How has been the journey so far?
SCOPE began its operations in 1988 with the intent of designing portable digital test and measuring instruments to ensure the optimum performance of major electrical equipment used in power generation, transmission & distribution. SCOPE mastered in the art of making electronics work in switchyard environment of up to 1200kV very early and today we are one of the few companies in the world to be able to do so.
Over the past 30 years of operations, we have moved on from T&M solutions to develop components and systems that are capable of testing, commissioning, periodic maintenance and automation of power transmission and distribution systems. As is our philosophy, our products and systems applicable universally in all substations regardless of the make of the capital equipment used while building them and they are simple to implement, operate and maintain. Now, we are truly a complete power system management company.
For quick response to customer requirements, we have strategically located set ups across India. Our corporate office is headquartered in Mumbai, whereas our R&D and factory are located in Pune. We are now a trusted brand for field-testing instruments and solutions in more than 40 countries across five continents.
Our approach of seeking synergistic solutions to our customer’s needs has enriched the quality of our ultimate goal of customer satisfaction. In fact, we owe our growth to the confidence with which our customers approach us for solutions. This has led us to expand our horizons beyond test and measurement and offer a comprehensive range of products, software and solutions for power sector management. We now manufacture control and relay panels and offer substation automation and smart grid solutions including RTUs and SCADA. With a humble start from a turnover of few lacs to today’s position, we have grown consistently. If we consider the average turnover of the last few years with respect to the first few years, the company has seen a YoY growth of around 22.5 per cent.
What is your assessment of Testing & Measurement sector during last year?
The testing & measurement sector is directly linked with the growth and investments in power sector. Last year, our business has not seen any major growth though, it was stable.
The entire economy is going through a slowdown. Hence, the investment is not happening in that prominent manner. Also, we had our general elections in the year. So, a lot of government procurements had been put on hold during the election process. However, awareness and need for testing instruments are increasing across the sector and we look forward for a good future.
What are the products offered by the company and in particular catering to Indian Energy markets?
Our entire product range is popular across the power sector that is looking forward to the quality products – whether it is a simple three pole circuit breaker timer or contact resistance meter or winding resistance meter or ratio meter or primary injection kit or the high end products like circuit breaker operational analyser with dynamic contact resistance meters or leakage current analyser for surge arresters etc.
What are the growth drivers for your products?
Quality, performance and after sales support are the basic ingredients for any product in today’s market. Customer does not worry too much to pay a little bit more if they are assured of quality and after sales support. In the initial days, customers were looking forward for only price. But, as the market got opened up and we could see the presence of international brands in the market, people started understanding the difference between good product and not so good products. We at SCOPE has constantly strived to offer the best possible features and quality at the most reasonable price. Majority of our customers have understood the same and encouraged us to come up with new products and solutions.
Thus, we could achieve the position of Numero Uno position in the sector and maintain the same status quo for years.
What are your major customers in India?
In the last more than 30 years, we have reached to every corner of the country. Today, we can proudly say, any of the 220kV and above substation or switchyard use some of our products.
However, if we want to take the names of few major customers, the list will include PGCIL, NTPC, NHPC, NPCIL, All SEBs like MSETCL, GETCO, WBSETCL, KPTCL, All OEMs & EPCs like BHEL, ABB, Siemens, GE, CGL, L&T, Hyosung, Techno Electric, KEI, KEC, other power utilities like Tata Power, Reliance Power, Adani Power, Torrent Power, DMRC/MMRC, Indian Railways, ONGC, IOCL, BSES etc.
How will the integration of IoT benefit end users and facility managers?
With the integration of IoT, we can do a lot of real time monitoring and data analysis in power sector. SCOPE has already introduced the IoT solutions for distribution sector. With the help of Smart Energy Efficiency Device (SEED), Smart Transformer Efficiency Monitor (STEM) and Smart Line Sensor (SLS), we have created a solution which can do real-time data acquisition and software analysis will do all sort of performance analysis of the grid including SAIDI, SAFI, KAIFI, demand or load forecasting etc. The umbrella software is equipped with AI and data analytics enabling it to configure as per the user requirements and even predicting the faults in future.
How do you see the demand for T&M products in India?
Demand for the T&M products is increasing constantly as the awareness of professionals is increasing and people are looking forward to preventive maintenance over the failure maintenance. However, competition is also increasing in this area.
Though we can’t stop competition, unhealthy competition needs to be stopped. Some of the players in this sector are not doing the fair play. The Government of India has introduced ‘Make in India’ initiative. However, a lot of organisations are simply branding inferior quality products from other countries in their own name and trying to sell them in the Indian market under the ‘Make in India’ initiative. The government should look into these sorts of activities seriously. Also, the purchaser should do the proper study before purchasing these types of cheap materials. This will ensure the actual spirit of ‘Make in India’ and will also help with healthy competition.
What are your recently introduced products?
We are having our own R&D and we constantly strive to offer the latest and best products and solutions. Also, our product range consists of a lot of products manufactured by other renowned companies across the globe.
In recent past, we have introduced a lot of products and solutions for the Indian market which includes IoT-based solutions as mentioned earlier, namely SEED, STEM & SLS with the strong and powerful data analytics. Apart from this, we have introduced our own ‘SCOPE Action.net’ SCADA recently which also got certified by KEMA. We have also introduced our low weight Primary Injection Kits in the market and got a very good response. We have also tied up with Finland based Arcteq for their entire range of Numerical Relays and BCUs and Vaisala for Online DGA.
What are your strategies to place these products in Indian markets?
We have already got a few breakthroughs in each of the newly introduced product lines. We are expecting to have a couple of more projects to establish our solution firmly in the market. Once we are completing the initial trial installations, demonstrations and seminars along with full-fledged project installations, we will be able to sell these products in bulk as like all our other products and solutions. We at SCOPE are committed to offer products, services and unique solutions of the highest quality at the right price through the process of close interactions with customers, incorporating latest and smart technological developments, continuous learning and improvement within the company. To ensure this, we have an independent and well-equipped R&D, state-of-the-art factory, elaborate calibration set up, an interactive sales force and a dedicated field support team.n
