Bharti Infratel, OMC to power towers using renewable energy

Bharti Infratel has striked a ten year contract with OMC Power, a new renewable energy service company. This alliance will power off-grid and poor grid telecom tower sites in rural areas using renewable energy sources. It will help Bharti Infratel to reduce the use of diesel-powered gensets currently used to power these towers.

"OMC will set up Micropower plants in off-grid and low grid locations. These power plants will generate electricity primarily using renewable energy sources and supply energy to Infratel's tower sites," said a press note. OMC has already built the first Micropower plant in Uttar Pradesh.

OMC has partnered with established technology companies to build its Micropower Plants and is using a combination of wind, solar, diesel and battery back-up to ensure a constant supply of power. Using a hybrid of techniques means that at any point in time power will be drawn from the most suitable source with little or no wastage.

In addition, this initiative will benefit rural households in the local community vicinity by supplying them electricity to power fans, lighting, televisions, and water pumps. Bharti Infratel currently has over 33,000 towers, of which nearly 9000 are in off-grid / poor grid locations.

Sairam Prasad, Chief Technical Officer & Head of O&M at Bharti Infratel said, "OMC Power is a very welcome renewable energy partner and we are delighted to join hands with them. While great progress has been made in providing telecoms in rural areas, this has been largely achieved without grid-power availability — a key ingredient in providing telecom uptime to this critical infrastructure. The Resco model will help Towercos whose core competency is to enable telecom reach — and what better if it's primarily based on green and renewable energy sources.”

Anil Raj, co-founder and CEO of OMC Power said, “Our Micropower Plants have been designed specifically for rural areas. We have moved power from Capex to Opex and can supply more electricity at a better price than operators can by doing it themselves”.