Camusat on its unique integrated approach to energy management

Camusat is one of the global leaders in the telecom infrastructure service industry, with over 2,900 employees and operations across five continents working on five business lines including telecom site construction and installation, power systems and renewable energy, active equipment installation, fixed and fibre networks deployment and managed services.

In 2017, Camusat formed Aktivco, its in-house financial vehicle with capabilities to deploy its investments in energy projects. In this interview, Thibaut De Rodellec, Chief Investment Officer at Camusat and CEO of Aktivco, shares his perspectives on the ESCO (energy service company) model, its applicability to the CALA telecom industry and the type of savings customers can expect.

TowerXchange: Could you please re-introduce Aktivco and yourself to our CALA readers?

Group Camusat is a telecom service provider with operations in 32 countries, 20 of which are in Africa and 12 in other geographies. The Group has been active for over 20 years now and two years ago, we decided to create a fully owned subsidiary, Aktivco, which serves as our investment vehicle for ESCO projects. Today Aktivco is the largest ESCO in Africa with over 2,000 sites across four countries in our portfolio and we target to manage 10,000 sites in the coming three years. We have a clear strategy to bring every day more renewable energy sources on telecom sites to decrease fuel consumption, operational needs and carbon footprint.

TowerXchange: What is an ESCO and how does it operate?

First of all, there are quite a few “ESCO-like” entities that don’t operate under the proper model. For us, an ESCO is a company entirely dedicated to energy services. An ESCO is usually in charge of supplying 100% of the energy to a given telecom site and delivering very demanding SLAs to our final customers.

For MNOs and towercos, the main drivers to work with an ESCO are to get rid of the complexities of energy management operations, to outsource other aspects such as security or maintenance while generating strong savings, such as the cancellation of the invested capex over ten years and significant opex decrease. Last but not least, ESCOs allow operators to considerably reduce their carbon footprint by minimising the need for gensets and fossil fuels in general.

In a nutshell, the ESCO model is all about operations and efficiency. This is why in Africa, there are very clear reasons for MNOs to adopt this model and up to date, five leading operators already launched the ESCO model across that continent.

TowerXchange: What are Camusat’s strengths? And why should MNOs and towercos select you as a partner?

Camusat Group is one of the market leaders in the implementation of telecom infrastructures and one of the most experienced companies in fixed and mobile networks deployment. We support telecom actors to efficiently build and optimise their network development by integrating the very latest telecom technologies through our operational company Camusat. In addition, we offer energy infrastructures outsourcing solutions thanks to our dedicated investment vehicle, Aktivco.

This integrated approach combining a full scope of telecom services for MNOs and towercos, together with energy services, is unique and the founding principle of our ESCO offer.

TowerXchange: What are the typical characteristics of an ESCO contract?

There are some common criteria to any ESCO contract, no matter then counterpart. They are long term (10 years or longer), include very high level of SLAs (power uptime, time to repair, site access, et cetera), and aim at maximising energy sources while ensuring network efficiency.

On top of that, customers often choose to include other services, such as maintenance of the tower equipment, security of the sites and the maintenance of active equipment. For them, we can definitely become a reliable single point of contact (SPOC).

TowerXchange: What kind of savings can you guarantee to your customers?

The investment and savings for on-grid sites aren’t the same as those of off-grid ones.

In Africa, 30% of the sites we manage are on-grid and for those, we are able to provide backup solutions plus solar (if possible) to optimise energy consumption and monitor the efficiency of the site. In fact, most of those sites and their power operations aren’t properly managed. Consumption is often too high or the selected backup isn’t right.

For off-grid sites, savings can depend on the characteristics of each site but on average we are able to decrease the TCO of a site by 30%.

TowerXchange: Please share your plans with regards to Group Camusat expansion across Latin America.

We already run operations in the Caribbean, where Camusat is a strong player in telecom and fibre deployment as well as energy equipment installation. We have over 700 employees in the region and enjoy a very deep knowledge of its complexities and opportunities.

There is a very strong demand for our traditional telecom activities in Latin America from MNOs. Such demand is reinforced by our will to duplicate our successful ESCO African model. Discussions with both MNOs and towercos are ongoing and negotiations are in process. Our African experience can serve to show potential customers the feasibility of this model and how skilled we are in handling complex projects in Latin America and beyond.