The folks in Nokia Siemens Networks’ environmentally sustainable business program have had the capability to reduce their and others’ carbon footprints for years now. But when the group found a way to use its expertise to reduce capital expenditures it knew it had a solutions suite, which it launched last week.
“There is a long heritage from both Nokia and Siemens of being environmentally conscious. But from the beginning of the new company two-and-a-half years ago, we decided we were going step it up,” said Anne Larilahti, head of environmental sustainability at Nokia Siemens Networks.
Her group and its environmentally sustainable approach were launched in 2007. In studying its own environmental footprint and CO2 emissions, the company discovered that 90 percent came from its products during their lifetime. Only 10 percent was from manufacturing, travel and other operations. And the biggest culprit among its network gear was the mobile base station.
So NSN formed a consultancy to help network operators understand their energy use. “We started by looking at the existing network because the installed base is often the biggest problem,” Larilahti said.
NSN’s Energy Solutions are designed to reduce network operating costs by lowering the power consumption of telecoms networks with more efficient technology and renewable energy.
It consists of six elements that combine both products and services: Energy Modernization; Off-Grid Site Solution; Bad-Grid Site Solution; Energy Efficiency Consulting; Green Energy Control and Energy OPEX Management. Each of these elements targets a specific area of network energy consumption, management or sourcing. Within the elements of the portfolio is an intelligent energy control system with remote monitoring capabilities of all power sources. This manages battery charging and discharging and enables remote data collection and control. NSN offers this solution as part of a licensed or contracted solution or as a managed service.
“You can look at all your sites with energy control from your NOC a thousand miles away,” Larilahti said.
Going where the OPEX savings are biggest and the need for power management is greatest, NSN is seeing a lot of interest in developing markets such as Africa and India. Larilahti said energy accounts for approximately 10 percent of OPEX in mature markets, but as much as 15 percent to 30 percent in emerging markets.
