CBC Moves to Provide Alternative Energy for Telcos, Others

The CBC Energy, a subsidiary of CBC Emea with its headquarters in Nigeria, is partnering with PowerOasis, the leading provider of turnkey power solutions for mobile base stations that are either off-grid or connected to unreliable grids to cause a revolution in the Nigerian market.
CBC Energy hopes to become a major energy development company and an integrated services provider using cutting edge technologies to produce, process, manage and distribute clean energy from natural sources in a way that is safe and environmentally acceptable for the purpose of transportation, heating and power generation.
According to Kunle Oderinu, managing director of CBC Energy, said in line with the company’s objectives of partnering with market leaders, CBC Energy and PowerOasis of the United Kingdom are set to offer its collaborative relationship for the deployment of integrated controller systems for alternative energy solutions (solar, wind with optional
backup generators) to power GSM and WiMax base stations, as an energy efficient solution that reduces recurrent operational expenditure (Opex) without any loss in broadcast or transmission capacity or quality.
“We are bringing renewable energy to power base stations for the Nigerian telcos that currently rely mostly on diesel to power their generators,” Oderinu said. “Our power solutions are designed to reduce the overall cost outlay for the running of the base stations by the Nigerian telcos.”
According to him, “the same volume of diesel used per day in the running of generators to power the base stations will be used for a much longer period, like three days for instance, with equal attendant savings on maintenance and support services for the generating sets.
The PowerOasis solutions include sensors that help customers to detect adulterated diesel to prevent their generators from being easily damaged. “With the PowerOasis solution, telecommunication operators can now profitably expand their networks to rural areas and serve the remotest parts of the country. This will invariably boost easy integration of the rural populace into the mainstream of telecom services in the country, a development that ensures that farmers in the villages have access to communications and take their agricultural proceeds to areas where they can be sold at reasonable prices,” Oderinu said.
He said the solution can also generate excess capacity which can be used as part of the telecommunication organisation’s corporate social responsibility to provide lighting for schools, power community water pump and streets lights to improve the quality of live in the remote rural areas. This technology is also useful for other public and private organizations like eateries, banks and other businesses that depend heavily on generators to power their operations.
Rhett Ryder, vice president, sales and alliances, PowerOasis commented: “There will be more than 50,000 base stations in the country by the end of 2010. Most of these base stations are likely to be powered by high opex diesel generators. Consistent with our partner-centric business model, we are pleased to partner with CBC Energy to help its customers reduce opex and increase power availability using our next generation power controllers and remote monitoring systems.”
One of the products, PowerOasis Controller manages all aspects of renewable energy generation, storage and load management. Designed from the ground up to support off-grid mobile base stations or those connected to an unreliable grid, it incorporates a number of mobile telecommunications specific features such as separate BTS and backhaul power supplies and configurable alarming/monitoring capabilities to the OMC via the BTS.