Energy & Sustainability

Electricity and diesel issues hit telecoms in Congo

Electricity and diesel issues hit telecoms in Congo

A reminder of the continuing dependence on diesel of many African countries as backup fuel for communications infrastructure comes from telecoms regulator ARPCE in the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville).

ARPCE has informed consumers and all users of electronic communications services that electronic communications networks open to the public have for several days been experiencing disruptions affecting all or part of the national territory, due to current energy supply difficulties.

In theory, backup power could be used but, as ARPCE says, telecommunications operators cannot compensate for the deficit of electricity supply due to the difficulties in supplying diesel necessary for the operation of the generators used to power infrastructure.

Its checks carried out with operators report nine hours of electricity on average per day and backup of six hours. It seems that fuel needs of Helios Towers (which is cited in the announcement) for the powering of generators ensuring the operation of the 550 relay antennas that it manages throughout the national territory amount to about 100,000 litres per week, or 400,000 litres per month.

This, presumably, isn’t available. In any case, according to the Ecofin news agency, industry association the GSMA has estimated that electricity generated by diesel-powered generators typically costs three to four times as much as electricity supplied by the grid in the region.

Power cuts and diesel supply difficulties are therefore disrupting the operation of technical sites, network cores and data centres. The upshot has been, at the very least, a deterioration in the quality of service or, at worst, partial or total unavailability of voice, internet and mobile money services provided through mobile phone networks.

There doesn’t appear to be an immediate solution to this problem, although the public has been assured that ARPCE is working closely with the Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (SNPC) to optimise the supply of fuel.

As for alternative energy sources, as Ecofin points out, no local deployment plans for solar power and battery storage have disclosed. Indeed, it’s not clear whether either of these are even available.



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