Altice Portugal RAN Reduces Electricity Bill Costs by 9% by Using Huawei 5G Power BoostLi

Within the EU, Portugal is the country with the most expensive electricity fees, followed by Germany and Spain, and uses the tiered tariff mode. The peak-hour electricity price is 0.2639 euros/kWh (see Figure 1). Using a typical 2G/3G/4G wireless site of Portugal (3 kW load) as an example, the annual electricity fee is more than 2.5k euros.

Figure 1:

Altice Portugal is the largest telecom service provider in Portugal and it has been continuously optimizing its OPEX. With the acceleration of 5G evolution of global wireless networks, Altice Portugal has also planned the pace of 5G evolution. As networks evolve toward 5G, the power consumption of sites will inevitably increase, and the electricity fee will definitely double. Since 2018, Altice Portugal has taken emission reduction measures in terms of the energy consumption process, structure, and fields, and achieved initial results. It has also been seeking an innovative energy approach to maintain or reduce 5G electricity fees, fulfill its social responsibility of energy saving and emission reduction, and save on OPEX.

Huawei 5G Power BoostLi integrates a battery management system (BMS) shown in Figure 2 to implement various intelligent features. The lithium battery can not only provide power backup but also work with the power system and network management system (NMS). This shifts the battery from providing power backup only to a component that can cycle (discharge/charge) as required, enabling smoother network evolution toward 5G and giving full play to the site value.

Figure 2:

Huawei 5G Power BoostLi implements intelligent power staggering through a three-layer "cloud-site-device" architecture (see Figure 3), helping Altice Portugal save up to 9% electricity fees for wireless sites.

"Device" refers to 5G Power BoostLi, a digital and intelligent battery that can collaborate with the power supply, loads, and mains to effectively meet the power supply and backup requirements of site service evolution. After the intelligent power staggered feature is enabled, 5G Power BoostLi performs automatic charge/discharge to balance the peak and valley hours. During peak hours when the mains electricity price is high, the mains power is reduced and 5G Power BoostLi discharges to fill the power gap. During valley hours when the mains electricity price is low, the mains powers the load and charges 5G Power BoostLi. As an energy buffer pool, 5G Power BoostLi effectively balances the mains electricity price difference and reduces the site power cost.

"Site" refers to 5G Power, which communicates 5G Power BoostLi in real time, determines its working status, and automatically schedules the working logic of 5G Power BoostLi. When the mains electricity price is high, the mains power supply is automatically cut off. When the mains electricity price is low, the mains power supply is automatically restored to charge 5G Power BoostLi.

"Cloud" refers to the NetEco, which gets site information in real time to facilitate the visualization and management of sites, and leverages big data analysis to make massive sites measurable and manageable. AI algorithms enable the entire system to be predictable and optimizable. The system delivers preset instructions to each site through the network to implement intelligent power staggering. The big data and cloud computing technologies are used to analyze the power grid in real time, provide the power grid trend, and pre-start or pre-stop intelligent power staggering to ensure power supply reliability.

Figure 3:

Based on the actual site configuration data, the intelligent power staggering feature saves about 9% electricity fees for one of Altice Portugal's sites every year.

The joint innovation of intelligent power staggering by Altice Portugal and Huawei is of great reference value for the evolution of global wireless network sites to 5G. It helps global operators reduce the energy cost of wireless network sites and achieve 5G evolution with no increase or little increase in electricity fees, building a sustainable green energy target network in the 5G era.

This blog is sponsored by Huawei.