The rising cost of electricity

Hi Everyone,

One of the subjects close to me at the moment is the high price of electricity and its impact on wireless and mobile networks here in Australia and around the world.  Here, years of deferred spending on upgrading electricity networks has reached the point that now many tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of distribution poles and endless kilometres of wire need to be installed and transmission networks need upgrading as well.  This will not happen overnight and while smart networks will certainly help with load management it is a simple fact that huge spending is required and guess who will be invited to pay for it - that's right - the consumers.

Here is a press article on this:  http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/electricity-bills-to-go-up-again--by-21-per-cent-in-the-city-20120613-20957.html which confirms that this is happening now - over 20% in electricity price rises now and more pain to come.

Now while I could spout forth here about the many fine qualities of GeoStrut carbon fibre poles and monopoles and how they could be used to great effect to dramatically reduce the capital costs of these required pole and tower works this blog is actually about power. (Hey but if anyone in the Australian powerline industry reads this feel free to call us!!!)

In the wireless arena for small operators right through to major mobile operators, electricity has become a major operational expense - a mains connected site in the middle of Sydney with power costs increasing at 25% before the carbon tax comes in is as big a cost headache as a non mains connected site in India running on diesel or solar combo.  As it becomes vital for operators to squeeze every last cent/ rupee/pence out of the network operational costs to deal with ultra competitive call/data tarrifs and increasing profit distress then electrical consumption needs to be placed firmly under the microscope.

There is a lot of solar, hydrogen and semi hybrid solutions out there - most of which have been designed as a solution for remote sites running on diesel but they mostly are a fix for only part of the problem also - and this is truly the biggest issue of them all- they require a huge amounts of capital expenditure to deploy - thus further straining the bottom line of operators.

So how to solve this issue in the manner that works for the wireless and mobile operators as well as the equipment provider?  Well let me just ask this - if there was a way of installing a network wide solution that not only made the sites more efficient but reduced their power consumption drastically (over 80% certified on diesel sites) and that solution came at no cost in capex - then wouldn't you as a wireless or mobile network operator want to deploy it?

In actual fact the question really is:  "faced with rising power costs can you afford not to deploy it?"