Nomination For 8th Annual Aegis Graham Bell Awards 2017

Category: Green Telecom

Company Name: Indus Towers Ltd

Corporate Address : 4th Floor, Building 10A, DLF Cyber City

Gurgaon, Phase – II,

122 020

Registered Address : Bharti Cresent, 1 Nelson Mandela Road,

Vasant Kunj, Phase – II, New Delhi

110 070

Brief about Solar Cooling Unit

Business Problem to Solve

Indus Towers Ltd is in the business of installing and managing Telecom Towers for its customers, i.e. Telecom Operators like Airtel, Vodafo. To do that Indus provides

three services & products to its customers:

i. Telecom Tower

ii. Space to keep active equipment

iii. Power to maintain the towers 24x7 and cooling required for communication equipment

A telecom site of Indus uses energy from Grid power and Diesel Generator & Batteries as backup in areas of unreliable electricity supply in India. Since cell sites &

telecom equipment requires 24x7, 365 days continuous power supply to support it maintain there are substantial energy Opex costs associated. Indoor telecom sites

require Air Conditioners to maintain the required cooling for active telecom equipment. Air Conditioner at site consumes 30-50% of total energy consumption at site.

Site Schematic:

Indoor sites were converted to outdoor by removal of AC’s (Air- Conditioners) & installation of innovative cooling solution. These solutions were conceptualized and

designed in-house. By the project we have described below, we have been able to save diesel and reduce electricity consumption which has resulted in lower energy

costs and reduced CO2 emissions significantly on Indus sites.

1.1 Project Name: Solar Cooling Unit Program

1.2 Project Duration (month/Year):

Start Date End Date

Aug- 2016 Ongoing*

2. Project Detail:

What is the Innovation:

Indus has always been a frontrunner in promoting green energy alternatives across our operations. Over the years, we have pioneered the use of environmentally friendly

alternatives for powering our towers. Keeping philosophy of protecting environment in mind, Indus has developed the solution where site will operate on zero cooling cost

and will use solar power for forced air circulation along with natural air to avoid use of any fossil fuel. The solution removes heat from the telecom tower shelter by using

a combination of solar powered exhaust fans & wind driven multiple turbine ventilators.

This solution has the following features:

• During the day when ambient temperature is higher, cooling is enhanced by solar powered exhaust fan along with multiple turbines.

• When sunlight is not available and ambient temperature is lower, the natural airflow through multiple turbine ventilators, helps to keep shelter

temperature within desired range.

Thermal re-engineering was done to reduce heat load & distribute evenly.

Need of the innovation:

The solution would help Indus to convert more indoor sites into outdoor sites wherever it is feasible and would help in shutting down Air-Conditioners from sites.

• No power required from power mains.

• No power drawn from BB keeping BB backup intact

• Rain leakage protection with suitable design for inlet and exhaust.

This solution helped Indus to shut down the Air-Conditioner from indoor sites which consume average annual energy consumption of INR 0.20Mn This Initiatives having

potential of estimated Annual savings of Energy of INR 2000Mn* for over 10K sites

This solution has a payback period of less than six months. In the last six months we have deployed this solution at 462 sites.

This cooling solution has negligible maintenance cost, is environment friendly which makes it preferred choice over other available cooling methods.

3. Case Study: SCU Development & Implementation

3.1 Data Collection:

- Cooling requirement of towers with >= 6kW load of base transmission or other active equipment installed by network operators

o Heat removal required from the shelter

o Heat load curve

o Air removal rate (Cubic Ft per Minute) required

o Orientation of the BTS within the shelter

o Type & Technology of Transmission equipment

- No. of ID Sites with 6kW active load with cooling required: 10k Sites Identified with no available solution

- Cost of cooling with AC : Operating cost 2 lac INR per annum

- Impact on network reliability due to AC failure at site

3.2 Analysis and Development of Solution:

Type of analysis done:

- Cooling effectiveness: Desired difference compared to ambient temp. generated by the solution

- Effectiveness & placement of the air turbine

- Quantification of the heat load at site

- Identification of fan type & rating

- Placement of fan & turbine

- Total area required for air inlet through louvers

- Requirement of solar panel

- Reliability of the solution under controlled & operating environment

- In-house design Development, Prototype built by Partners

Alternate solutions proposed:

- Air Conditioner: Existing solution,

- Free Cooling Unit: Not effective for high heat load

- Natural Cooling Unit+ Turbo: Low cooling effectiveness

3.3 Implementation:

Why was the solution chosen?

Sustainable & Reliable cooling solution powered by Solar energy

Higher Cooling Effectiveness: This solution delivers the required temperature difference of 5 degree over the ambient temperature.

Zero Operating Cost: Runs on Solar & Wind power

Minimum maintenance: Simple & innovative Solar & Wind technology requires minimum maintenance

How was the chosen solution tested/validated and implemented?

The following steps were followed:

1. Performance testing: Cooling effectiveness, Operational Issues

2. Pilot at 20 Sites

3. Stakeholder Buy-in

4. Limited Deployment at 100 sites: Saving tracking along with equipment performance

5. 764 no. of projects completed Till Date

How effectiveness and sustenance of action monitored?

The whole Program Management done through following indicators

- High Room Temp. Alarm

- Cooling effectiveness measurement

- Reduction in Diesel & Electricity Consumption

- Rollout: Quantum, Time required

24, 3%

4, 1%

213, 28%

10, 1%

3, 0%66, 9%

134, 18%

61, 8%

67, 9%

11, 1%

26, 3%

20, 3%

47, 6%

8, 1%70, 9%

Total

Andhra Pradesh

Chennai

DELHI

Gujarat

Haryana

KARNATAKA

KERALA

KOLKATA

MAHARASHTRA & GOA

MUMBAI

3.4 Benefits to Organization & Other Stakeholder

Tangible Benefits:

- 7.45 Cr. INR Till date, annualized benefit 16.5 Cr. INR

Intangible Benefits

- Simplified Operations of the site

- Reduction of tower visits by Technician &

engineers by 40%

- CO2 reduction

- Environment friendly- use of clean energy

(Solar), Complete elimination of ODP gases R-

22 from site

-

Brief profile of Project Team lead:

Name: Mr. Rajesh Bansal

Role: National Energy Head, Indus Towers Ltd.

Designation: Vice President

Brief Profile:

"Mr. Rajesh Bansal is head of Energy Division of Indus Towers Ltd, while leading it on Indian Telecom Infrastructure market. A senior management

executive with more than 22 years extensive International / Domestic Sales & Market development, Business Turnaround and Change Management

experience. He led different business verticals in telecom Tower business in last 9 years and exhibited excellent track record in business leadership

and customer relationship management for Indus Towers Ltd. Prior to this Mr. Bansal worked across Petroleum product market development for

global business houses across geographies.

Rajesh was chosen by organizations to participate in multiple Leadership & global management programs offered by Indian Institute of

Management Ahmedabad, India & similar universities of global repute. Additionally, He holds a Bachelor Degree Engineering from Malaviya

National Institute of Technology University in Jaipur, India."

Rajesh Bansal, joined Indus in April 2008 as Head of P&H Circle. Post that he has had successful stints as CCEO - Rajasthan and Head of Sales before

moving into his current role of CCEO Delhi. As CCEO, Rajesh led the circles with great efficiency and helped them reach excellence in various facets

of business. Under his leadership, Rajasthan won the Best Circle Award(s), with Rajesh receiving the Best Circle CEO award twice once for P&H and

once for Rajasthan.

Since July 2014, Rajesh has been leading Delhi circle. Under his leadership, Delhi has steered through challenging times with heavy roll-outs and

great customer expectations. He led strategic interventions, such as institutional sites acquisition with great zeal and helped opening prestigious

accounts like NDMC, NHAI, HUDA, DJB, Greater Noida, etc. Rajesh encouraged the Digital Innovation agenda for Indus and helped in creating Rapid

Metro Pillar project and NDMC proto sites with camouflaged room. His success in customer management is visible through Delhi achieving a CSAT

score of 99 last year.