GS Yuasa: More than 100 years of power storage expertise

GS Yuasa was funded in 2004 but its history goes back more than 100 years when two Japanese energy storage experts joined forces and became one of the biggest battery providers for the global telecoms industry. From lithium batteries to lighting equipment, the company provides a wide range of power and storage solutions to towercos and operators from all across the world and its international footprint expands across 19 countries. 

TowerXchange: Please introduce your company. Where do you fit in the telecoms infrastructure ecosystem?

GS Yuasa was founded 14 years ago when GS and Yuasa, two companies with 100 years of history, merged. We manufacture and supply batteries, power supply systems, lighting equipment and other special electrical equipment to different clients including MNOs, towercos, data centres, renewable energy providers, security systems and other specialised segments such as submarine, aircraft and satellites providers. We operate all across the globe and have 39 offices in 19 different countries.

For our telecommunications clients - mainly towercos and MNOs - we provide all kind of energy equipment including lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion batteries (LIB), nickel-cadmium batteries (Ni-Cd) and different power supply systems.

TowerXchange: What are the main challenges that your telecom clients are facing and how are you addressing them?

When it comes to batteries, there is always a battle between Capex and the performance level of the mobile network. Battery prices are now getting lower, but unfortunately the performance of some lower priced products has not reached the quality that most customers expect. Lower Capex tend to lead to higher Opex.

We have been receiving positive feedback from our clients, who are satisfied with our batteries’ performance, even though prices are slightly higher than other solutions in the market. Our products aim to provide a lower, long-term Opex to our customers. Moreover, we aim to decrease the product costs as much as we can by reducing manufacturing processes expenditures while maintaining and delivering high quality services.

TowerXchange: What are the main characteristics of your solutions and how does its cost and performance compare to that of traditional VRLA batteries?

We identify two types of tower sites based on their grid accessibility: good or poor grid. We aim to provide an optimal solution and based on the site grid accessibility we install lithium-ion or lead-acid technologies.

MNOs are increasingly demanding solutions to provide backup power to sites with poor grid connectivity. In those instances, lithium-ion batteries provide notable advantages as they have a superior cyclic performance and charge quicker.

On the other hand, traditional VRLA have a lower cost and their capabilities have been demonstrated during the years. Therefore, they are a very good backup option on sites with good grid access and provide great cost efficiency and reliability.

TowerXchange: What warranty and after sales support do you offer?

Firstly, I would like to address that our main concern is always quality. As a manufacturer, gaining the trust of our customers and retaining it is critical. Based on our historical record, I can say that the manufacturing defect ratio of our products is extremely low and that is the best guarantee we can offer to our clients. On the other hand, we also have a deep understanding of the current market requirements and their need of a long-term unconditional guarantee. This is all very challenging for us because the environmental conditions of each client and each site are different, but we are always open to discuss the optimal warranties, conditions and after sales support on a case by case basis.

We believe in providing a high level of reliability and after sales support during and even after warranty period so that we can help our clients in maintaining a high quality service.

TowerXchange: Please sum up how you would differentiate your solution from your competitors.

I am quite sure that 100 years of history differentiate us from our competitors.

As mentioned earlier, GS Yuasa Corporation has evolved from two companies engaged in the development and manufacture of storage batteries in Japan with a long history: Japan Storage Battery Co., Ltd. and Yuasa Storage Battery Co., Ltd. (later Yuasa Corporation) established in 1917 and 1918 respectively. Ever since their beginnings, these two companies have continuously honed their skills and played a major role in the advancement of battery technology. Aiming for further progress, the two companies merged their management in 2004. In 2017, GS Yuasa Group employed more than 15,000 people at 39 bases across 19 countries.

Looking back upon this history, many milestones come to mind. Our batteries served to power the telecommunications equipment that supported the development of wireless communications in the early 20th century.  In the starting days of industrialisation, when power generation equipment in Japan was still rudimentary, auxiliary batteries were an important product category, and lead-acid batteries for automobiles helped to accelerate the post-war motorisation. The founders of both companies placed greater emphasis on innovative thinking and a spirit of challenge, which became the driving force for creating products that helped to resolve social issues of the time. This history and thinking forms GS Yuasa Group’s DNA and is reflected in our products.

Secondly, we massively invest in research and development and all our products are produced in our own facilities. We have a wide range of different products so we are able to provide a personalised, optimal solution for each case while guaranteeing the best cost and quality. Recently, we have launched our SLR line of stationary lead-acid batteries for large-capacity power storage systems, featuring super long life and world leading cycle life performance. In addition to the existing 1000Ah SLR-1000, we have introduced the SLR-500 model in 2017. Furthermore, we are conducting extensive research for the development and improvement of LIB solutions by exploring how to increase the reliability, safety and energy density of medium and large-sized batteries. We are exploring materials for next-generation positive and negative electrodes aiming to improve their capabilities for automotive, submarine, aircraft and spacecraft applications.