, the sale of inverters was at a low due to the uninterrupted power supply pilot project in the city. Now, constant load shedding has turned the situation on its head, with two leading inverter brands selling 4,000 units in the last 20 days.

“The demand for inverters by domestic consumers has gone up so much in the last one month that it has become difficult to meet the market demand,” said Abhijeet Pardeshi, sales manager, Shanti Powers, sole distributor of leading brand Sukam inverters in the city.

He said the average monthly demand of inverters , which was 200 pieces till a month ago, now stood at 1,000. “We have sold around 2,000 inverters in the nine months preceding July, but in July alone we have sold 1,000 after load shedding returned to the city,” he said.

Given that the load shedding resumed only on July 16, it is more likely that the bulk of the sales took places in only a fortnight. “This business was so far seasonal, with sales hitting their peak during the summer months. It is the first time that the demand for inverters has taken off sharply during the monsoon season,” he said.

Fareed Tungekar, who lives in Koregaon Park, said the long power cuts had forced him to buy an inverter. “I had to shell out Rs 20,000 for installing the inverter. I needed it immediately and could not wait for the battery to get fully charged, as it would have meant suffering power cuts for three more days,” he said.

Bharat Oswal of Darlesha Metal Corporation, leading distributor of Microtech inverters, admitted he was caught unawares by the sudden demand, which was proving to be as bad as the poor demand earlier. “We are fed up with the increase in demand and have even kept our telephone switched off as we are unable to meet the demand. We have been selling almost 200 units per day for the last 10 days and we have run out of stock,” he said.