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[AACT] Fuel for mobile
towers in rural areas
Towers of
pollution
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Nov 30,
2013 | From the print edition
60 per
cent of telecom towers in India are powered by diesel
Government
has suggested powering half the telecom towers in rural areas by hybrid
electricity by 2015 (Photographs: Sharbendu De)Telecommunication is a success story in India.
Unfortunately, it is also a story of pollution. The increasing number of
mobile phones has spawned mobile towers across the country. India, the second
largest mobile phone market and also the fastest growing, has over 440,000
telecom towers now—over 60 per cent powered by diesel.
The
diesel-operated telecom towers emit one per cent of the country’s total
carbon emissions, says a report by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI). “While the figure may not be significant, rapid growth of telecom in
the coming years calls for efforts to contain its carbon footprint,” says the
report. It is expected that 240,000 more towers would be added by 2020.
In rural
India, diesel powers 87 per cent of telecom towers due to lack of grid power.
In urban areas, the figure is 33 per cent. TRAI suggests telecom towers
consumed 3.5 billion litres of diesel in 2011. India has 966 million
telephone users, of which 97 per cent are wireless users.
The
Department of Telecommunications (DOT), after consultations with
stakeholders, released policy directions on green telecommunications in
January last year. But the directions remain on paper after the telecom
industry players immediately rejected them for being “illogical and
unaffordable”.
The
government directives had suggested powering 75 per cent of telecom towers in
rural areas and 33 per cent towers in urban areas by hybrid electricity by
2020. Hybrid electricity is a combination of renewable energy and grid power.
The major
bone of contention over the recommendation has been about who will fund the
transition. According to the Cellular Operator Association of India (COAI),
around Rs 66,000 crore will be required to meet the targets by 2020. The
government has not agreed to the figure but does not have an estimation.
Industry
players say it cannot foot the bill because the industry is already reeling
from a debt of Rs 250,000 crore. “Post the 2G and 3G spectrum auctions, the
industry is under debt and is barely able to meet its expenses. Raising
additional funds is difficult,” says Rajan S Mathews, director general, COAI.
DOT
sources say that neither its parent ministry—the Ministry of Information
Technology—nor the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is ready to
fund the transition because of budget crunch.
An
inter-ministerial committee, which was set up last year by DOT to decide the
amount of Viability Gap Funding required for green telecom towers, took an
entire year to decide it needs to hire a consultant for its job. In September
this year, PricewaterhouseCoopers was hired to prepare a report on the
roadmap for greening the sector, finding suitable technology and the quantum
of funding. “It is like going back to the drawing board. If we spend so much
time in discussions, we can in no way meet the targets,” says an official of
DOT requesting anonymity.
Unachievable
targets
The
targets “are financially and technically unreasonable”, says Umang Das,
director general, Towers and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA). It
amounts to powering towers with almost 3 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy by
2020. It means powering over 100 towers with renewable energy every day by
2015, which is impractical.
Mathews
says, “These targets are more than the country’s cumulative off-grid target
of 2 GW under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission for 2022.” And, the
cost required to achieve these targets is prohibitive, claims the industry.
Bharti Infratel, one of the leading providers of tower and related
infrastructure, says powering towers through the grid costs an average of Rs
6 per unit. Diesel power costs Rs 18 to Rs 24 per unit. Renewable energy sources
are the costliest, with the price varying between Rs 20 and Rs 40 per unit.
“Since the grid currently powers only 33 per cent of telecom towers, we are
forced to use diesel. It is not a choice,” says Mathews.
TRAI
believes switching to solar will save Rs 85.9 billion in operating expenses
for the telecom industry
Industry
players say finding a renewable energy alternative is also difficult. They
point out that while solar energy is the best option because of its easier
scalability, finding space for installing solar panels will be difficult. On
an average, a 1 kilowatt (kW) solar panel requires a space of eight square
metres. “Finding suitable space is a problem, especially in urban and semi
urban-areas,” says Mathews.
Solar
energy also has a limited power output of about 15 per cent of installed
capacity. To match the required power, the size of the panel needs to be
increased. It means increase in cost and space, says TAIPA. Currently, the
price for a Watt of energy from solar panels is between Rs 70 and Rs 100.
Cheaper in
the long run
Renewable
energy experts believe the government targets are “tough but achievable”.
Venu Gopal, senior analyst with Energy Alternatives India, a Chennai-based
consulting firm on renewable energy, and co-author of Greenpeace report
Enabling Clean Talking, says the industry figures on the cost are ridiculous.
It costs
around Rs 15 per unit when diesel is used to power a tower. It can touch Rs
60 in case of pilferage. Per unit cost will also go up with increase in the
price of diesel, says report.
“With
solar power, per unit cost, with battery backup, will be around Rs 12. The
upfront cost of buying solar panels could be a lot but the system has little
operational cost. The payback period is around four years,” says Gopal.
Energy
experts also say the industry estimate of Rs 66,000 crore for the transition
is lower than the Rs 80,000 crore service providers will pay to set up
diesel-powered towers by 2020. They say a solar panel has a life of 25 years,
which is higher than the average two years of a diesel generator.
“A
well-designed hybrid can bring down the operational cost by almost 90 per
cent in off-grid sites,” says Teckkee Shih of Alta Energy, a Bengaluru-based
company specialising in green telecom towers. (See ‘Solar is cheaper’).
According
to experts, powering off-grid sites with only renewable energy sources could
also be uneconomical. It costs Rs 20 lakh if a tower with 1 kW load in an
off-grid site is powered using solar energy. It is because of high battery
capacity. There are about 70,000 off-grid sites in the country. The cost
would come down to Rs 14 lakh if the same site is powered by a hybrid of
solar, batteries and diesel. “Autonomous solar solutions are recommended only
for sites which are in difficult terrain,” says Shih.
TRAI
believes that switching existing towers to solar will save Rs 85.9 billion in
operating expenses for the telecom industry, compared to the current diesel
solutions. “It is double standards on the part of the industry. On the one
hand, they say the targets are unaffordable and on the other, they float a
figure to meet them,” says the DOT official.
Analysts
say the industry argument of space is also not entirely true. It might be a
problem in urban areas, but most of the towers in cities are powered by the
grid. “These sites can be upgraded to run without diesel generators just by
increasing battery capacity which is charged directly through the grid
connection,” says Shih. Besides there is a lot of roof-top space.
Gopal
suggests another model. Since most urban towers are grid connected, the
operator can directly buy renewable energy from power producers to power
them, he says. In certain states like Tamil Nadu, wind power is cheaper than
grid power. Gopal says even the cost for the transition to green energy can
be cut down. He suggests that service providers can work out an arrangement
with vendors who sell solar power on a per unit basis. Telecom operators can
also avail 30 per cent subsidy that MNRE provides for off-grid decentralised
solar projects.
A study by
The Energy and Resource Institute notes a major flaw in DOT’s directions.
They say towers are to be hybrid-powered but do not specify the minimum
installed capacity of renewable power. Going by this, even few wattage of
renewable power can be considered sufficient for targets. “It is up to the
telecom operators. They should do as much as they can,” says A Robert Jerad
Ravi, adviser, TRAI.
Past
failures
The
telecom industry floated a proposal last year to hire Renewable energy
service companies (RESCOs), which provide renewable energy solutions to
consumers, but only two companies responded. More than 70 RESCOs were
approached but only two came forward for powering 1,100 towers with hybrid
energy. “No RESCOs want to take the responsibility of maintaining the sites.
Then there is resistance from existing site managers. Most telecom sites are
rented and those managing them are involved in diesel theft,” said G Prasad,
director, MNRE.
In 2010,
MNRE sanctioned Rs 16.5 crore to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited to solarise 100
towers located in 11 states. Three years on, only 1.5 crore has been released
and most towers are yet to be solarised. “It is because of the lethargy of
bsnl,” says an MNRE official.
Other
targets
The
government’s policy directions on green telecommunications ask service
providers to declare the carbon footprint of their network operations twice a
year. The carbon footprints are to be calculated using a formula suggested by
TRAI. “The formula is complex and misses important points,” says TAIPA.
For
example, the proposed formula uses the efficiency factor as constant but in
reality, efficiency of a diesel generator set changes over time, depending on
the usage. When Down To Earth asked TRAI for the carbon footprint data
declared by operators, it refused to share it and said, “We are examining if
the data is correct.” Service providers have also been asked to evolve a
carbon credit policy to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in carbon footprint
level in rural areas and 66 per cent in urban areas by 2020, taking 2011 as
the base year. No service provider has done it so far.
Telecom
operators have powered 4,000 towers with hybrid energy to show that they are
doing their bit. Bharti Infratel has powered 1,300 telecom tower sites with solar
energy. “The industry has been reducing carbon emissions in other ways as
well, including the use of efficient equipment, which has brought down power
consumption by about 30 per cent over the p ast few years,” claims Mathews.
The 4,000
industry-developed hybrid towers account for just one per cent of the total
number of towers in the country. The government and the industry need to
break the logjam, and soon.
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Darryl D'Monte
Chairperson, Forum of Environmental Journalists of India (FEJI)
International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ)
Kinara, 29-B Carter Road, Bandra West,
Mumbai 400 050, India
Tel +91 22 2642 7088, 2645 9286
E-mail: darryldmonte@gmail.com
Chairperson, Forum of Environmental Journalists of India (FEJI)
International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ)
Kinara, 29-B Carter Road, Bandra West,
Mumbai 400 050, India
Tel +91 22 2642 7088, 2645 9286
E-mail: darryldmonte@gmail.com
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