HYBRICO: a strong ESCO born in Central America

HYBRICO is one of the first energy companies to land an ESCO contract in Central America. The energy provider has successfully deployed its hybrid system for an operator in a very challenging region of Honduras, reducing energy cost, increasing site uptime and minimising operational hurdles. TowerXchange talked with Luis del Cid, HYBRICO’s CEO and Co-Founder, about the company’s vision and ambitions as well as the energy challenges faced by regional telecom players.

TowerXchange: Could you please introduce HYBRICO and yourself to our readers?

HYBRICO designs, assembles and operates hybrid power and storage solutions for off-grid and on-grid telecom sites with a state-of-the-art monitoring system. We offer our services both with a capex model (where we offer a turnkey EPC for the installation of our systems) or as an end-to-end “energy-as-a-service” solution. 

In terms of my personal background, I’ve been active in the telecom industry for approximately 15 years. I ran Claro’s operations in Honduras and launched Costa Rica’s subsidiary. After that, I was the CEO of Telesoluciones, which at the time was the largest provider of O&M services for active and passive infrastructure in Central America, with over 7,000 sites under management.

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

HYBRICO is one of the first movers in Latin America providing full end-to-end “energy-as-a-service” and “battery-as-a-service” solutions for off-grid, bad-grid and on-grid sites. We design our own technology and have deep expertise in R&D, O&M and finance. We are one of the very few players with a critical mass of installed sites in the region with demonstrable energy cost savings and excellent site uptime.

TowerXchange: Could you describe your business model and share some success stories in Latin America?

Under our “energy-as-a-service” solution, our customer does not have to make an upfront investment. HYBRICO retains ownership of the assets and bills the customer a fixed monthly fee under a long-term contract subject to a very high uptime SLA. This allows the customer to reduce energy costs, focus its scarce Capex budget on its core telecom business and leave the management of site energy to experts.

In terms of success stories, we can point to our installation of hybrid systems for a major multinational MNO in the island of Roatan and the Mosquitia region of Honduras. Prior to the installation of our solution, our customer was experiencing high energy costs, low site availability and complex operational challenges. These regions were the worst in Honduras, due to the terrain, climate conditions and poor technical capabilities of local contractors. With our solution, our customer has significantly reduced energy costs, increased site availability and minimised operational complexity, transforming these regions into one of the best performing in the country in terms of uptime and cost efficiency.

We have also been very successful in raising capital from international institutional investors to fund our energy-as-a-service business.  Our shareholders and investors today include the Inter-American Development Bank and Empresas Publicas de Medellin, a leading Latin American multi-utility.

TowerXchange: What are the main energy challenges that operators and towercos are facing in the region and how are you helping them?

We generally say the challenges are the typical ones in emerging markets, but the reality is different. The real differentiator is one’s capacity to implement plans simultaneously in economically volatile countries that lack technical know-how. In order to deliver high uptime at the lowest cost possible, we must develop a deep understanding of key factors that guarantee a sustainable business model while addressing high energy costs, low site availability, complicated fuel hauling logistics, theft, vandalism, and quality of local labor among others. Our solution eliminates all these headaches and complexity as it is a complete outsourcing of all energy needs with guaranteed savings and high uptime backed by a strict SLA.

TowerXchange: What are some of the peculiar complexities of operating an ESCO in CALA?

At present we only operate in CALA, but I would say that compared to other regions such as Africa or India, CALA faces important differences due to scale of operations, geographic dispersion, regulation and grid penetration. MNOs face cost and uptime challenge in all regions, only as a result of different factors that must be addressed in a customized manner. Having a cost-effective solution in CALA is not that easy, because you’re competing against the grid, not only against diesel. HYBRICO has developed efficient solutions for every scenario, capable of guaranteeing high SLAs through flawless field execution to deliver green uptime.