Creating Remote Visibility Across a Landmass during a Pandemic

    Overview

    India has over 500,000 telecommunications sites spread across its vast landmass, with over 29,000 additional towers built annually. There are also nearly 1.2 billion active mobile subscribers in the country, who use a monthly average of 14.6GB of data per smartphone, the second-highest globally.

    With goals to launch 5G connectivity countrywide, India’s site operators and service providers need consistent electricity and site operations to manage the network load. This task has been made significantly more complicated with inconsistent electric grid availability, and more concerning, a recent power shortage that was the worst in over half a decade.

    The Customer and Their Challenges

    A customer of Galooli’s in India operates tens of thousands of towers across the entire country. They were looking for a solution to actively monitor and manage their remote sites’ energy use and identify those that operate inefficiently.

    The company was looking to actively monitor the performance and metrics for a collection of their telecom towers located in the Northern region, one of the hardest hit by the recent power shortages. Due to general energy instability, some of the sites in this region faced power cuts up to 14 hours a day.

    The Covid-19 pandemic complicated things further by throwing the world and especially international travel into limbo. Due to local restrictions, this project would have to be completed remotely using only local teams to complete the installation and configuration of the solutions.

    In addition, the existing infrastructure was not standardized, with some sites already equipped with the necessary sensors from other vendors and others without any at all. All of these sites need to be actively monitored with live updates and reporting while remaining in sync.

    Galooli’s Solution

    After working on a number of projects on the African continent with this customer, Galooli had proven the viability and value of our solution but remained untested in India. We developed and implemented a complete remote installation of our solutions without a single employee on site.

    The agnostic nature of Galooli’s solution allows for seamless integration into existing or unmodified machinery and energy assets without needing to invest in additional hardware. Therefore, our solution could be installed without requiring additional hardware installation and other incurred costs.

    Outcomes

    In a company first, we successfully deployed our solution at these sites without a single employee on the ground to help guide and manage the installation. Using only remote tools, we successfully guided local teams to integrate our RMM solution.

    We were able to provide live remote visibility for all of these sites simultaneously and detect irregular behavior in energy use, energy source reliance, and potential machinery malfunction.

    Through our KPI tracking and reporting, we were able to provide the customer with a detailed breakdown of their site performance. This included an average $0.60/KwH cost per site and maintained 82% efficiency from AC to DC.

    According to recent research using a base station in the region, a hybrid energy system using sources like solar, and hydrogen could reduce that cost to $0.38/KwH, a near 37% reduction. By improving the site operations’ efficiency and implementing renewable energy sources, these sites could be sustainably managed and powered.

    In addition, the average grid availability per site was 73%, and many sites were found to be frequently exceeding the 260V high limit. This can lead to prolonged stress on machinery and energy assets onsite and lead to degradation in performance and longevity.

    Challenges
    • A large site operator in India was looking to actively monitor their site’s performance and energy use
    • These sites are located in Northern India, one of the hardest hit by recent power shortages
    • Covid-19 travel restrictions meant that installation had to be done completely remotely
    • Installation was dynamic, with some sites using existing equipment, and others deployed from scratch
    Galooli’s Solution
    • We developed and a plan of action to successfully deploy our solution remotely using local resources and our experts digitally guiding them through the process
    • Our agnostic tool prevented additional incurred costs by integrating with all existing platforms including those with hardware in place
    Outcome
    • In a company first, we deployed our solution remotely without a single company onsite
    • Sites were discovered to be running only at an average 82 % efficiency
    • Grid availability averaged 73% across the sites
    • Some sites exceeded the recommended high limit of voltage frequently
    • The average energy cost was $0.60/KwH per site
    About Galooli

    Galooli is a pioneer in the green energy revolution.

    The company is blazing a trail in energy management as a service with actionable insights into your operations.
    Galooli’s remote monitoring solutions optimize energy usage, reduce operating expenditures and maximize alternative energy use.
    Galooli provides a green and future-focused solution for multiple industries and use cases around the world, from metropolitan centers to the most remote installations.

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