ME Newswire / Business Wire
NEW DELHI & LONDON. - Tuesday, January 14th 2014
Multi-million dollar, multi-year agreement provides cost-efficient power for telecom towers across India
Employs advanced energy solutions, including proprietary fuel cell technology, to reduce cost and carbon footprint
India’s fast-growing telecoms market depends on 425,000 towers and consumes c.2.6 billion litres of costly diesel a year, eroding industry profits
Nearly three-quarters of towers do not have grid power for at least eight hours a day and rely on diesel-powered generators
Indian market opportunity worth as much as $2.8 billion a year
Landmark deal set to be replicated across other emerging markets
Intelligent Energy, the global power technology company, and NSR controlled Ascend Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited ("Ascend Telecom”), serving all licensed Mobile Network Operators in India, have signed a landmark multi-year agreement to provide efficient power for telecom towers across India. The collaboration focuses on delivering cost-effective, clean energy solutions, efficient energy management and reducing the environmental impact of India’s widespread telecom towers across urban, sub-urban and rural areas.
The fast-growing Indian mobile telecommunications industry currently has some 425,000 telecom towers. However, nearly three-quarters of these do not have grid power for eight hours or more each day due to power cuts and rely on generators powered by diesel, the majority of the fuel imported at significant cost to the Indian economy, in order for consumers to make mobile phone calls. India’s telecom tower generators consume around 2.6 billion litres of diesel a year - making the industry the second-largest consumer of diesel in the country – and, despite government subsidies for diesel fuel, operate at dollar-per-kilowatt-hour rates which are more than 10 times the cost of grid electricity in India. This, in turn, is eroding the profits of India’s mobile service providers. Intelligent Energy, which delivers efficient and clean energy technology for the global consumer electronics, automotive and stationary power markets, is working on providing improved, clean and cost-efficient power solutions including by assisting in the management of this power generation and, over time, by deploying its proprietary zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell technology in the generators.
Under the agreement, Intelligent Energy, through its wholly owned Indian division Essential Energy India Pvt Limited, is integrating effective Power Management Solutions for power installed at Ascend Telecom towers. Ascend operates telecom towers across India with an installed power base of some 40MW. The partnership uses Ascend Telecom’s extensive field service capability to deploy the most efficient power solutions for Telecom tower requirements. This includes installation of Intelligent Energy’s advanced power solutions including fuel cell power systems with a view to reducing both operating costs and the carbon footprint relative to the current traditional diesel generators.
Dr. Henri Winand, Chief Executive Officer of Intelligent Energy Holdings plc said: "This is a landmark deal which holds out the prospect of real and significant cost reductions for the Indian mobile telecommunications industry. Because of its sheer size and the expectation that the number of telecom towers will almost double to 800,000 by 2020, India represents a huge opportunity. The market is already worth as much as $2.8 billion a year. The collaboration with Ascend alone is the equivalent of providing power to all the telecom towers in greater London serving more than 10 million end-consumers or about one-sixth of the UK population. Intelligent Energy’s disruptive, proprietary fuel cell technology combined with a unique business approach represents a significant barrier to entry for other power companies seeking to enter the market place. We are able to deliver a compelling solution for the vast untapped distributed power management market in India. We also see scope to replicate this model across emerging markets in Africa and Southeast Asia.”
Mr. Sushil Kumar Chaturvedi, CEO, Ascend Telecom said: "Ascend is committed to providing industry-leading telecom infrastructure solution to its customers. The ability of our customers to offer anytime, anywhere mobile connectivity relies on the promise of Ascend’s always-on telecom towers. Intelligent Energy’s efficient green technology and power management solution further strengthens Ascend’s efforts to ensure the delivery of this promise to our customers. This partnership is utilising mutual strengths to deliver innovative, reliable, and clean distributed power management systems for the Indian market in line with the emission targets set by the country’s regulators.”
Intelligent Energy intends to extend the distributed power management offer to other telecom and tower companies that face similar challenges of intermittent and unreliable electricity supply, and are looking for clean power systems. The two companies will explore close working relationships and strategic partnerships with technology, equipment and service providers over the next few months to help optimise the distributed power management solutions.
Ascend Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited, a New Silk Route (NSR) and IL&FS investee company, is a technology driven provider of world class passive telecom infrastructure on a shared, multi tenancy basis for the mobile services and wireless sector in India.
New Silk Route is a leading Asia-focused growth capital firm founded in 2006 with $1.4 billion under management, focused on the Indian subcontinent, as well as other rapidly growing economies in Asia and the Middle East. Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) is one of India's premier infrastructure development and finance company. Ascend is a Category-I Infrastructure Provider (IP-I) registered with the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. Ascend Telecom is ISO 9001:2008 certified for operational excellence across all geographies of operation. It is focussed on leveraging technology and providing customers world class service by having in-House operation and maintenance, State of art NOC and a strong R&D team. Ascend Telecom provides services for site location, design, execution, maintenance & Energy Management of infrastructure for telecom network operators.
For more information on Ascend Telecom Infrastructure (P) limited, please visit www.ascendtele.com
About Intelligent Energy
Intelligent Energy delivers efficient and clean energy technology for the global consumer electronics, automotive and stationary power markets, with its industry leading power density performance – from compact energy packs for mobile devices, to power-trains for zero-emission vehicles, and stationary power units for the always-on infrastructure.
Our unique technology architecture is used by global blue chip companies to create differentiated, cost-efficient fuel cell power systems for mass market applications. It enables Intelligent Energy and our industry partners to solve the challenges of continuous power and productivity, by creating convenient everyday energy solutions to power your life.
Intelligent Energy operates globally, with offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
To view Intelligent Energy’s white paper, ‘The True Cost of Providing Energy to Telecom Towers in India,’ please follow the link below:
http://www.intelligent-energy.com/stationary-power/what-we-can-do
More information on Intelligent Energy is available at www.intelligent-energy.com, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, WordPress and LinkedIn.
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Contacts
Intelligent Energy
Dr. Jon Moore, +44 15 0927 1271
Director of Communications
jon.moore@intelligent-energy.com
Powerscourt
Matthew Fletcher / Rob Greening
+44 20 7250 1446
ie@powerscourt-group.com
Racepoint Group
Sukul Bagai / Elijah Lawal
+44 20 8811 2474
intelligentenergyuk@racepointgroup.com
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