DC Generators in Telecom Industry

RFL Alternators Pty Ltd., has 25 years of research in the power generation industry backing its core strengths of innovation and energy conversion to produce world class patented products which are at the cutting edge of Technology today.

Telecom sector and DC Generators

The Focus of this blog is on the changing dynamics of doing business in Telecom Infrastructure.

Early age of Mobile Telephony

Let us roll back about 25-30 years. With the advent of Mobile Telephony across the world, the need for radio communication and mobile air waves grew dramatically.

This led to the demand of a huge world-wide network of Telecom Towers from cities through to  the most remote areas. There were a number of challenges to start with some of which  still remain very relevant in today’s scenario;

1. Availability and accessibility of land,
2. Capability and capacity to construct the required infrastructure,
3. Environmental factors aligned with operating the equipment from big cities to remote locations with exposure to extreme temperatures, humidity, altitude etc. and
4. Power requirements the prime subject of this blog

Power Requirements

More often than not power to such remote locations always was a challenge and 100% of power supplied was through diesel Power Generators.

Since, the towers had to operate without a minute’s downtime in the harshest of conditions, the power generators had to be robust, powerful and at the same time extremely fuel efficient.

The first 2 requirements being the driving ones and the need for heavy AC power for Air conditioning units to shield the control units from the effects of nature, telecom companies preferred heavy power generators costing huge capital expenditure and consuming gallons of fuel, at the same time keeping a backup stock of prime power at their disposal to be used in rotation.

The whole operation was uneconomical but necessary and was never put it into question because of the lucrative revenues and bottom line growths made by Telcos around the world.

The advent of internet bubble in the 2000s

Mobile telephony in the new millennium is no longer associated with high voice calling rates and huge profits. The millennials in fact use the technology for far more complex applications and in much effective and economic communication which have depleted the bottom lines of the Telecom giants across the world severely.

The good news however is technology for infrastructure is also growing at a similar pace.

1. Construction equipment and technology has ensured highly efficient, fast paced creation of infrastructure
2. Modern control systems and radio communication does no longer require huge amounts of AC power and are becoming more and more resilient to environmental change, and
3. And the footprint of cell tower infrastructure has dramatically reduced.

What has not changed rapidly with respect to the second point is the perception of Telecom Providers, Infrastructure Providers and even government regulators. In an age where fuel is becoming increasingly scarce, they still rely on highly inefficient