According to news report, the same rules will be expanded to 75% of rural towers and 33% of urban powers by 2020.

The move is targeted at reducing the country’s reliance on diesel generators, which currently power about 60% of all sites in the country. If enforced, the new regulations will be first in the world to require mobile operators to deploy renewable energy to power its networks.

Telecoms operators will get some support from the government in the form of the Universal Services Obligation fund. The regulations are not specific to onsite renewable energy systems however, and do not exclude renewable power sourced from India’s burgeoning renewable energy sector.

As part of its statement, the DoT estimates that renewable energy generation makes up about 11% of the country’s entire power base.

The methodology has also just been included in the ITU’s standard ITU-T L.1410 ‘Methodology for Environmental Impact Assessment of ICT Goods, Networks and Services.’

The GSMA developed its methodology as part of the Mobile Energy Efficiency (MEE) Network Benchmarking service, launched a year ago at Mobile Asia Congress 2010. As a methodology, the MEE Benchmarking service provides detailed analysis of the relative performance of an operator’s network benchmarked against a dataset from anonymised sources. It also ‘normalises’ the data from any operator to a common layer for like-for-like comparison, and provides high level insights to improve energy efficiency. Participants also get to track their energy efficiency progress and get data to demonstrate their successes.

To leverage the results of the MEE Benchmarking service, the GSMA has launched a new service, MEE Optimisation, which undertakes a detailed bottom-up analysis to identify and assess the inefficiencies of a network, to then provide operators with a cost-benefit analysis of specific solutions that can be considered to improve network energy efficiency.

The MEE Optimisation service develops detailed action plans aimed at reducing operators’ energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, the GSMA partners with third parties such as equipment vendors to deliver the MEE Optimisation service to operators. The GSMA is currently piloting the first MEE Optimisation project and is in discussions with several members about rolling out the service more widely.

The site, to be located in the city of Hohhot, is expected to cost 12 billion yuan, or US$1.9 billion. The operator has already signed a MoU with the regional government for the project, according to chairman of its board, Wang Jianzhou.

One reason cited by the report in the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, is the region’s abundant wind and coal power supply, which ensures supply for the data centre.

The centre will support the operator’s pending roll out of 4G, or TDD-LTE, services in the coming year. China Mobile has more than 630 million subscribers, making it the largest mobile operator in the world by the number of subscribers.

The solution, based on Flexenclosure’s E-Site, will allow Airtel to harness solar and wind energy at the sites to minimise diesel consumption – and yes, CO2 emissions.

According to Flexenclosure, Airtel has been testing its solution in Kenya for the last two years and has achieved demonstrable results, including a substantial reduction in diesel consumption compared to previously 100% diesel powered sites.

In addition to optimised solar and wind generation systems and a bank of batteries to storage energy, E-Site solution also includes sophisticated control system that ensures maximum power is captured from the renewable energy sources and that the use of the battery bank is highly efficient, the company said.

Under the agreement, Ericsson will be responsible for implementation and maintenance services for all the sites.

The sugarcane used is this plant plastic is a rapidly renewable agricultural crop and replaces nearly a third of the fossil fuels traditionally used in this accessory packaging with material made from plants.

The adoption of the new plastic is part of AT&T’s broader overall commitment to minimize its environmental impact. In March of 2010 the company announced its plans to slim down their accessory packaging; in 2010 and 2011, the company eliminated the use of over 500 tons of paper and plastic in that packaging.

The new packaging is expected to hit AT&T stores by 2 October 2011.

“As a company we are committed to minimizing our own environmental impact, and we see the introduction of this plant-based plastic as an important step in the right direction,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president for devices, AT&T. “We are excited to be the first U.S. telecom company to use this plastic in our packaging and we hope other companies will join us in finding ways to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. We are actively working with our accessory suppliers to incorporate both less packaging and more sustainable plastic and paper.”

According to the report, NBN Co., the company rolling out the NBN, is working closely with its supplier of wireless technologies, Ericsson, on energy efficient sites, including a trial of solar power for at least one site. NBN will also deploy “cluster base stations” to further drive efficiency.

While Ericsson did not clarify what “cluster base stations” are, it sounds very similar to the baseband hotel concept described by Nokia Siemens Networks’s Asia Head of technology, Mike Murphy. The idea is to have all the processing of a mobile network centralised in cluster locations in order to maximise scale and efficiency. The concept also reduces trips sites since any upgrade and maintenance can be taken care of with a few trips, instead of thousands of trips in previous network sites.

“We are deploying in a group, in one particular area, between 20 and 60 base stations at the one time to leverage off efficiencies of workforce and minimising the deployment of vehicles, crane, etc, so there’ll be huge reductions in travel and deployment of equipment,” NBN Co wireless project director Joe Prelc told CommsDay.

As SAIC deploys Smart Grid as a Service (SGS) for utility customers, this agreement will enable the companies to offer complete system solutions to address all aspects of the Grid, from Smart Meter/AMI to Distribution Automation and risk mitigation applications.

SAIC sounds a lot of a system integrator that is focusing on smart grids, and delivers end-to-end solutions that includes systems engineering, IT, communications, data analystics, and cybersecurity to power utilities. The adoption of On-Ramp’s technology will allow SAIC to tap into the growing number of endpoints supporting the ULP, as well as leverage that wireless technology that is costs a “fraction” of competing systems, the companies said.

“The ability to remotely monitor devices across large geographic areas and challenging radio environments is a key requirement within the Smart Grid,” said Mark Fronmuller, SAIC’s Energy IT and Smart Grid operations manager. “Our combined offering will help address coverage and capacity challenges that are common with Smart Grid installations.”

“Joining forces with SAIC and tapping into its world class capabilities reinforces On-Ramp’s strategy to build a strong ecosystem of industry leaders, capable of delivering complete solutions based on ULP technology,” said Joaquin Silva, President and CEO of On-Ramp.

For one of the forerunners of smart grids, Duke Energy, the decision is to go with wireless carriers and owners of existing fibre infrastructure, according to this report from the Charlotte Business Journal.

While the decision might seem natural to most, it is not when it comes to industry practice. Many utilities in the past has opted to build their own networks, using a number of different technologies, instead of relying on existing cellular networks. The reasons for these own-builds also make a lot of sense. For starters, there are no currently few quality guarantees from existing cellular networks.

Imagine in critical periods, such as new year’s eve for example, when everyone is trying to get online to send messages to their friends and when the power grid is most likely under considerable strain due to all those parties going on everywhere, how can an utility ensure that their critical grid data will get through.

Another major concern for utilities is security, since public cellular networks are shared. Then there is the cost since cellular billing models for M2M communications is still considered in its nascent stages.

For Duke however, the decision to go with publicly available networks is down to technology, or more precisely, technology evolution.

Besides the fact that Duke has no desire to get into the communications business, public networks also have the benefit of being the core business of someone else. This means that those cellular operators will continue to invest in those infrastructure, and evolve them with the latest technology, something that would be both costly, and challenging – technically – for someone like Duke.

What do you think?

According to AT&T, it is now working with Digi to jointly offer Digi X-Grid Solutions, a suite of products and services designed to connect energy-oriented devices to smart meters. The solution will effectively add application level support for smart meters, such as allowing consumers to remotely monitor and control their thermostat, or using Digi X-Grid Solutions’ “smart plugs,” control individual appliances such as air conditioning units, lights and refrigerators.

The partnership highlights an oft-neglect aspect of smart meter and smart grid implementations – actual applications. While many initial projects have focused on adding connectivity to meters, and then getting that data back to software systems at the utility, the actual applications for smart energy management, such as intelligent home networks, power meters, have sometimes been left in the background.

That’s not to say there are no industry initiatives in the area. Home networking platforms such as ZigBee, HomePlug, Wi-Fi, and HomeGrid Forum, have been busy promoting what they called the Smart Energy Profile for developing energy management applications across different networking technologies.

Yet, many smart grid and smart meter projects today still focus primarily on the connectivity and utility control of the grid, and not the consumer level control. Additionally, the consumer component of energy management seems to be losing momentum. In the past year, consumer energy management initiatives from Google, Microsoft, and more recently, Cisco, have been shut down. Without consumers’ participation in managing energy use, it’s hard to imagine how to achieve the full extent of energy efficiency for the home.

Consumers aside, the AT&T and Digi solution will also allow utility companies to develop monitoring and control capabilities for their customers’ appliances.

“When energy providers notice major spikes in consumption, they can take advantage of Digi X-Grid Solutions’ load control features to take the strain off of the power grid,” AT&T said. “Consumers that give their utility company permission to remotely turn off discretionary devices such as pool heaters can receive credits and savings on their bills, while the service providers can route energy to where it’s needed most.”

“Digi X-Grid Solutions, powered by AT&T’s wireless network, move beyond the smart meter to provide innovative applications and devices for real-time insight into power consumption,” said Chris Hill, vice president, Advanced Mobility Solutions, AT&T Business Solutions. “These services can help both utilities and their customers use energy more efficiently.”

In total, the initiatives help the operator reduced its environmental footprint by 24.04 million kg of CO2 in fiscal 2011, or roughly 24,000 metric tonnes – not counting its solar powered base station trial. As total Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions for Vodafone Essar for the year was 379,602 tonnes, the savings equate to about 6.3% of the operator’s total emissions.

By far the biggest CO2 savers comes from the deployment of hybrid sites, in which the diesel generators and battery banks work in alternate mode to reduce diesel consumption. According to Vodafone Essar, this effort, implemented at 2,200 sites (out of the operators 100,000 sites), has reduced diesel consumption by 2,628,548 litres during the period, resulting in a reduction of some 7 million kg of CO2. On a monthly basis, hybrid base stations reduce CO2 emissions by some 54%, from 2850 kg of CO2 for non-hybrid sites to 1544 kg of CO2 when hybrid solutions are implemented, the report said.

The second biggest saver is also from the passive infrastructure of cell sites. By enabling free air cooling when the outside temperature is below 26 degrees at 1,500 sites, the operator managed to shave 5.8 million kg of CO2 from its footprint.

The last initiative on the network side comes from optimising the operations for peak and non-peak hours. By turning off or powering down cabinets and transmitters during low traffic periods, Vodafone Essar saved 3.24 million kg of CO2 for the year.

In addition to greening its network operations, Vodafone Essar also optimised its office and IT operations.

According to Vodafone Essar, by replacing CRT monitors with LCD, and simply configuring its workstations to shut down after 30 minutes of inactivity, it managed to save 4.3 million kg of CO2.

Further efficiencies come from the virtualisation of its servers to reduce space and power consumption for operation and cooling. By virtualising 504 servers, the operator reduced its CO2 footprint by 3.7 million kg of emissions for the year.

Vodafone Essar also revealed that it had piloted 4 solar powered sites, and plans to replicate the deployment at additional off-grid sites. While the operator foresees an annual CO2 savings of 2.8 million kg, this figures is not counted in our calculations for its total savings for FY2011.

Vodafone Essar added: “Our overall emissions for 2010/11 remain relatively stable from the figures collated in 2009/10; this is despite the growth in our business – 33 % increase in customers and a 9 % growth in number of base stations. We’re pleased with the improvements that we’ve made to our energy data collection this year. Now we have a comprehensive and reliable picture of our carbon footprint, giving us a focus for continued improvements.”