Technology
is changing rapidly for wireless, significantly changing the power requirements
of the 6000+ base stations within our Kenyan Telcos infrastructure. These
improvements increase the viability of using eco-friendly power and our Telcos
have already seen this trend of IoT and are engaged in efforts to stop the
trend of rising telecom energy demands. With so many options for reducing their
eco-footprint, and considering the challenge of implementing changes while
remaining profitable, planning a sensible, ecologically friendly path forward is
often a formidable task. It is for this reason that I chose to take an
opportunity to write to the power departments in our communication institutions
which I have gracefully worked with for close to 3 years indirectly as an
engineer assigned to do electrical and computational works for them.
The4G+ as an
already laid out plan by one of the major Telcos within our country serves as
an example which is a really good move that comes with growth of bandwidth demand
which can easily cause Safaricom network
energy consumption to rise
in step with
the growth. The resulting increase in electricity costs leads to reduced
margins at a time when competition is also driving prices down-the relauch of
Telkom Kenya a few days ago marks a threat in the same regard. Having worked
closely with a number of power departments amongst the Telcos we have, I have
seen and learnt two options used when planning to reduce power consumption. First, there are new network architectures
that are inherently more energy-efficient and which can simultaneously provide
the flexibility to support continued increases in demand. Second, choices in network
equipment, options, and support equipment for new or existing infrastructure have
also had a tremendous impact on the amount of power consumed. Both options are
quite viable and should be part of any power reduction plan even as we leap
into the digital disruptive era in the coming years.
Am grateful
to have worked indirectly with the engineers at both power and optimization
departments and have been able to tap a lot of skills in my area of expertise
and personal growth as well. I look forward for an opportunity to present my ideas
(a combo mixture of Artificial intelligence, big data analytics and IoT) as
well as deliberate further on how best can power can be planned and supported
to attain the ultimate goal in energy efficiency. Am also grateful to
Parastatals that deal directly and indirectly with power and energy
distribution for the nifty work they are putting across to solve the trilemma
of cost, reliability and quality of power being used in our republic.
Below is a
recap article of the latest bell lab power technical journal 2017 edition that
I saw it prudent to share as well with other engineers and stakeholders in
power & energy sector alike whom I revere and hold atmost respect for the
training and lessons I have gained from them.
Methodology for Planning Energy-Reducing
The
methodology for planning network changes to reduce energy usage consists of
three cascading steps:
• Energy consumption hierarchy.
Identification of the network elements that consume power and their location in
the network.
• Energy-saving chain. Identification of
network element dependencies upon each
other’s power dissipation (e.g., larger
air conditioning units having
higher energy consumption are necessary if inefficient power rectifiers
are installed because
of the energy they waste through heat
radiation). This allows network
operators to target the most effective points for energy reduction by applying
energy-saving initiatives.
• Energy-saving initiatives or options.
Determination of specific choices or actions
that can be taken to reduce
energy consumption for one or more net- work elements (e.g., replacing
low-efficiency rectifiers with high-efficiency rectifiers, which requires
capital and installation expense, but these
expenses may be offset in 12 to 15 months based on
today’s high energy
costs). Sets of initiatives are
often deployed simultaneously due to typically lower installation costs as
compared to deploying the initiatives one at a time
As we
continue improving our communication systems across the country and beyond,
lets research and read widely for the upcoming 4th industrial
revolution which in my own view will be sparked and born in China and fully utilized here in Africa and
hopefully in our dear motherland Kenya.
“A powered nation is a growing nation”~Samwel
Kariuki
