Two major South African telcos, MTN and Vodacom, have been seeking innovative solutions to minimise the impact of load shedding, while they decarbonise their footprints.
Eskom has been battling with grid capacity and has been instituting load shedding. Recently, the power utility announced that it might increase load shedding to Stage 8.
Telcos are one of the sectors that have been massively impacted by power cuts. Load shedding has resulted in an increase in theft and vandalism of base stations of the mobile operators.
Mobile operator MTN South Africa this week announced that it had launched an RFI (request for information) for zero carbon renewable “wheeling” and on-site renewable solutions for various data centres and base transceiver station (BTS) sites across South Africa.
Wheeling is the delivery of energy from a generator to an end-user located in another area through the use of existing distribution or transmission networks.
Since 2008, Eskom has approved third-party wheeling for the physical export of energy onto the national grid by independent power producers (IPP).
The group said at the same time it had also signed its first power purchase agreement (PPA) with a renewable power producer, and its first project in a major solar renewable energy generation roll-out will be launched soon.
The group said it had signed a pledge with the SBTi, which defines and promotes best practice in science-based target setting, that formally commits MTN to a Net Zero 2040 ambition.
MTN South Africa CEO Charles Molapisi said: “Various initiatives have begun to achieve this, including the construction of a solar park at the MTN headquarters in Johannesburg, the signing of the first power purchase agreement (PPA) with a renewable power producer and testing numerous solutions for further deployment.”
MTN said its hybrid energy RFI called for applicants to deliver innovative solutions across solar, wind, hydro and any alternative innovative solution that ensured there were no emissions associated with the generation of the energy.
“Our aim with these two RFIs is to gain an edge through renewable energy solutions across the MTN footprint. Given the various challenges in South Africa, solutions must be scalable and offer high availability and efficiency.
“Hybrid renewable energy systems provide green energy to power assets sustainably, reducing reliance on unstable grids and the carbon-emitting fuels that are driving global warming,” said Molapisi.
He said MTN continued to harness best-in-breed technology to ensure it drove sustainable solutions across its network.
“Innovation in generating green energy is critical in achieving MTN net zero goals as we move towards fulfilment of our Ambition 2025 strategy,” Molapisi said.
MTN SA said it aimed to ensure that these projects prove seamless integration with its telecommunication equipment to provide hybrid renewable energy generation for BTS sites and other asset classes.
“By substituting fossil fuel-fed run time with alternative energy, a further benefit is that there will be a reduction in the amount of diesel burnt per site by reducing generator run hours,” it said.
According to the group, MTN Group president and CEO Ralph Mupita signed the SBTi pledge and 2040 target in 2021.
“This implies that our carbon emissions must be balanced and means that we need to apply more low-carbon and carbon-zero approaches. It entails utilising goods and services with zero or low carbon emissions, aligned with global standards. The sustainability projects we are rolling out in South Africa are aimed at doing just that,” said Molapisi.
To play its role in driving sustainability and meeting net-zero emission goals, MTN SA was making strides in the roll-out of a four-phase green energy programme.
“Planned initiatives include on-site renewable deployment, off-site renewable power purchase agreements and driving energy efficiencies at technical buildings, corporate buildings and technical infrastructure. This includes energy-efficient lighting replacement and the decommissioning and removal of legacy high-energy redundant hardware.
“Phase one of the approach involves transforming the 14th Avenue MTN campus into a solar park, which will see 40% less dependency on grid electricity. After performing technical studies on the campus, the preferred solution will see solar PV panels being placed at the campus, with a battery energy storage system.”
Meanwhile, Vodacom last year outlined its intentions to start a pilot with Eskom in a bid to source all its electricity from independent suppliers – a virtual wheeling platform concept that could decrease load shedding risks and assist it and other companies with allocated electricity demand profiles to meet their decarbonisation goals.
The group said the concept was about accumulating electricity consumed across different locations and reconcile that with aggregated renewable electricity produced by IPPs.
Explaining the concept Vodacom said: “Vodacom pays for all the energy that is produced by the IPPs, and Eskom refunds Vodacom for all IPP-produced energy consumed, as aggregated across our footprint, using the Wholesale Energy Pricing System, or WEPS, time-of-use tariff (ToU) structure.“
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