More Power

Indian telecom operators are becoming more serious about power savings at
their cell sites. This is a thrust area since operators are venturing into
untapped rural areas.

With reliable access to electricity is limited in many areas, majority of
these network sites needed a diesel generator. India currently has around 3 lakh
towers, and the number is expected to increase to 450,000 towers with 900,000
tenants in the next three years. Given the frequent power cuts, each tenant
consumes almost 3,000 liters of diesel every year on a shared tower, which
increases operations costs.

Energy consumption is one of the leading drivers of operating expenses for
both fixed and mobile network operators. Hence, energy efficient power solution
products also help the operators to cut down their opex and capex.

Telecom equipment vendor Delta Electronics' latest integrated site management
and control power solution has protection features and genset fuel saving
functionality by sensing battery voltage and shelter temperature. In addition to
fuel savings, reduced operating hours of genset lead to longer intervals between
maintenance. In short, all this means also longer overall lifetime of the genset.
SMCS enables high-performance businesses to consolidate and simplify the
management of their network infrastructure to increase security, reduce cost and
realize operational gains. The power system intelligent controllers concept
enabling a scheduled start-up process of rectifier depending up on the source of
input. This means the genset can be reduced to half its size, which in turn
means that the genset operates at a far better fuel-to-electricity. The key
factor is optimizing the genset size and operating point, which can save up to
30% of fuel during genset operation.

The power situation is so alarming that many operators want to cut energy
cost. For instance, Airtel's infrastructure arm Bharti Infratel is aiming to cut
energy costs by 15% annually with plans to invest Rs 300 crore in seven pilot
projects for reducing energy consumption. The projects are being specifically
rolled out in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where grid availability is poor and
diesel costs are high. They have undertaken trials for solar power, bio-diesel
and free cooling, among others.

GTL is pumping in Rs 1,400 crore in the first phase for engineering and
deploying solutions that reduce energy expenses. These solutions are targeted to
cut energy requirements by up to 20%. Aircel Cellular is already using these
solutions, which include solar systems, micro-wind turbines, adoption of free
cooling methods, energy audit, besides others. GTL has deployed these solutions
at more than 5,000 sites, reducing energy consumption and carbon emission. The
are planning to turn the entire portfolio of towers into green towers in the
next three years.

Ericsson has also launched its wind-powered radio base station in a site
solution in India, offering low-cost of construction and maintenance. The towers
do not require feeders and cooling systems, resulting in up to 40% lower
consumption of power. It has also undertaken pilots using bio-diesel to cut
costs and reduce carbon emissions.

Madhura Mukherjee

madhurak@cybermedia.co.in