With power deficits at an all-time high, it has become increasingly more difficult to access adequate power to run a telecom base station. While this is a growing problem in urban areas, it is especially prevalent in rural regions where the power grid fails to reach the majority of the villages. Only a few areas receive power and that too, for a fixed number of hours in a day. Meanwhile, power outages are detrimental to operators’ business as they result in network downtime and poor service quality.
Many telecom operators have been utilising diesel generators for providing back-up power to their base transceiver stations (BTSs). Although this counts as a viable solution in the short run, it poses several long-term problems.
Besides causing harmful carbon emissions, diesel is an expensive fuel. Transporting it is also a cumbersome process. As the maintenance of diesel generators is extremely demanding, it necessitates the presence of at least one trained professional at all times. While such individuals may be available in urban areas, rural areas rarely have people qualified for this kind of work. Diesel pilferage is also a common problem in rural regions.
Many service providers have also started opting for inverters. Inverter companies like Su-Kam Power Systems have reportedly bagged orders from companies like Reliance Communications (RCOM) to provide power back-up to mobile towers across India. However, inverters also have their own set of disadvantages. For instance, due to the amount of integrated circuitry involved internally, inverters are not recommended for installation in dusty, humid environments. Moreover, high kilowatt inverter units are heavy and can only be maintained by specialised service centres. They must also have a good source of power for recharging, which is often not available in rural areas.
Given that power-related difficulties added to the global emphasis on ecofriendly power sources, in the past few years, companies have been compelled to find ways to reduce fuel consumption and tap alternative energy sources. Telecom operators and vendors have been looking for energy efficiency solutions and exploring alternative power sources. However, despite their efforts, research by the GSM Association (GSMA) Development Fund indicates that only 1,500 BTSs worldwide are powered by renewable energy.
The problem is that renewable energy is largely perceived as commercially unviable, requiring costly equipment and hard-to-find technical expertise. According to Subhendu Mohanty, country head and services director, home and networks mobility business, Motorola, “The technology is all there; there is just a need to achieve economies of scale to make such products even more affordable.” The GSMA seems to concur with Mohanty on this. Its opinion is that with rising diesel prices and falling renewable equipment costs, operators investing in green power could recoup their capital costs in as little as 24 months. Agrees A. Sethuraman, chief marketing officer, Alcatel-Lucent, “Adopting power requirement minimising solutions can achieve cost savings of 45-50 per cent in operating expenditure.”
Government push
The government is also focusing on increasing the uptake of such technologies. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is currently considering a proposal to provide subsidies from the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund to companies using solar or biogas power to run rural telecom infrastructure including towers. The subsidy will be effective for the second phase of the USO Fund’s rural infrastructure project that involves the setting up of 11,000 towers in remote areas.
End-2007, DoT also announced that the USO Fund would be used to fund new innovations in communication technologies including power saving solutions for telecom towers, such as green shelters, that help batteries run longer.
GSMA has recently introduced the “Green Power for mobile” programme. The initiative, which is backed by 25 global mobile operators including Airtel and Idea, aims to encourage the mobile industry to use renewable energy sources or sustainable biofuels to power 118,000 new and existing off-grid base stations in developing countries by 2012. The target, if achieved, will not only save up to 2.5 billion litres of diesel per annum, but also decrease annual carbon emissions by up to 6.3 million tonnes.
Alternative power sources
Though in a relatively small manner, there are many ongoing efforts by operators and vendors in India to both utilise renewable fuels and reduce energy requirements. tele.net takes stock of the key initiatives in progress…
Idea Cellular
In one of the earliest eco-friendly telecom power initiatives in India, in July 2007, telecom equipment maker Ericsson in conjunction with Idea Cellular and the GSMA Development Fund powered four BTSs in the Maharashtra circle, using power from fish and vegetable oils. After successful pilots, Idea started powering BTSs with waste cooking oil (350 base stations in Andhra Pradesh). The BTSs run on an 80:20 blend of diesel fuel and waste cooking oil. The company intends to use loca ly produced jatropha oil in the long run.
However, eight months after the scheme was implemented, in February 2008, it was reported that though the equipment was working, it was not generating benefits in terms of opex savings. This was because of the small quantities of biofuels being used, which in turn, was due to the comparatively small quantities of biofuels being produced in India.
Reliance Communications
RCOM is exploring opportunities in wind and solar energy sources to ensure uninterrupted power supply. In order to harness wind energy, the telecom operator has installed windmills on its towers at Kunustara and Murugathal in West Bengal, while it is in discussion with Pune-based solar panel manufacturer, Machinocraft, to power its cell sites using solar power. By the end of 2008, the company is reportedly planning to run 10,000 sites using either of the renewable power sources.
Tata Teleservices
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) is experimenting with liquefied petroleum gas as a substitute for diesel, and has undertaken field trials of a solution provided by New York-based fuel cell company Plug Power along with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation in rural Uttar Pradesh.
Energy efficiency solutions
Individual players are also working out ways to reduce diesel consumption by focusing on increasing energy efficiency. The trend towards infrastructure sharing has already provided a major respite for telecom operators’ power requirements.
Now, companies like Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), Motorola and AlcatelLucent are coming up with new products that focus on power supply economisation. According to a white paper by Swedish Indian vendor VNL, a traditional GSM base station’s power requirement is 3,000 watts. However, players have found ways to reduce this significantly.
VNL
In a recent development, Swedish Indian telecom vendor VNL has devised a world GSM base station, which is cheap and requires very low power supplies. The system works on a solar-powered solution for rooftops, which enables base stations to function with only 50 watts to 120 watts of power. It also has a 72-hour battery back-up in place (also charged by solar power).
The company has done away with traditional chipsets and instead utilises lowpowered chipsets from the consumer electronics and auto industries, reprogramming them with new software for its GSM solution. The sites also operate without shelter and air conditioning, further reducing power consumption.
Nokia Siemens Networks
NSN has been working towards reducing its base stations’ power requirements. The company has already reduced this to 800 watts and intends to introduce its next generation of equipment, which will work on only 650 watts of power.
In a recent forum conducted by tele.net, Rauno Granath, head, new growth markets, NSN, enumerated several energy saving methods that the company had come up with. These included reducing the number of base station sites and antenna masts; more software upgrades; and using airflow cooling rather than air conditioning. Granath further explained that the annual energy saving from such innovations would prevent around 73,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
NSN has also entered into an agreement with Acme Tele Power to offer energy management solutions to telecom operators. Acme Tele Power is seriously focusing on eco-friendly technologies and has a whole range of products such as green shelters, nano-cooled shelters and battery coolers. The two companies will also jointly establish a development lab in India to examine future opportunities in remote energy monitoring solutions.
Motorola
Motorola has developed an outdoor BTS, adopted by companies like Vodafone, MTNL and BPL Mobile. It reduces energy requirements by 20-30 per cent as it removes the need for air conditioning. It also has micro and macro BTSs which consume 30-40 per cent less power in comparison to standard BTSs.
According to Mohanty, “The difference between these BTSs and the main BTSs is that the latter have more channel cuts and more capacity. Though the former’s power amplifier is of a lower version, this is ideal for indoor use.” The cooling systems, comprising air cooling, are different as well.
Motorola is also experimenting with wind and solar energy-based base stations in India. According to Mohanty, “Such base stations have already been deployed in the Gulf countries and have been successful.”
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is heavily involved in ecofriendly initiatives in line with its corporate social responsibility goals. “This is a top priority for our company,” says Sethuraman. In addition to coming up with environment-conscious design guidelines for its products, the company has come up with a green BTS design, which also uses solar panels in the tower to reduce fuel consumption.
Earlier, Alcatel-Lucent had told tele.net that it had introduced a power saving feature to automatically switch off the PA of the transceivers on a time-slot basis when no traffic was being carried. With this feature, the power consumed per TRX would come down to 20 watts.
Global initiatives
