Power India found that various Telecom Tower Providers are considering the alternate of renewable energy generation to reduce the operational costs of electricity.
As learnt from various sources, these companies are planning to invite proposal for setting up setting up independent renewable energy companies that will generate and supply green power to run towers. This move will help save the cost of diesel for running towers especially in areas where grid electricity is not available.
TAIPA, the industry association representing tower infrastructure providers across the country, is working on a “Request For Proposal” (RFP) this purpose.
As said by Director General, Umang Das:
- "The RFPs should be out by next week, followed by a pre-bid conference,"
TAIPA has further proposed to created a “Renewable Energy Service Providing Companies” (RESCOS) whose main objective will be to set up independent plans to sell power to the Tower companies or TELCOs.
The surplus power may sale back to the grid.
Power India beleve that the move is caused due to the erratic power supply to the Tower units most of which are in remote areas and due to which around 4,00,00 telecom towers are depended on diesel generators.
According to TRAI (Telecom Sector Regulator) the above said telecom towers roughly consume around 2 Billion litres of oil every year. The regulator has directed them to reduce their dependence on diesel and cut carbon emissions by running at least 50% of all rural towers and 20% of the urban towers on hybrid power by 2015.
Some of the Tower firms have been partially successful in their experiments with producing power from solar energy, fuel cells and other renewable sources.
For examply, Bharti Infratel, the tower arm of Bharti Enterprises, has been able to save 25.64 million litres of diesel after powering 12,000 tower sites with solar energy.
Further, the regulator has proposed changes in fee structure and wants to bring tower firms under the unified licensing regime, which will force them to pay revenue to the government. Other changes, such as the cut in FDI to 74%, have also deterred foreign investment and put a question mark over the shareholding patterns of companies such as the American Towers Corp India.
More Literature on this topic:
--------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment