Doubling their footprint from 1,000 to around 2,000 towers through a massive roll out in a burgeoning Myanmar tower market has enabled Heliocentris to refine their offering not only in terms of technology but also process, partnership and flexibility. They’re now keen to take the lessons learned in Asia and apply them in the African market, where their presence is already established and growing.
TowerXchange: Tell us about your current offering and footprint.
Jens Fiedler, VP Sales & Marketing, Heliocentris:
Heliocentris offers energy solutions for autonomous, complementary and emergency power supply of distributed stationary applications, supplemented by I&C, O&M services and financing to enable offering of opex-like business models to customers, especially tower companies. We are component agnostic, have a world class remote energy management system and a vertical technology portfolio enabling completely autarkic carbon free solutions based on fuel cells and electrolyzer products combined with solar technology. This is unique in the market and offers the customer not only solution engineering in order to optimise solutions to their specific needs, but also enables us to offer financed power businesses, up to a full ‘Power As A Service’ (PAAS) offering, for which Heliocentris is well prepared.
The rollout in Myanmar of close to 1,000 sites over the past year demonstrated the strength of our organisation and partners, and we are currently raising the footprint to above 2,000 sites equipped with our advance energy management system for operators and towercos. Myanmar now represents around 50% of our footprint and Africa around 30%, although we expect to grow our business there.
Andrew Gruar, Business Development Manager, Heliocentris:
We have deployed networks in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and also deployed networks with some of the Middle Eastern MNOs including Etisalat and Du. Over the last year we’ve doubled our operational sites footprint. Based on customer demand, we have been deploying an average of 20 sites, at peak even up to 70 greenfield sites per week in Myanmar. That’s a compliment to the product but also to our ability to commission teams, interoperate with other vendors’ equipment and manage ongoing O&M through a power NOC. We can replicate that in Africa and apply the same competence where the market isn’t focused on both legacy and greenfield sites.
TowerXchange: How has Heliocentris grown in the tower market and what has fuelled that growth?
Jens Fiedler, VP Sales & Marketing, Heliocentris:
Years of expertise in energy management and hybrid solutions is the foundation of our business which has translated into substantial growth. Years of development of our advanced and field-proven energy management system yielded a leading approach to remote management of hybrid power solutions for telcos and other businesses. The uptime we achieved - Quad 9 (99.99% uptime) - in Myanmar is a big success for our clients and for our system.
In terms of the origin of the business, the first key success for us was in the Middle East with companies like Du, later on supplemented by business in Africa then in Asia.
Another significant commercial change which took place last year is that we’re now publicly listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange. This improves our ability to finance and support different service models and gives us more scope to offer clients mutually beneficial business models.
We also have another business in education and research. We call it ‘empowering the future engineers’ and we offer services and products starting from schools and into universities and companies. Our aim is to provide the tools to educate future engineers about renewable power and systems so people can work with solar power and fuel cells et cetera and understand them better. It’s a worldwide project: we have business in latin America, Africa and North America.
Andrew Gruar, Business Development Manager, Heliocentris:
From our recent conversations with several African towercos we know that in Africa they have been through at least two generations of remote monitoring and energy hybrid systems. A variety of technologies have been deployed to varying degrees of success, meaning every three years infrastructure owners ended up spending more money trying to improve power systems and control. We want to help create an environment where we can help to train our clients’ workforces, in product and process, create a competence centre and ensure installed systems are properly looked after in the field.
TowerXchange: How have you found customer response to your solution in the African market? Which products are most popular and how does that vary across the continent?
Dr Sakib Khan, General Manager sub-Saharan Africa, Heliocentris:
Due to the diversity of the African telecommunications market Heliocentris is well placed to offer a wide range of power solutions, from autonomous solar and fuel cell solutions to generator/battery hybrid systems through to simple remote monitoring. The response from African customers has been extremely positive, in particular due to the fact we have an office with supporting staff based in Johannesburg who are extremely well versed in doing business in Africa, and rapidly supporting projects in Africa. Our battery/genest hybrid system, enabled by our energy management system has been very well received due to the significant savings it offers. Our remote management NOC software receives praise from our users, as well as our flexibility in providing customized solutions.
TowerXchange: As operators turn their attention to meeting regulatory requirements in rural areas and on maximising capacity through urban infill, do you see a change in what the market demands?
Dr Sakib Khan, General Manager sub-Saharan Africa, Heliocentris:
Towercos are now some way through acquiring and optimising the ‘most desirable sites’ in Africa’s most densely populated areas, and now are asked by operators, through build to suit programes, to increase number of sites and colocations in rural and off grid sites.
This drives interest in ‘Fit & Forget’ solutions: power cubes, solar integration et cetera; minimising the use of ‘technology’ and focusing on minimal maintenance, total system deployments. The ultimate goal would be to purchase power, not solutions. However Heliocentris is prepared to support almost every site situation with an optimum power solution while also reducing carbon emissions.
Moreover, we are exploring how we can support tower companies and MNO’s in providing power to remote communities with the BTS site as the “anchor” in a mini-grid construct. This enables the use of productive power instead of just consumptive power for communities and increases social development.
TowerXchange: In a sector where both capex and opex are kept to a minimum, can you talk us through the numbers, which make your solution stack up?
Jens Fiedler, VP Sales & Marketing, Heliocentris:
We can’t talk about specific numbers since each and every solution differs but mostly there is strong interest in ROI of less than three years and provision of financing on a long term basis. Even where fuel is a pass-through there are opportunities to save money and resources, which are distributed either through shared saving models or fixed rates which reduce over time. It’s hard for renewables like solar power to deliver that kind of ROI within three years however we have solutions and cases which can support this kind of requirement.
TowerXchange: Tell us more about operations and maintenance? How does that compare to the other energy options on the market?
Jens Fiedler, VP Sales & Marketing, Heliocentris:
O&M is the biggest part of a long term contract so people are interested to reduce the burden here. You can have highly trained people but the equipment should be easy to use and manage remotely, providing for flexibility in terms of operational costs. It is extremely important to implement efficient solutions and processes, prepared for multi-tenant growth, long life utilisation of components such as batteries, and the lowest possible number of maintenance site visits.
We installed a monitoring system for a client in the Middle East and just through raising visibility we reduced fuel loss by 20%. There are companies in the market who offer tools and monitoring across the entire supply chain, and they have revealed that most of the theft takes place within the supply chain, not on site. With this in mind we’re on the way to implementing mobile operations within our offering to reduce theft.
TowerXchange: What are your ambitions for the future? As the African market shifts towards independent towercos, are you finding a need to change your services to suit?
Jens Fiedler, VP Sales & Marketing, Heliocentris:
Heliocentris have a strong foundation in the design and delivery of Energy Solutions, including Energy Management, RMS, Hybrids, Batteries, Solar & Fuel Cells. Our ambition is to provide TowerCos with Certified I&C and O&M services, direct or through partners, to ensure the longevity and cost benefit is sustained in the African market.
As Towercos scale, increasing tenancy ratios, building new sites, winning new clients, we aspire to support their technology and process advances, and offer solutions and business models, including finance/risk share for mutual benefit. Our ambition – to invest in Africa.
