Eltek is a world leader in high-efficiency power electronics and energy conversion, providing a range of power solutions to secure continuous, safe and efficient operation of the telecom network, from the central office to remote cell sites. Eltek has deep commitment and experience in the telecom tower market in Asia, Africa and LatAm, and have been at the forefront of the debate about who should ultimately provide energy to cell sites, MNOs, towercos, or a new breed of ‘powercos’. TowerXchange caught up with Kenneth Bodahl and David Leal to find out Eltek’s stance in the Asian market.
TowerXchange: Please tell us about Eltek’s footprint in Asia. Who are your clients and which products are they seeking to buy?
David Leal, Regional President (incoming)-APAC, Eltek:
Eltek have been the number one power vendor for all major MNOs in the Asia region over the last ten years. We pride ourselves on providing our customers with reliable solutions using state-of-art technology, including high efficiency and density.
Eltek works closely with all key MNOs in the region including Singtel, Axiata’s and Telenor’s companies providing DC power solutions from base station power to mobile switching centres throughout their network.
We have also been leading the way in green solutions thanks to our solar hybrid products for off grid sites and for sites connected to unreliable grids.
TowerXchange: Talk to us about some of the more challenging grid markets where you operate such as Myanmar, Bangladesh and Pakistan
David Leal, Regional President (incoming)-APAC, Eltek:
Yes, these areas present great opportunities for everyone but also huge challenges. These countries not only have grid reliability issues but other issues such as poor infrastructure, vandalism and political instability.
We work closely with our customers to provide alternative power solutions to those sites which have grid issues to ensure their uptime requirements are met at the lowest possible cost. In this process we also test and evaluate third party products that work with our solutions to ensure what we have proposed will solve the customer’s problems. We believe in a “win-win proposition” with our customers and that all problems can be solved!
TowerXchange: What has been Eltek’s experience of opening the doors to do business in Myanmar? How has the involvement of the Norwegian trade mission facilitated that?
Kenneth Bodahl, Regional President (current)-APAC, Eltek:
Myanmar is currently the highest profile development country in the region. It provides opportunities to all vendors but the amount of challenges it includes are also great.
Prior to the official award of the licenses, we had had deep discussions with our many partners and customers on the rollout plans including towercos, ESCOs, OEMs and MNOs. It’s a challenging place to do business due to the current political reform, its geography and issues with local material procurement but despite all of this, we see great promise.
Yes, since Eltek is a Norwegian company we have been working with the Norwegian trade mission and focused on developing Myanmar. In fact, we are currently building a solar hybrid system to be donated to Myanmar’s Green Economy - Green Growth Association (GEGG). This solution will be installed at the Myanmar Scientific and Technological Research Department in Yangon. The grand opening will be in December 2014 and will be attended by the Norwegian Royal family.
TowerXchange: When TowerXchange visited Myanmar in spring, there was a general assumption that off-grid sites would rely on DG or DG and batteries. It now looks like the local industry is going straight into green power. What has been your experience?
David Leal, Regional President (incoming)-APAC, Eltek:
The initial rollouts are all in cities where the grid is available and all the vendors are rushing against tight rollout deadlines in order to meet MNOs’ launch dates.
In spite of the fact that we are receiving more and more RFPs on green solutions, the actual deployment remains slow and we put this down to the fact that everyone is learning the challenges of doing business in Myanmar as they move forward. We do believe green deployment will be a long term reality in Myanmar so Eltek will continue in its investment in this area.
TowerXchange: Which model is going to be prevalent in Myanmar and beyond, in Asia? Upfront-capex or pure-opex? (as exemplified by Ooredoo’s shift from retaining power to sending out an RFP for an ESCO).
David Leal, Regional President (incoming)-APAC, Eltek:
We really think that the model battle will continue on for some time and is often dominated by where the financing is coming from and whether some of the new pop up companies will survive in the long term. From our side no matter which model is chosen, power is always needed so Eltek will always be there to support. We look forward to working with them all in light of Eltek’s slogan “Always On”!
Eltek will host a round table on ‘Technology versus cost in green deployment’ at the TowerXchange Meetup Asia, taking place on December 09 and 10 in Singapore. For more details, click here.
