In an exclusive interview to The Financial Express, the managing director of Gujarat Gas, Edwin Bowles revealed that the two companies had already signed a memorandum of understanding a few days ago for the project of manufacturing gas-powered air conditioners which should be available for commercial users within the next three to six months time. And since the initial cost of installing such air conditioners would be "relatively on the higher side" compared to conventional air conditioning systems, Gujarat Gas has decided to provide finance to individual consumers through its financing vehicle, the Gujarat Gas Financial Services Limited. In addition, the company would also supply natural gas for the project.Thermax, on the other hand, would concentrate on providing hardware namely gas processing equipment for the project.

According to the Gujarat Gas manging director, while gas-powered air conditioning is a relatively new concept which is presently operating in select countries including Korea and Japan, preliminary surveys conducted by the company show that there is a substantial market for the product even in India largely on account of its cost effectiveness which is 20 per cent cheaper then conventional air conditioning units. "The initial series of market exercises for the product would commence shortly since preliminary findings reveal that quite a significant number of consumers may opt for gas-powered air conditioning which has a really good potential market here," Bowles said.

He maintained that gas-powered air conditioning would have a definite edge over conventional air conditioning not only because of its long-term cost effectiveness but also since this form of air conditioning would be clean andenvironmental friendly.

"We are very bullish about the project," enthused Bowles but declined to specify the quantum of investment which would be pumped into the project since "this will depend on the volume of demand generated."

Bowles feels that the best users of the gas-powered ACs would be commercial users such as small factories, hotels and offices etc. "This is because it may not be cost economic for an individual consumer to invest in gas-powered ACs while the initially higher investment for commercial users would provide better returns in the long run," he said. Incidentally, the conventional ACs cannot be modified into gas-powered ones which would require totally different equipment.

According to Bowles, the company will be in a position to begin providing these ACs within three to six months time and will be launching into full-scale marketing and advertising shortly involving direct interaction with prospective customers such as hotels etc. And while the company would like to venture intothe household AC segment too at a later stage, much would depend on gas supplies available to the company. But after launching its gassified ACs, Gujarat Gas has long term plans of providing total energy solutions to small units. "For a hotel, for instance, this would translate into fulfilling its requirements of hot water, generator, air conditioning etc which can all be met by using natural gas as a fuel," explained Bowles.