Telecom being an essential service requires the network needs to be always available. Energy needs of a telecom tower in India are currently met through:

Electricity Mains
Diesel Generator and
UPS / Battery Racks

Since, Electricity supply is erratic and is not available throughout the day in many parts, Diesel Generators (DG) are used to power the telecom network, as a backup for power supply

DG’s are operational for of 8-10 hours (avg.) in rural areas and 3- 5 hours in urban areas, putting a stress             on the environment by way of carbon emissions and noise pollution
20-30 litres (avg.)of Diesel is consumed per tower per day
One liter of diesel emits 2.6 kg of CO2 emissions

India currently has approximately 250,000 towers with 350,000 tenants. This is expected to increase to 450,000 towers with 900,000 tenants in next three years. Given the power outage in India, each tenant currently consumes on an average almost 3000 litres of diesel every year on a shared tower. This means telecom industry is expected to consume 2.5 – 3 Bn litres of diesel every year, depending upon the extent of sharing.

The usage of diesel has been contributing close to 5.3 Metric tons per year of Co2 emissions, and this is only expected to go up post the 3G and BWA roll outs. Especially the black carbon emissions would translate to 35-40% higher overall climatic burden than just co2.

Moreover, the energy management costs have become one of the concerns for the telecom operators with energy costs coming to app 25% of operational expenditures.

Global Group is focusing on energy management solutions as part of its vision of an efficient and environment friendly telecom Industry and is taking a leadership role in reducing the energy consumption and related carbon emissions through their innovative Energy Management service offerings. GTL’s green energy based Energy Management Solution are targeted to reduce the energy requirements by up to 20%. The Company has committed investments of over ` 2,400 crores for developing and implementing the green Energy Management Solutions.

GTL and other Global Group companies have been approaching the issue from the Demand side and supply side. From the demand perspective, the innovative green energy solutions use the combination of the following

Efficient use of installed equipment, ensured through Energy Audit and remote monitoring systems
Reduced energy consumption by adopting free cooling methods in combination with air conditioning
Reduced diesel consumption by optimizing the DG and use of alternate fuels
Using Deep discharge batteries to reduce DG operating hours

From the supply side the Group would be deploying green energy based solutions that will be using alternate sources of energy like Solar PV systems, Micro Wind Turbines etc.

The Group's efforts should result in

Contributing towards building a greener, cleaner environment with reduced carbon emissions
Saving on OPEX by reducing power consumption through energy saving engineering solutions
Ensuring uninterrupted power at the site increasing total site availability in the network
Increasing equipment shelf life by ensuring healthy power at the site