1989 – India's First Indigenous Digital APFC
1989 – India's First Indigenous Digital APFC
In 1989, when most Indian industries still relied on imported analog relays or manually switched capacitor banks, a quiet revolution began in a small workshop in Aujla village, Kapurthala, Punjab. Former Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) Sub-Divisional Officer S. Pritam Singh designed and launched what is widely regarded as India's first completely indigenous digital Automatic Power Factor Correction (APFC) controller.
Working far from any metro or big R&D centre, he built a microcontroller-based controller tailored to Indian grid conditions—long before words like "startup" or "Make in India" became common vocabulary.
Why This Invention Mattered
Before 1989, a poor power factor was silently draining money from Indian industry.
- Industries routinely paid heavy penalties to state electricity boards like PSEB because of low power factor, sharply increasing monthly electricity bills for rice mills, textile units, foundries, and engineering workshops.
- Available solutions were either expensive imported analog APFC relays or rudimentary panels that relied on manual switching—both struggled with India's fluctuating voltages, harmonics, and unbalanced loads.
- Pritam Singh's digital APFC introduced microcontroller-based, algorithm-driven control: more accurate and designed specifically for Indian feeders with frequent sags, swells, and varying load patterns.
By continuously sensing line current and voltage, calculating power factor in real-time, and switching capacitor stages intelligently, these controllers helped thousands of factories maintain near-unity power factor. This translated into crores saved in avoided penalties, better system loading, lower transformer losses, and improved voltage regulation across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and beyond.
The Family Behind the Pioneer
Behind Pritam Singh's technical breakthroughs stood a family that quietly absorbed the risks and pressures of entrepreneurship. His wife played a pivotal role as his unwavering supporter, standing firmly behind the decision to leave a secure engineering position for a risky village-based innovation venture.
While he spent long nights designing PCBs, testing prototypes, and troubleshooting field installations, she managed the home front—creating the stability that allowed him to focus entirely on engineering challenges and customers. Her belief carried the family through uncertain years when every new order mattered.
Their three children grew up surrounded by circuits and control panels, with prototype PCBs on the dining table and discussions about voltage, current, and penalties as everyday conversation. They became a constant source of inspiration—a living reminder of why the sacrifices were worthwhile. Every Sigma controller carried not just an engineer's signature, but a family's resolve.
Sigma's Story: A Journey Through Time
Manual capacitor switching and basic analog relays dominate the scene. PSEB penalties hammer industries with avoidable electricity bills. As Sub-Divisional Officer, Pritam Singh witnesses daily the pain points—voltage drops crippling production, overloaded transformers, factories paying 20-30% extra on power bills just for poor power factor. The seed of an indigenous digital solution takes root in his mind.
From a modest workshop in Kapurthala's Aujla village, Sigma Industrial Control is born. Pritam Singh launches India's first microcontroller-based digital APFC controller—purpose-built for Indian grids. No more manual switching or unreliable analog relays. Automatic, step-wise capacitor control with precision that imported systems couldn't match at the price. Small factories desperate to avoid penalties become the first believers.
Each successful field installation tells its own story. Panel builders whisper to contractors, plant engineers recommend to management: "Sigma controllers handle our line fluctuations better. Local service. No import headaches." The Cosmax Series becomes North India's trusted APFC brain—powering rice mills in Amritsar, textile units in Ludhiana, and engineering shops in Faridabad. Thousands of panels later, Sigma becomes synonymous with reliable power factor correction.
The industrial boom calls. Sigma answers by relocating to Sahnewal near Ludhiana—smack in the middle of Punjab's manufacturing heartbeat. Now mere minutes from OEMs, fabricators, and system integrators, the company scales rapidly. Digital panel meters, demand controllers, motor protection electronics join the portfolio. Sigma doesn't just make controllers anymore—it powers the industrial ecosystem.
New brands flood the APFC market, but Sigma's decade-long digital head-start sets the bar: advanced switching algorithms, built-in diagnostics, utility-compliant accuracy. The Electricity Act 2003 sharpens national focus on power quality. Punjab-made controllers start appearing in export projects—proving village-born innovation can compete internationally.
APFC controllers evolve into smart, connected devices. Sigma delivers 25+ products with IoT integration—remote monitoring, cloud analytics, predictive maintenance. Engineers track power factor, harmonics, and events from control rooms or smartphones. Yet through it all, Sigma remains 100% Made in Punjab.
Pritam Singh's 1989 vision continues to light up factories worldwide.
A Pioneer Who Deserves Recognition
While later entrants grabbed headlines, Pritam Singh—the engineer who created India's first indigenous digital APFC in 1989—worked quietly from a Punjab village. Supported by a devoted family, driven by real field problems from his PSEB days, he proved that world-class industrial electronics could be born anywhere.
From Aujla's workshop to Sahnewal's factories to thousands of installations across India and beyond, his controllers have saved crores, boosted reliability, and built careers. Every modern APFC panel today—from basic LT feeders to cloud-connected systems—stands on the foundation laid by that lone engineer and his family in 1989.