Powering Indian telecoms into the future

Details: Lee Juby; Category: Energy & Sustainability; 18 June 2013; 7767 views

As the fourth largest economy in the world by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) driven primarily by the services sector, the telecom industry in India offers a great deal of opportunity. The last decade in particular has seen voice communications become a central part of day-to-day life for much of India with total national teledensity reaching 73.07% in January 2013.

India’s telecom industry continues to provide a strong growth engine for the Indian economy. However, for a country with nearly 425,000 telecom towers ⁽²⁾ now forming the backbone of its telecom market and requiring 16.5 billion kWh of electrical energy ⁽³⁾ , ensuring a continual, cost-effective and reliable source of energy to power this growth is still in its early stages.

In rural areas, energy costs can contribute up to 70% of the total telecom operating costs and between 15-30% in urban areas ⁽⁴⁾. Despite India’s phenomenal growth and development in the telecom sector over the recent years, power grid outages still remain a common occurrence. This means that tower infrastructure companies have to use diesel-guzzling generators or over-sized batteries that are vulnerable to theft or damage, to ensure continuity of service for this expanding economy. It is clear that to power India’s economy into the future, investment in alternative and more cost-effective power support sources is vital. However, while many power options currently exist, only a few are truly viable to deliver the level of support required.

Taking the greener path

Not discounting the cost implications of diesel generators, there now also exists global pressure on India to reduce its greenhouse emissions. This means that tower infrastructure companies are actively looking for alternative solutions to manage their power consumption both from a cost and environmental perspective. As a result of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) mandate to power 50% of rural towers and 20% of urban towers by hybrid power by 2015, the Department of Telecom in India recently announced the news of extending viability gap funding to telecom tower companies in order to speed up the adoption of renewable energy. This announcement only serves to highlight the growing pressure on India’s telecom industry.

Investigations into these alternatives currently include trial deployments of renewable energy technology (RET) solutions such as solar photovoltaic, wind power and biomass. However, while each of these may appear to offer the greener power desired, they also carry limitations that prevent them from being standalone solutions. As such, hybrid solutions that combine diesel generators with RET solutions and batteries are also being customised and developed in a bid to remedy these challenges.

Finding a standalone solution – fuel cells

Fuel cells that convert chemical energy into electrical energy and use fuels like hydrogen, methanol, natural gas and other hydro carbons offer a viable standalone solution to this power challenge.

The advantage of fuel cells over other forms of alternative energy is that they can run continuously as long as fuel is available and hence make a good singular renewable energy solution to replace the diesel generator. Fuel cell based systems can also be designed to be modular, allowing a close match of the installed capacity to the power demand of the site. Additionally, any increase in demand at the site due to increased tenancy can be met by the simple addition of capacity to the fuel cell system. As such, fuel cells have higher efficiency when compared to other RET solutions. Owing to significantly better efficiency versus load characteristics, fuel cell systems can be used to reduce the energy requirements of the telecom site in comparison to diesel generators.

In a limited number of cases where electrical grid availability is close to 20 hours a day or more, the diesel generator at the tower site is being replaced completely by enhancing the existing battery capacity. This is leading to cost-savings and a reduction in carbon emissions on site, helping telecom infrastructure companies to meet their greenhouse emissions targets more effectively.

The pressure is now on for telecom tower companies to address their existing power challenges and adopt more environmentally friendly alternatives. While many RET solutions exist to meet these, many including solar and wind, remain constrained by energy supply limitations making them impossible as independent solutions. While a fuel cell based solution for telecom towers remains relatively new in India, the technology has proven itself through trials to provide the power required to sustain India’s future growth.