Power management : Building the Future

Competitiveness and unprecedented growth in the telecom sector has
strengthened the need of power management solutions in India. Looking at the
current subscriber base of over 300 mn, with an average of additional 8-9 mn
connections every month, the telecom service providers are eying a well equipped
and a firm base for power management system. Also, it is extremely decisive for
telecom service providers to ensure that their services are up and running at
all times as low power back up can result in huge revenue losses.

In the power management space, energy efficiency is a key word that has
gained colossal proportions in the past year. As per the ABI Research, energy
constitutes the third biggest component of a mobile operators' opex and over 80%
of it comes from the network infrastructure. Therefore, by improving energy
efficiency in networks and using alternative energy sources, customers reduce
dependency on oil and other energy sources which are in jeopardy because of
swelling costs and limited supply.

At present, the power management space is growing at a pace of nearly 20%
according to industry estimation, and expected to achieve higher growth rates in
the years to come.

Technology & Market Curves

Today the primary concern is cost. Technologies that help save costs are
certainly going to be in demand.

Primarily, the telecom industry has two kinds of power needs; AC power for
Multi-Service Operators (MSOs), data centers and disaster recovery sites, and DC
power for base transmitting stations. However, power needs vary among service
operators. For example, for fixed-line service providers, the Main Switch Center
(MSC) consumes a lot of power, and needs precision air-conditioning. Further,
Indian telecom industry is also getting aware of environmental conservation and
is lobbying for green products.

At present, operators are looking forward to installation of energy saving
devices like fuel optimizers, intelligent phase selector, free cooling equipment
at BTS sites, installation of solar system for MW repeater sites and for micro
BTS, use of CNG engines at places where piped CNG is available and evaluation of
alternate energy resources like fuel cells based on technical and economic
feasibility. It is estimated that around 300,000 new BTS sites will roll-out in
three years in India while nearly 200,000 exist already.

Also, the Switch Mode Power Supply (smps) technology has been the trend
during the last few years. But the core focus is on making products more
cost-effective with no compromise on quality or reliability. Enhancing product
efficiency is another core focus to reduce operational costs.

In addition, the launch of 3G services will definitely propel the on-demand
data capability on the mobile phone. Increased data exchange would mean need for
better quality of power, and data availability at all times.

Experts panel

Anurag Vashistha, senior VP, energy management, GTL Sanjiv Krishen, chairman and managing director, Iris Computers Deepak Sharma, GM, Saarc & South East Asia, electrical group, Eaton Corporation Manoj Upadhyay, managing director, Acme Tele Power Probal Ghosal, CEO, Quippo Telecom Rakesh Malhotra, managing director, Luminous Teleinfra P Balaji, vice president, marketing and strategy, Ericsson Ram Prasad Ananthaswamy, director, power management products, Texas Instruments Dalip Sharma, MD, Delta, India and SAARC Region Sanjay Motwani, country manager, Raritan

Apart from more number of cell sites, the power consumption per site will go
up. Power management applications will involve increasing the power density,
which is compressing more power in the same space, plus putting in value some
additions like energy management and prioritizing loads. Infrastructure sharing
is another emerging trend which will fuel the power management sector.

Since the wireless segment dominates the Indian telecom industry as compared
to wireline telephony, telecom operators are gearing towards increased adoption
of number of BTS towers in India. Besides this, certain green shelter sites
(with free air cooling, PCM and PIU etc) and a mixture of air-conditioner and
fan/ filter/ damper controlled by smart controller are also gaining momentum.

As per the industry experts, if power failures are not looked after properly,
they can lead to downtimes which can be fatal to the business. It could be even
more significant at times when revenues depend entirely on the network
availability as is the case with telecom companies, airline reservation systems,
banking transactions etc.

It is noteworthy that most operators have been working with existing
solutions, but in order to increase savings at the national level, the shared
(multi-operator) site concept has been introduced.

Over the years, it has become increasingly clear that organizations cannot
afford to have people at all remote sites. Therefore both in-band and
out-of-band technologies for monitoring, managing and controlling these sites
will have to be deployed. The networks have become global and are being managed
from remote locations.

Barriers in the Crosswalks

It is really ironical that though the requirements and awareness level of
such solutions is quite high, the demand has not been able to rise in a similar
fashion over the last couple of years. And the current bleak environment has not
really been helpful. At a macro level, businesses are aware of these
technologies and there is a lot of curiosity, but there has been very little
action in terms of deployment.

As service providers are looking at absolute value for money and are giving
greater importance to overall package, solutions with the right value at the
right price at the right time will gain substantial foothold. And this
requirement will definitely prove to be a success factor for the power
management sector.

Also, the telecom industry is witnessing a growing consolidation scenario,
which sometimes creates frequent changes of policies and focus at the corporate
front. It is therefore imperative for the organizations to have proper control
on long-term decisions to have long and fruitful results.

Given the kind of developments that have taken place in the last decade, the
global parameters of energy usage is coming under a scanner. The government and
the regulators are trying to increase the cognizance level by educating the
people about the impact on the environment from the electronic equipment used
for communication. The Government of India has also started an initiative under
Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), and is mainly targeting the growth markets in
India that are power hungry.

In the long run, India is expected to gain benefits from renewable energy
sources. An important underlying technology across all areas is low power, or
even 'no power' devices.

The current slowdown has affected the fund flow of the telecom industry,
however, with the new operators coming in and continuous increase in subscriber
base the telecom companies may gear up and 2009 could see an increased amount of
spending in infrastructure

In 2009, industry is expecting to witness the evolution of more futuristic
products that will not only aim for highest power efficiency to bring down opex
but also conform to highest standards of eco-friendly manufacturing. The key
focus would be to integrate comprehensive solutions through the right plan,
design and engineering.

Jatinder Singh

jatinders@cybermedia.co.in