The Telecom industry today faces tough challenges in providing access and connectivity to remote areas. One of the most critical challenges is the limited availability of Grid Power. Also the operators are required to meet minimum roll out obligations (coverage) and quality of service levels, (network up time), failing which they are highly penalized and often lose their licenses. To minimize environmental impact, all operators first use battery power and when these run out, they switch to diesel generators which increases the cost of operation by three or four times and adds to various operational complexities.
Airtel’s GreenTowers P7 Initiative is a comprehensive, Energy efficient and alternate energy program covering seven high impact initiatives, which are aimed at reducing diesel usage and therefore the carbon footprint.
Some Commendable initiatives:
- Solar DG Hybrid: Having been successfully deployed on 650+ tower sites, it helps in massively reducing noise and emissions from DG sets and also in reducing dependency on diesel, thereby contributing towards low energy intensity and better energy security.
- Variable Speed DCDG: Variable speed DCDG project helps in reducing carbon emission by up to 60%, thus further contributing towards higher energy efficiency and better energy security.
- Fuel Cells, DCFCU, IPMS, GenX & Fuel Catalyst:All 5 sub-projects help in improving local community impact by reducing noise and emission from DG sets and also giving opex saving of up to 25%
Bharti Infratel has installed almost 3 MWT of solar capacity on network, generating more than 5 mn units of electricity every year. All this has been creditably achieved despite the absence of subsidies on solar unit installations – a move contemplated widely by various agencies and the MNRE for a while now, without any significant action or policy being announced.
The GreenTowers P7 program is scoped for 22,000 tower sites (primarily rural areas having low or no Grid Power availability) out of which 5,500 sites have already been implemented in the first year as a part of this 3-year program. Once completed, the initiative will reduce diesel consumption by 66 mn liters per year with a significant carbon dioxide reduction of around 1.5 lac MT per year.
The GreenTowers P7 program is scoped for 22,000 tower sites (primarily rural areas having low or no Grid Power availability) out of which 5,500 sites have already been implemented in the first year as a part of this 3-year program. Once completed, the initiative will reduce diesel consumption by 66 mn liters per year with a significant carbon dioxide reduction of around 1.5 lac MT per year.
This project already holds the unique distinction of being one of the largest of such initiatives around the world, while also having the largest green footprint in India, by any telecom tower company. Bharti Infratel bagged the 2011 'Green Mobile Award ' at the GSMA Mobile World Congress at Barcelona and was also awarded the 2010 innovative infrastructure company of the year award, at the CNBC Infrastructure Awards, for this groundbreaking initiative.
Source: www.bharti-infratel.com/cps-portal/web/gogreen.html
