Connecting telecom power systems to mini-grids offers an additional layer of infrastructure sharing which can help improve the economics of a cell site. To date, the rollout of such projects in rural Africa has been limited but Ascot Industrial and their partners plan to change this. TowerXchange speak to Ascot Industrial’s Rocco Incardona to learn more about the mini-grid projects they have been working on.
TowerXchange: We understand Ascot to be involved in a telecom mini-grid project in Africa, please can you share some of the details of this project?
Rocco Incardona, Area Manager, Africa, Ascot Industrial:
Ascot have joined forces with an operator and a local managed service company in the market to build a project which suppliers power not only to the tower but also to the local community surrounding the tower. In this instance, the operator has purchased the power equipment and mini-grid infrastructure, Ascot has supplied, delivered and installed the power equipment and our local partner is building the mini-grid and will maintain the power equipment. It is an interesting project as it is win-win for all parties.
TowerXchange: Can you explain how engagement with the community was managed, what their power requirements are and how billing will be managed?
Rocco Incardona, Area Manager, Africa, Ascot Industrial:
The first step in engaging with the community was to conduct a series of interviews to understand the daily energy needs of the inhabitants, both in terms of volume of power required and also in terms of time of usage. The community surrounding this particular tower has around 300 inhabitants which showed a particularly high interest in bringing power to the village and that, coupled with the fact that the village had comparably good transport infrastructure in place to reach it, made it a leading candidate for such a microgrid system.
In terms of the power requirements, the system has been sized to provide basic lighting and ventilation (typically three bulbs and two fan vents per hut) as well as to enable inhabitants to power their TV, radio and mobile phones in their homes. In addition to this, electricity is also used to run a fridge in which to store medicines for the entire community as well as power a laptop and a sound system for the village. Should power requirements increase we can increase generation capacity through the addition of further PV panels or increasing the diesel generator runtime.
When it comes to managing the billing and payment, this is the most difficult task. In order to make the operation as simple as possible we have put in place prepaid kWh meters with which to manage the process.
TowerXchange: How should the provision of power to the local community improve the economics of the cell site?
Rocco Incardona, Area Manager, Africa, Ascot Industrial:
With energy now being supplied to the local community new businesses have started to spring up. Villagers have opened small shops through which to sell cell phones and scratch cards and small industrial activities such as welding and grain mills have been developed. As inhabitants now have the ability to charge their mobile phones we have also seen revenues from mobile phone usage shoot up. As a result of all this, the operator has experienced a huge increase in cell site revenue.
TowerXchange: Do you see this model as being readily replicable across other sites?
Rocco Incardona, Area Manager, Africa, Ascot Industrial: This model can easily be replicated in all sites which are surrounding by rural villages. We forecast that we will roll this model out across approximately 150 sites in the next two years.
TowerXchange: What are some of the biggest challenges in these kind of projects?
Rocco Incardona, Area Manager, Africa, Ascot Industrial:
In addition to managing the payment process the other biggest challenge is in sizing the system correctly. When conducting interviews in the early stages the community may promise to consume a certain quantity of energy, but after building the system only a small proportion of the energy being generated is consumed. The biggest risk you run is in oversizing the system.
TowerXchange: How are Ascot positioned to deal with some of the challenges in putting in place such systems?
Rocco Incardona, Area Manager, Africa, Ascot Industrial:
The benefit of Ascot’s solution is its scalability; we can start with a 50kW system and build this up to 1MW as the amount of power being consumed by the local community grows. This allows us to overcome the problem of oversizing the initial system; rollout of power generation equipment can be based upon actual power consumption requirements.
TowerXchange: What kind of maintenance and security is required for the system?
Rocco Incardona, Area Manager, Africa, Ascot Industrial:
Periodic routine cleaning of the PV panels along with battery and diesel generator maintenance is required to ensure that the system is running optimally. When it comes to security concerns, we haven’t needed to install any particular anti-theft systems as the local community itself acts as the guardian of the equipment, a real benefit to the project.
