Load Profile of Telecom Towers and Potential Renewable Energy Power Supply Configurations

The power requirement of telecom towers in India and financial assessment of various power supply configurations including photovoltaics (PV) and wind based renewable energy technologies, are presented in this paper. The electrical load and existing power supply options for telecom towers, and status of power availability in 21 selected locations across the country, are presented. Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is estimated for various potential power supply configurations. Using hybrid optimization of multiple energy resources (HOMER), optimal designs and techno-economic feasibility assessment of nine power supply configurations under various total levels of (1hr, 2hr, 4hr, 8hr, 12hr and 16hr) power unavailability (continuous and intermittent) are carried out. The estimates of LCOE for different power supply configurations, are found to vary between INR 8.0/kWh to INR 19.04/kWh under continuous power unavailability and INR 8.0/kWh to INR 16.38/kWh under intermittent power unavailability with varying levels of renewable energy fraction (i.e. from 30 % to 58.20%). Among the nine configurations analyzed, the configuration with solar PV array, electric grid and battery, is found to have lowest LCOE in the case of continuous power unavailability for 1hr and 2hr as well as in all cases of intermittent power unavailability. The configuration with solar PV array, wind, electric grid, DG set and a battery, is found to be lowest LCOE when the power is unavailable continuously for 4. Another configuration with solar PV array, electric grid, DG set and battery is found to have lowest LCOE in the case of continuous power unavailability for 8hr, 12hr and 16hr. All these configurations have a provision to sell excess electricity to the grid. LCOE of all the options is much lower than DG set and battery-based configuration.