Kenyan telecom Safaricom has purchased 405 Free-air cooling units from German company STULZ at a cost of KSh43.7 million (US$520,000), expected to bring down the firm’s power costs by an average of 60 per cent across its sites.
HumanIPO has learnt Safaricom will cut its huge energy bill for air conditioning from around KSh340,000 (US$4,000) per site per year to close to KSh110,000 (US$1,300), most of which will be attained by controlling the current cooling system so that it is only in use when temperatures are high.
“This cooling system will have a faster return on investment in sites in remote rural Kenya running on diesel and where costs are high at US$2.50 per KWhr compared to electricity from the grid at KSh32 shillings (US$0.38) per KWhr,” said Michael Jux, the company’s senior area manager for Africa.
By this small modification the company could save close to KSh113 million (US$1.345m) annually, with just less than 15 per cent of its over 3,000 sites fitted with the systems.
According to the STULZ catalogue the Free-Air cooling units are to be used in base stations that use comfort air conditioning units for cooling and where the capabilities of free cooling are not exploited.
The company adds that with free cooling the telecommunication networks can be retro-fitted with an energy efficient system where the existing air conditioning systems are monitored and controlled by the STULZ C102 processor.
Whenever ambient temperature allows free cooling mode is activated and the comfort air conditioning units are switched off.
“Our systems are tested and are already in use in other parts of Africa by telecoms, with our research showing that telcos that are using the cooling units can recoup their investments in just seven months,” said Daniel Kiplimo, the technical manager at local distributors New Edge Technologies.
The cooling system is already in use by other operators in South Africa, Egypt, Tanzania, Algeria, Ethiopia, Morocco and Senegal.
Safaricom recently procured 48 Durathon batteries from General Electric at a cost of KSh96.3 million (US$1.15m) for use in 25 sites in Nairobi as part of its push to cut its day-to-day costs.
