The overall energy challenges of the nation from fifty-four (54) thousand BTS scattered across the country which depend on diesel generators.
The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta made this remark at The 2023 World
Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) held at the Commission Annex Head Office, Mbora,
Abuja on Wednesday March 15th, 2023.
The 2023 World Consumer Rights Day with the theme for this
year, which is “Empowering Consumers through Clean Energy Transition”. The
theme is geared towards delivering a smooth transition for consumers
experiencing a high cost of living as the globe responds to the ongoing energy
crisis caused by supply and climate issues.
This theme is very relevant given Nigeria’s recent licensing
of the 5G spectrum networks, which consume twice as much energy as 4Gs,
although they are more energy-efficient per gigabyte.
With the recent licensing of the Fifth Generation (5G)
spectrum, he cited that Nigeria will witness an increased deployment of telecom
infrastructure to satisfy the wireless service coverage requirement for 5G
services. According to Professor Danbatta, this anticipated growth in the
number of 5G coverage will trigger high demand for data services which will
result in increased energy consumption for the network infrastructure
especially the Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), Internet of Things (IoT), 5G
Customer Premise Equipment (CPEs) and mobile devices for example.
NCC, Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, during
this year, 2023 World Consumer Right Day celebration at Abuja stated that this
requires the industry to look for green and sustainable power solutions
required for the connectivity of IoT devices and network optimisation.
All over the globe, he pointed out that telecom companies
are among the biggest energy users, as a result of the stiff industry
competition which causes them to try to satisfy their consumers by providing
higher-speed networks. With the rising utility costs, it is critical for
companies to reconsider the sustainability of their operations by lowering the
operational impact on the environment, he noted.
“This is more so because it has been found that implementing
energy efficiency measures could potentially reduce the operating costs of
telcos by up to 20%.
“Some of these energy-efficiency measures include the
redesign of the Radio Access Networks (RAN) of Base Stations which were
initially built to maximise connectivity, not energy efficiency. More than 75%
of the time, the radio base station resources remain unused because of the
hardware components activated at all times to transmit system information and
synchronisation and reference signals.
Therefore, to avoid waste heat, some of 5G’s newest RAN is
equipped with an energy-saving measure allowing for the automatic switching of
components. Some other energy efficiency measures can also include the use of
renewable energy sources (hydrogen, wind, solar etc.) to supply the energy
needed.
The Commission, as a responsive world-class organization, he
said, has been proactive in responding to the realities and challenges posed by
the impact of using fossil fuel as a power source in the telecommunications
industry.
In this regard, the situation in Nigeria is peculiar adding
that owing to the overall energy challenges of the nation, the fifty-four (54)
thousand BTS scattered across the country depend on diesel generators with the
attendant noise and environmental pollution.
Some of these BTS operate on diesel generators for 24 hours
across seven days of the week in some locations. Therefore, transitioning to a
renewable energy source like solar power will significantly reduce the menace
of pollution from individually-powered generators, he acknowledged.
“This will be zero carbon emission from the BTS just as
noise pollution would be a thing of the past.
As the global community celebrates World Consumer Rights Day
(WCRD) 2023, he noted that the Commission is affirming that the theme of this
year will form part of the consideration of the Commission’s regulatory
mandate. We are committed to responsibly using the world’s resources, including
protecting the environment by supporting the industry to transition to
renewable energy, he concluded.
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