Data about telecom towers:

Due to the increase in use of smart phones, and always-increasing amount of wirelessly
controlled devices is huge. This expansion is causing a substantial growth in mobile telecom
and radio towers in near future. According to a Cisco report [1], a growth of up to 57%
annually is forecasted until at least 2019.Not only due to the communications technologies
but because of the fact that 36% of appliances that are available now a days are smart;
meaning they use wireless technology to work. The need of in the placement of more and more
BSC/MSC tower is inevitable [2]

Around 300 TWh of energy which is 3% of total world consumption is utilized by ICT
technologies yearly.an increase of 1700TWh is expected by the year 2030.
In developing countries like Pakistan and India these Ict facilities are connected with
intermittent grid, so they are in highly need of backup.

Figure 2: Segmentation of access of grid to telecom towers

The power requirement of a typical telecom tower range from 1-4 KW [3], the backup is
generally provided through the diesel generators and battery banks. To charge the battery
banks UPS system is used which is mostly AC. As the ict towers are basically dc equipped (shown
in fig.3) so lot of energy is wasted in conversion of ac to DC .
 Fig. 3 basic power infrastructure of ICT tower.

The efficiency comparison shown below shows the efficiency of using 48 V and 380 v dc system
in ict tower.

Fig.4 comparison of Different voltages level on the bases of tower heights.

 A total of minimum 21 MW of electricity is being consumed by only one telecom operator
per Hour. This means 378MW of electricity is being consumed each day by one Telecom
operator (assuming 18hours of electricity being used from Grid).[4]
In Pakistan ETISALAT PAKISTAN has started a Rural Telecom Projects their main objective
is to energize the telecom towers in remote areas of Pakistan through solar power[5].
These sites will have dc generators as backup. Deployment of dc ups in these towers will
cause reduction in losses due to to insufficient conversion stages from solar integration.

1. CISCO, Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update,
20142019, 2014. [Online]. Available:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-
vni/white_paper_c11-520862.html. [Accessed: 27-Feb-2015].
2. Cremer, A., An Analysis of 380 V DC Topologies for Mobile Telecom Applications. 2015,
University of Pittsburgh.
3. Balshe, W., Power system considerations for cell tower applications. Cummins Power
Generation, 2011.
4. Alvi, A. Solar for BTS towers. [internet] 2014 Jul 5, 2014 [cited 2017 24 Oct]; Available
from: https://medium.com/@aatifalvi/how-solar-energy-can-transform-mobile-operators-into-
energy-saving-beacons-b2bc1c37de25.
5. Khawaja, W.S. and L. Xinhai, Utilization of Telecom Technologies for the Disaster
Management in Underdeveloped Coastal Districts of Pakistan. International Journal of Academic
Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2013. 3(10): p. 197.