Energy & Sustainability

PLDT and DoCoMo demo base station energy innovation

PLDT and DoCoMo demo base station energy innovation

Philippine telecommunications operator PLDT, its mobile subsidiary Smart Communications, and technology giant NTT DoCoMo say they have conducted a green base station demonstration in the Philippines using renewable energy and DoCoMo's weather-forecast-linked lithium-ion battery control technology.

The technology automatically optimises, based on the weather forecasts, the charging and discharging of batteries used at green base stations. The demonstration results showed that solar power utilisation efficiency improved by 23 percentage points, from 38% before the demonstration to 61%. DoCoMo says it independently developed the technology for green base stations in Japan, and that this demonstration is the first deployment of this technology outside that country.

DoCoMo developed its weather-forecast-linked lithium-ion battery control technology in 2016. Based on weather forecasts, it automatically and flexibly adjusts the share of lithium-ion battery capacity reserved for communications backup during outages and the share used for routine solar charging and discharging, minimising charge-discharge losses. The demonstration incorporates high-capacity batteries and a locally redesigned version of weather-forecast-linked lithium-ion battery control algorithm developed by DoCoMo.

The system optimises power generation, storage and supply around the clock, maintaining stable service at night and during outages while improving renewable-energy use, reducing grid-power consumption and CO₂ emissions, and decarbonising base stations.

For the demonstration, two green base stations were built – one near Metro Manila and one at a site in Cebu with different operating and power-supply conditions. In addition to solar power equipment and battery storage systems, the stations use DoCoMo's Energy Management System (EMS) platform, an energy management system incorporating weather-forecast-linked lithium-ion battery control technology.

According to PLDT, of which DoCoMo is a shareholder, this is the first initiative in the Philippines to optimise power generation, storage and supply at telecommunications base stations in advance based on weather and electricity demand forecasts.

It’s not clear whether this technology will receive a wide-scale rollout, although DoCoMo says it will continue working with PLDT to build sustainable communications infrastructure in the Philippines and surrounding regions.



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