Nigeria, one of the largest telecoms market in Africa, is confronted with various operational challenges to power and run the existing base of over 20,000 telecom towers. Having one of lowest levels of grid power availability–at an average of 5 hours of availability per day–the country’s MNOs and tower companies are forced to shift to alternate sources for primary and backup power, with diesel generators being the default choice for backup power at the moment.
Diesel generators have long been the choice of backup power; however, the diesel power dominance is on the downward roll with operators looking at alternatives to diesel power, due to the high costs associated with diesel and the inherent operational issues.
MNOs and tower companies have taken the diesel power OPEX seriously and have drafted various approaches to reduce the dependence on diesel power as part of their OPEX reduction & control strategy. In the short term, they have adopted hybrid solutions to reduce the consumption of diesel at telecom sites. Some of them have also trialled innovative alternatives, such as gas-based generator technologies to address various challenges inherent with diesel-based generators.
The adoption of green power technologies, such as solar and wind, has been inadequate despite having good resource potential. The upfront CAPEX requirement, scalability, operational issues in terms of equipment theft, and increasing site loads in a multi-tenant scenario are some of the hindering elements for the adoption of green power technologies.
Alternative business models are emerging to address the challenges of powering telecoms infrastructure. One of the tower operators has received a power outsourcing proposal from a 3rd party Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) for outsourcing power provision to the telecom infrastructure on a per kWh price. The 3rd party ESCO model is still at the initial stages, as operators are at the phase of understanding and evaluating business model and its impact on the business.
The Green Power for Mobile (GPM) programme, with its renewed focus for Africa, is keen to assist MNOs, tower companies and other stakeholders in the industry through its expertise in technology, business model development and end-end technical assistance. Nigeria is one of key focus markets for GPM, along with Ghana in West Africa while Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are GPM’s key focus markets in East Africa.