TowerXchange recently paid a visit to edotco’s NOC at their headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to see the nerve centre of echo, edotco’s remote monitoring solution. echo enables edotco to pro-actively monitor and gather data on the performance of all passive infrastructure elements at sites across its footprint and transmit the information in real-time to the NOC. We were curious to find out more about the system and see firsthand how it is enabling operational excellence.
The echo NOC has an elaborate dashboard view over the workstations and four large screens that provide data on individual clients across the footprint with a series of sensors on each site that measure a range of systems including AC and DC power levels, real-time temperature data if there is a cabin, and cell levels for batteries. These sensors provide a host of data that ground crews can refer to and act on when necessary. echo also includes an automated alarm system that can automatically escalate to the appropriate level in the hierarchy when there is an incident, depending on the issue (e.g. site breach, fuel level drop, fire alarm).
The site managers in each country have access to the same dashboards, but only for their specific sites as access is profile-based. The field managers can view the dashboard on their computer or phone, and receive alerts via an app. Some markets such as Bangladesh capture a lot of different data; edotco offers a full end-to-end O&M service there so there is more data and more complexity, but this provides more opportunities for optimisation. Currently there are 2,100 sites with echo in Bangladesh, 3,000 in Malaysia and 44 in Sri Lanka; the plan is to roll out RMS across the whole footprint. edotco met its target of 5,000 in last year’s rollout, and this process is continuing in phases.
The team in the NOC is primarily focussed on data crunching and analytics, and they create dashboards based on the incoming raw transactional data. For example they can track energy usage patterns, how the site is behaving, and how much money is being spent operating it. The NOC has a group level view of all echo sites in the edotco footprint, and it can spot trends and situations where individual sites are operating inefficiently, or even spot outright fuel theft.
If a site is on-grid but is receiving low frequency power, they can see all three phases of power and identify when they are out of balance or insufficiently powered and receiving power on only one phase. On a lot of legacy sites the grid connection isn’t set up in the optimal manner, or hasn’t taken into account the increased requirements of new 3G or 4G equipment and the three phases need to be rebalanced. The data on grid and battery usage and charge cycles can help to identify sites that are less efficient, and determine how much can be saved over a certain time frame by servicing them, and how long it would take to recoup the cost of servicing. In many cases up to US$300 per month can be saved if the phases are balanced and the right level of grid, battery and generator usage is achieved. In Bangladesh there were 700 to 800 sites where this approach was applied and the savings can definitely be seen over time. Optimisation like this can also have a potentially positive impact on the lifespan of equipment, but this would be over at least a ten year period and so is hard to qualify at this stage.
In many cases up to US$300 per month can be saved if the phases are balanced and the right level of grid, battery and generator usage is achieved
echo also provides new data on parts of the site that had previously been overlooked including DG batteries. These batteries are needed to start the generator when it needs to go into action, much like a car. In the past the charge on these batteries wasn’t typically tracked and low battery levels often weren’t detected until the battery failed. edotco have been successfully tracking DG batteries and have identified batteries that needed to be replaced, which has a direct impact on uptime. In addition to this, echo also has the capability to track the performance of individual batteries. In the past when one battery was faulty the whole back of batteries would often be replaced. The data that echo now provides means they can identify individual faulty batteries and deal with them, which also helps improve uptime and reduces capex.
Another major area where echo makes a difference is in providing data to compare actual energy use with the amount that energy providers bill for. In the past they didn’t have the data to dispute bills and generally had to go along with the charges from the utility providers. Now with a full range of data on energy consumption across all sites in the region, edotco are in a position to identify discrepancies and dispute bills. In Bangladesh there was a case where 600 sites were billing a consistently higher amount, and thanks to the data on hand the utility company agreed to look at the metres and discovered that they needed servicing. They also find there are situations where the bill is based purely on an estimate which can also be disputed; these adjustments can lead to considerable savings.
Fuel theft is a challenge edotco faces in several markets, and echo is already enabling a rapid response; they’ve identified twelve to thirteen cases of fuel theft since last August, and there was one in Malaysia as recently as last month. The grid in Malaysia is good and the generators don’t generally run except for certain extreme circumstances; in this case the sensors detected a sudden drop in the fuel level at 3am and the field team was able to respond within 24 hours. In the past theft like this might have gone unnoticed for two to three months between site visits. All of the energy and fuel data can also be used to understand the basic patterns of each site, and introduce new efficient policies, such as providing just enough fuel for up to two days of uptime instead of always having the maximum amount of fuel on site. Maintaining excess fuel on site costs more, and can contribute to loss via theft. Sometimes local maintenance teams have agreements that don’t include specific guidelines on the number of trips, and this may result in inefficiencies. The edotco footprint is spread across several countries, and each market has its own problems, so there are definitely benefits to monitoring each holistically at group level.
The smart locks use the same system as a banking pass, providing a unique code each time the door is accessed, as well as a tracking mechanism. Since the installation of smart locks in Bangladesh there have been no thefts
The risk of theft means that security is a major issue, and the introduction of smart locks with digital keys purchased from Acsys has been very successful, especially in Bangladesh where 1,000 of these smart locks have been installed. These smart locks have replaced the old padlocks which had keys that could be easily copied so that if a theft occurred the perpetrator couldn’t be identified. The smart locks use the same system as a banking pass, providing a unique code each time the door is accessed, as well as a tracking mechanism. Since the installation of smart locks in Bangladesh there have been no thefts. Ultimately no system is fool-proof, and in some cases entire cabins are stolen with industrial equipment, as has happened even here in Malaysia in the past; but the real-time data on site access has proven effective in stopping small-scale thefts.
edotco is using the data collected from echo to build dashboards to help management make decisions on tower operations. Last year was mostly focussed on rolling out the systems, but now that these are in place the data has already been put into use and is having a strong impact. edotco have worked closely with supplier Invendis to add an analytical layer to the platform, and they have discussed what they would like to see in the next releases of the OS, and shared a lot of input on which datasets should be built in to streamline use. Their wish list of tools for the next release includes Excel integration, and the ability to generate a list of sites based on specific issues such as battery or fuel consumption. Flexible and dynamic reporting that allows a focus on, for example, a specific area like grid, by month, and by region instead of a dump of all of the data will help to make the system even more effective going forward.
