tele.net is going to host its fourth annual conference on “Energy Needs of The Telecom Sector: Trends and Outlook: Challenges and Opportunities? on August 19 and 20, 2013 at The Imperial, New Delhi.
The objective of the conference is to examine the energy needs of the telecom sector, assess the impact of the technology upgradation and network expansion in rural areas, identify the issues and challenges faced by various stakeholders, and discuss the strategies and solutions to address them.
The energy requirement of the telecom industry is growing at a rapid pace as operators implement newer technologies like 3G and 4G, and expand their network coverage in rural areas. However, grid-based power is inadequate to meet even the current energy demand in the telecom sector, which is over 25 billion kWh per annum.
About two-thirds of the mobile towers in India face electrical grid outages in excess of eight hours a day. To address this issue, telecom tower companies use DGs and batteries as back up solutions. This has led to the telecom tower industry consuming over 2.5 billion litres of diesel annually, thereby generating significant carbon emissions. The increasing operational, environmental and logistics costs of using diesel along with the growing grid power tariffs means that the industry has to look for alternative and efficient solutions in order to meet the growing energy demand. Plans are already afoot with all operators and tower companies implementing their individual energy cost management and consumption strategies.
The Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) is also working on a model under which tower companies partner with renewable energy services companies (RESCOS) to make a viable business case for both. Moreover, the government is encouraging the use of energy efficient equipment in communication networks besides promoting the development of renewable energy systems for telecom operations. Phase II of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission would focus on developing special schemes for the promotion of solar powered telecom towers and is targeting around 25,000 solar integrated telecom towers by 2017.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has mandated all tower companies to reduce their dependence on diesel and cut carbon emissions by operating at least 50 per cent of all rural towers and 20 per cent of urban towers on hybrid power by 2015. Even as the industry players continue to oppose the DoT?s directive, leading players in the industry have taken significant steps towards ensuring efficient energy use in the telecom sector.
While talking about challenges faced by the industry in managing energy costs, the conference also highlights the successful projects undertaken by the industry for lowering energy costs and adopting clean energy.
The key sessions of the conference include ? Key Trends and Outlook; Industry Perspective; the emerging energy needs and requirements of the telecom sector?; Impact of Policy developments ? what has been the impact of DoT?s green directive on capex and opex?; Fuel outlook: demand, supply and price; Energy storage solutions – What is the cost of power storage? What are the various storage solutions available for the telecom sector?; Managing cost of energy – What are the key elements of an effective energy management programme?; Energy requirements of telecom companies in rural areas; Powering the next generation of mobile towers – What is the likely increase in the energy demand resulting from 3G and 4G network expansion? Challenges and benefits of remote site management?; Trends in grid power availability and tariffs; Progress on RESCO pilot projects.
The key speakers at the conference include Ashish Basil, Partner, Ernst and Young; Bimal Dayal, Chief Operating Officer, Indus Towers; Umang Das, Chief Mentor, Viom Networks; Tushar Kapadia, Vice-President Strategic Initiatives, GTL Infrastructure; Ankur Lal, Chief executive Officer, Infozech; Sai Ram Prasad, Chief Technology Officer, Bharti Infratel; B. Ramanand, Chief Operating Officer, ATC India; Vikas Singhal, Head – Power, ICF International; Rahul Walwalkar, Vice President-Emerging Technologies and Markets, Customized Energy Solutions; Sharat Chandra, Managing Director, TelEnergy, Sharat Chandra, Managing Director, TelEnergy Technologies, A. Sethuraman. Managing Director, Deeya Energy, Abhijit Das, General Manger-Projects, Idea, Ajit Shanker, Managing Director and CEO, Ardom, Manu Talwar, Chief Officer operations, Viom Networks, Ankur Lal, Chief executive Officer, Infozech, Sabyasachi Majumdar, Head, Power Sector, ICRA, T.R. Dua, Senior Director-General, Tower TAIPA, Dinesh Gupta, General Manager, Operations, Omnigrid Micropower Company and Sandeep Melana, Senior Analyst, Climate Connect amongst others.
