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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

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