Over the last twenty years IPT PowerTech’s business model has evolved as fast as their business has expanded geographically, and kept up with all of the latest technical and business model developments in power provision for telecoms infrastructure. We recently spoke with Khaled Habbal, VP & COO of IPT Powertech to hear about their continued expansion into new markets, and their continued investments into their workforce and commitment to community engagement.
TowerXchange: Please share an update on some of your latest offerings, projects and developments since we last spoke.
Khaled Habbal, VP & COO, IPT Powertech:
This was an exceptional year across all our geographies, including Africa, Middle East and Asia. We engaged in two large projects for IHS in Nigeria, supplying energy efficient power solutions including management and long-term maintenance, and OPEX optimization exercise under a long-term contract. We also signed a long-term contract with Ooredoo in Myanmar, providing managed services for the power of their entire network.
With offices in 11 countries, we serve top clients in the region, and it is with the dedication of our 2,500 experts that our portfolio encompasses thousands of implemented projects, delivered to more than 60 operators in more than 50 countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Sierra Leone Algeria, Morocco, Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan and many more.
While we have an operational presence in 11 countries in the MEA, Africa and South East Asia, we also have our own manufacturing facilities in Romania and Lebanon.
TowerXchange: How is the evolution of ‘energy as a service’ business models progressing in developing markets?
Khaled Habbal, VP & COO, IPT Powertech:
The energy as a service business model is a very interesting one. Some markets have stable, widely available grid access, such as Europe, North America, the Gulf region and many parts of Asia and Australia. In these markets telecom infrastructure has 99% grid connectivity and there are only battery backups which are rarely used; there isn’t much change in these areas in terms of energy requirements.
In markets like Myanmar, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa and Lebanon and others, grid stability is still a major challenge due to the quality of the grid and is undergoing a big evolution. Initially the majority of sites had two generators, and would run 24 hours a day in six hour shifts, requiring considerable focus on maintenance, extremely high level diesel consumption leading to high costs. Over the past few years, the price of diesel has increased a great deal, along with pressure to comply with carbon emissions standards. This has led to the introduction of batteries and hybrid systems to save on opex and reduce carbon footprints. Solar power is playing an increasing role in markets such as West Africa and the Middle East. DC generators, operating under variable speeds, solar panels, and different battery technologies have all been combined to reduce runtime and make systems more cost-efficient and more environmentally friendly. The most important element in this evolution is the provision of proper, timely and professional maintenance services to achieve a cost-efficient and optimal Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
TowerXchange: Could you give us an update on your activities in Myanmar? How are things changing on the ground and what impact do you expect the arrival of the fourth operator to have?
Khaled Habbal, VP & COO, IPT Powertech:
Myanmar is a very exciting market from many perspectives; we established our business there 18 months ago, just before signing our first contract with Ooredoo.
Myanmar has interesting potential for the future, and our growth there is stimulated by this region’s need for energy-efficient products and infrastructure services coupled with managed services and a guaranteed savings model /T-ESCO, adapted to the local market’s requirements.
The overall performance of the network has progressed tremendously, reaching more than 99% over the past period, by providing tailor-made, reliable, energy efficient hybrid and renewable energy solutions for more than 3,000 sites for Ooredoo Myanmar coupled with rollout services, operation and maintenance, fueling services, power management and power sharing, all while reducing carbon emission and being environmentally conscious.
We have established offices across Myanmar, with more than 280 professionals who joined our team. We are very keen not only on recruiting top notch people, but a lot of the best local talent. More than 85% of our Myanmar team members are locals, and we are planning to increase this to 99% over the next two years. We are recruiting locals and transferring knowledge whereby we ensure they are empowered with knowledge and experience to be leaders of the local organisation in the future.
On the other hand, our group is keen on putting CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiatives at the heart of its business strategy within the community by helping the local authorities during the monsoon season, contributing to local communities including material and financial investments.
Since more than 70% of sites in Myanmar are off grid, generators are used, creating noise and air pollution which are disturbing to local communities. Since we are conscious about this environmental challenge, we are investing in our solutions and maintenance cycles to ensure optimal reduction in generator runtime, making sites more efficient in terms of cost, pollution and noise reduction. We are working closely with operators and tower companies to provide power co-location wherever possible to reduce CO2 emissions; instead of two to three generators per tower, power co-location enables the allocation of the optimal number of generators on each site given the power needs of each operator.
As for the arrival of the forth operator, we are still in primary stage of the discussion. We are keen on proposing eco-friendly power solutions to all existent operators by suggesting a new concept: power co-location, mentioned above. This concept focuses on sharing the same power solutions and infrastructure between the operators, guaranteeing reduced capex and opex, while ensuring optimal TCO.
TowerXchange: And what can you tell us about the project in Nigeria?
Khaled Habbal, VP & COO, IPT Powertech:
Given IHS Nigeria’s size as the largest tower company in Africa, we are working closely with the group in Nigeria and other African countries.
We are engaged in Nigeria with IHS on the largest guaranteed savings project across the African continent. We are proud to be the one of the largest suppliers of power efficient solutions and one of the main contractors ensuring the guaranteed savings model.
The guaranteed savings model is a combination of the design, manufacturing, supply and deployment of energy efficient solutions along with field maintenance service and continuous opex and capex optimisation. The guaranteed savings model is a risk-free approach ensuring the operators and towercos full economisation/savings while maximising the lifetime of the equipment. We guarantee the performance and savings of our own solutions while respecting the contractual KPIs and SLAs.
The fact that our group is the only solution provider in the region offering and merging hybrid and renewable energy solutions with telecom infrastructure and field managed services and maintenance, and a pioneer in combining our product R&D to our assembly facilities, has made IPT Powertech Group well positioned to become a leader in the implementation of the guaranteed savings model in Nigeria.
TowerXchange: Do you have any upcoming plans for expansion of your footprint?
Khaled Habbal, VP & COO, IPT Powertech:
Our presence in Myanmar and our success in the relatively short period of 18 months made us keen on expanding further in Asia. IPT PowerTech’s team is always seeking new challenges where we can recreate new power solutions and add advanced features to our wide portfolio, and redefine new added services to guarantee optimal performance at lower cost possible in addition to adding value to our customers.
As for the geographic footprint, we are always looking forward to expand geographically into new territories as long as that growth is aligned with our strategic direction of the business and makes us able to expand and build our unique strength of combining the power expertise in telecom, service expertise in telecom and managed service expertise to deliver significant cost savings for our customers across the world.
Finally, our appetite for expansion and growth is driven by the hard work of our 2,500 specialists, the reason behind the strength, success and differentiation of the group.
IPT Powertech are sponsors of the 5th Annual TowerXchange Meetup Africa & Middle East, being held on 3-4 October at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg. Visit the website for more information
