Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said the telecom company is committed to increasing energy efficiency across its 302,000 base stations.

Vodafone, announcing the sustainability report, said its access networks account for approximately 65 percent of global energy consumption.

Vodafone has deployed SRAN equipment in 90 percent (270,600) of its base station sites. The global telecom operator has also decommissioned 69 percent or 185,500 sites with all legacy equipment at the site.

How Vodafone is improving efficiency

Vodafone is activating new energy-saving software features and Self-Organising Network (SON) technologies that optimise radio resources to reflect voice and data traffic requirements in real time.

Vodafone is deploying in excess of 11,000 active antennae – a technology that integrates radio equipment inside the antenna – eliminating power attenuation over cable runs that are incurred in conventional base stations and reducing power consumption at a site by up to 30 percent.

The above chart shows amount of energy (in GWh) used for every petabyte of traffic on Vodafone’s networks.

Vodafone is installing free air-cooling technology as an alternative to air conditioning at a further 4,000 base station sites this year. Free air cooling reduces energy requirements by 2,000–3,500 kWh per year per site. It has installed this technology within 221,000 sites – more than 70 percent of the global total.

Vodafone is installing batteries that can withstand temperatures of up to 35°C to reduce the need for air conditioning at base stations in hot countries.

Vodafone is deploying hybrid solutions – a combination of diesel generators and batteries that cut diesel use by up to 70 percent per site.

The chart indicates various sources of energy and consumption pattern.

Vodafone is connecting more than 65,000 smart meters to its central Energy Data Management (EDM) system. Vodafone deployed the EDM system in technology centres as well as its access networks.

Vodafone said energy consumption within its technology centers – data centers and switching centers — accounts for approximately 28 percent of its global total.

Energy efficiency initiatives

Vodafone is integrating energy efficiency requirements within supplier selection processes, enabling it to install energy-saving features directly within computer servers and to select high-performance power and cooling solutions whenever we need to retrofit or add new capacity.

Vodafone is replacing more than 6,000 KW of old airconditioning units used to cool our computer rooms and 5,000 KW of power supply units with more energy-efficient models.

Vodafone is implementing free air-cooling solutions in more than 50 percent of technology centers and adiabatic solutions in warm climates where free cooling is not a suitable option.

Vodafone said its IoT business is contributing to energy efficiency goals.

Vodafone is increasing the temperature set point in data centre server rooms from 20°C to 28°C and from 20°C to 25°C in switching centres to reduce the amount of cooling required.

Vodafone is closing nine technology sites worldwide and introducing two high-efficiency modular sites to increase capacity.

Vodafone said its virtualisation ratio is 69 percent: It processes more data within centers operated by third parties than within its own data centers.

Vodafone has started to implement dynamic thermal management (DTM) systems to reduce energy consumption from cooling. DTM systems automate cooling controls dynamically to ensure that computer servers receive the right amount of cooled air to prevent overheating.

Vodafone has implemented DTM systems in 11 technology centres in Europe, resulting in an average 9 percent reduction in energy consumption in those sites and a reduction of 2,700 tonnes of CO2e. Vodafone will add DTM systems to other locations.

Vodafone installed solar PV at an additional 120 base stations during 2017, bringing the total to 1,930.