The 48V Flatpack S is designed for applications like wireless base station, broadband, fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC), fiber-to-the building (FTTB) and wireless remote radio head (RRH) cabinets. It provides 95.5% power conversion efficiency and is housed in a standard-width telecom power shelf that is shallow (210 mm or 8.3”) and only 41.5 mm (1.6”) high.

The new Flatpack S rectifiers deliver 1000W of power and can be used in both the two-slot and three-slot Flatpack S power shelves. Additional systems with higher power ratings are planned for future release.

The Flatpack S shelves also can be equipped with 1000W, 24V rectifiers for industrial applications.

“As growing data traffic drives the rollout of high speed mobile and fixed data services, the load is pushed towards the edge of the network and space becomes an increasingly important issue,” said Morten Schoyen, chief marketing officer at Eltek. “The Flatpack S 48V delivers industry-leading high efficiency and power density, as well as advanced reliability and safety features in a small package that meets this demand.”

The Flatpack S systems are managed by the Smartpack S controller, which monitors all active components and batteries, and offers extra warning and alarm relay outputs for attaching other alarm sensors.  The controller has a large display for onsite setup, status and log access.  These functions can also be set and monitored remotely.

The Smartpack S also features an extensive list of battery health and monitoring algorithms to extend the life of battery backup systems and ensure backup power when it is needed.

The Flatpack S DC power system can be configured for a variety of output power levels to meet individual application requirements. It can be flush-mounted or mid-mounted, has two plug-in battery breaker positions, low voltage battery disconnect (LBVD) and several load options. In addition, there is a pull-out drawer for easy access to the connection points and cable strain relief.

The Flatpack S 48V rectifiers are available now from Eltek’s sales force and resellers worldwide.

Meanwhile, Eltek announced that it has entered into an alliance with Stored Energy Systems to provide ruggedized DC power systems based on Eltek’s high efficiency and scalable switchmode power conversion technology to demanding industrial customers.

Under the new alliance, SENS will integrate Eltek’s core Flatpack 2 rectifier and Smartpack controller products into DC systems hardened for the rigors of industrial environments, focusing primarily on the power generation, power transmission & distribution and industrial controls markets.

The same process works with food. We consume energy store in whatever that we eat. We do use some of that energy to stay alive, like breathing or walking, but for most of us living in developed markets, there is a surplus. A lot of that energy gets store as fat in our bodies – for a raining day, which usually doesn’t come for most us since we get regular meals – so we go to the gym to use up that energy to stay fit.

Now a gym in the UK is looking to harness all that excess human energy, by hooking up generators to its gym equipment. According to this report, the Green Heart Gym in Hull, England now has equipment that will generate electricity as users work out.

The report says that the power will go to feed the facility’s LED lighting, which should work, but its assertion that such power can go to power other application in the community is a bit far fetched. Unless the gym is equipped with some sophisticated power storage and transmission equipment, it is highly unlikely that power from gym goers will be sufficient to support applications outside the immediate vicinity of the facility.

On the other hand, it is a pretty cool concept. Imagine a system at remote cell sites relying on wind and sun. When those resources are not available for any reason, why not have a crank, or treadmill for local users to power up the equipment. With some of the ultra low powered site equipment being development, it just might work.

Cotecna is the foremost supplier of transit monitoring services with its Cotrack® solution, helping governments to fight fraud and secure the transport of sensitive merchandise such as petroleum products, according to the companies. Cotecna first installed Cotrack in Senegal in 2009 and is backed by more than 38 years of experience in customs and border control solutions and in the implementation and operation, in challenging environments, of complex solutions involving very specialized and advanced technologies.

For its part, Orange Business has over 200 dedicated experts working on M2M solutions, providing services that include consulting, design, innovation, integration, project management and service management.

M2M solutions from Orange allow machines, devices and objects to communicate in real time without human intervention and can be integrated with communication tools, such as the Internet, networks, and telephone systems, necessary for an optimal track and trace solution, Orange said, adding that it now offers a long-lasting, adapted SIM that can cope with extreme conditions and can be used anywhere in the world.

Through this Cotecna-Orange Business Services partnership, Cotecna will be able to propose specific Orange M2M solutions in many market segments. Already, the added value of this partnership has been clearly proven in the development of an exclusive turn-key transit monitoring solution, which has been successfully operating in the West African country of Togo since December 2011.

Pierre-Olivier Pellegrin, senior vice president Security & Inspection Technology, Cotecna, said:  “As a company that prides itself on its flexibility and ability to provide specific tailor-made solutions for our clients, the capability of Orange to supply such a comprehensive package of technologies across a global landscape is of utmost importance to Cotecna’s expansion.”

Helmut Reisinger, senior vice president, Orange Business Services Europe. “Orange has created M2M solutions in a wide spectrum of industry sectors. Our M2M and industry expertise provides a solid foundation for Cotecna’s plans to implement M2M solutions tailored to the secure transit monitoring industry. Business M2M is a perfect example of how Orange is helping customers like Cotecna use innovative technology to evolve their business models, even into fast growing emerging markets.

• IP traffic will quadruple by 2014 due to video
• 50 billion devices on the Internet by 2020
• 30% of all data to pass through the cloud by 2020

There are some pretty daunting data points, like the fact that a city the size of San Francisco will be built every month for the next two decades. The good news is that networks, by connecting people, induces innovation, which enables new markets, new ways of interaction.

According to the market researchers, utilities have so far ignored public cellular networks for their smart grid initiatives, but that is about to change. A confluence of factors is leading a major shift in how utilities view public cellular options as they roll out smart grid infrastructure projects, Pike said.

“Carriers and integrators have awakened to the unique opportunity of the smart grid. It is no longer just another general vertical market application,” says vice president Bob Gohn. “With new pricing and service offerings specifically tailored for the large number of endpoints but relatively low aggregate data volume typical of grid applications, public cellular is becoming a real competitor to private utility-owned networks. The end result is a significant and growing monthly stream of revenue to the carrier, without taxing the carrier’s network resources.”

According to Pike Research, global annual service revenue from public cellular network nodes in smart grid applications will surpass $1 billion by 2020, representing a 27% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2011 to 2020. A cumulative total of 73 million cellular M2M communication nodes will be shipped for use in smart grid applications during the period from 2011 through 2020, the cleantech market intelligence firm finds.

A major factor for the surge is the European Union’s much-publicised 20-20-20 mandate, which aims to reduce EU GHG emission by at least 20% below 1990 levels, deploy 20% of renewable energy for the EU, and a 20% reduction in energy use.

Europe is the leading region for public cellular node unit shipments and revenue through the remainder of the decade, Pike said. Europe will also likely lead the market in annual service revenue, due largely to the sheer volume of aggregate data being sent by the region’s smart meters, as well as the smaller (yet steadily growing) number of nodes being used for applications such as distribution automation and substation automation.

As part of the deal, NSN will be doing a refresh of StarHub’s GSM network as well as roll out a new LTE network.

“With the launch of LTE, we will be able to increase our data capacity and offer improved speeds. We have also been looking to modernize our GSM network for some time and with the Nokia Siemens Networks Single RAN platform, we’ll be able to do that efficiently while building the LTE network,” said Neil Montefiore, chief executive officer at StarHub.

The savings will not only come from newer equipment, but also from consolidation of elements in the network from NSN’s Single RAN platform, which features its compact, energy efficient, Flexi Multiradio Base Station. The new solution will allow StarHub to run GSM and LTE concurrently on the same spectrum band – 1800MHz.

Additional components of the deal include NSN’s Evolved Packet Core platform, customer experience management solution, and subscriber data management.

The findings was part of a three year project led by the GSMA, which help the operator first benchmark, then improve energy efficiency by 14% per connection over the period.

“At Telefónica we are fully committed to improving our energy efficiency and have defined public improvement targets and dedicated efforts for over a decade to this area, as part of Telefónica Group’s energy and carbon strategy,” said Gabriel Bonilha, head of Energy Efficiency, Telefónica Group. “Being a MEE pioneer has helped us to quantify the opportunity ahead of us and this optimisation exercise, supported by the GSMA and Nokia Siemens Networks, is an important step in seizing that opportunity.”

Launched in 2011, MEE Optimisation is a follow-on service from MEE Benchmarking that develops action plans for mobile operators to reduce network energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions, the GSMA said. It identifies energy-saving measures and assesses the business case of each measure, enabling operators to implement cost-effective solutions. This first MEE Optimisation pilot comes at a time of increased global focus by operators on improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions, and growing interest by political stakeholders, in particular the European Commission, on emissions reduction in ICT and in the rest of the global economy.

Energy efficiency measures that Telefonica Germany identified include the application of Smart Energy Control Solutions, which is expected to offer annual savings of €400 000 (nine-month payback), 2 gigawatt hours of electricity (GWh) and 1 kilotonne of carbon dioxide emissions (KTCO₂), according to estimates by NSN. Further savings come from switching to more efficient rectifiers, which reduces power wastage and offer an estimated cost savings of €1 million and reduce energy consumption by 5GWh, eliminating 2KT of CO2.

Overall, the estimated annual savings amount to €1.8 million in Telfonica Germany’s radio network, with financial paybacks of nine to 30 months.

The energy and carbon savings identified totalled up to 9 GWh and 4 KTCO₂ respectively. These savings would be in addition to the measures that Telefónica is currently implementing, which include switching more cell sites to free cooling.

The GSMA project for Telefónica investigated 20 representative cell sites in Germany, gathering detailed data on their performance.  Smart meters were also deployed to improve the accuracy of the data. The information was assessed and a summary of results produced.

A full case study is available at here.

According to GSMA, Bharti Infratel is one of the world’s leading telecom tower infrastructure providers, owning over 33,000 of India’s estimated 400,000 towers. Having predominantly a rural footprint, they have nearly 9,000 off-grid towers, which accounts for 18 per cent of total off-grid towers in India.  Infratel has already converted over 10,500 sites to alternative back-up power, out of which almost 1,350 sites are now on solar hybrid; converting an additional 1,000 is the first step of engagement with the GSMA.

Bharti Airtel has been running a GreenTowers P7 initiative for two years, the GSMA said, which consists of a comprehensive, energy efficiency and alternative energy programme aimed at reducing diesel usage and carbon emissions. The GreenTowers initiative covers 70% of Infratel’s tower network and includes seven high-impact initiatives that are focused on reducing CO2 emissions by 154,000 tonnes per year by reducing diesel consumption by 58.17 million litres per year.

“We are delighted to join hands with the GSMA and firmly believe that this partnership will present an exciting expansion to our expertise and leadership in deploying clean energy initiatives across our tower footprint,” said Sairam Prasad, Chief Technical Officer, Bharti Infratel. “This vital partnership is a step further in our endeavour of fore-fronting green within the telecom tower infrastructure industry and will enhance the capacity of Infratel’s GreenTowers P7 initiative.”

“This partnership will have significant impact in reducing operating expenditure by 10-20 per cent at each individual site, as well as a significant reduction in carbon emissions,” said Chris Locke, Managing Director, GSMA Development Fund. “Using the insights gained from our partnership with Bharti Infratel, we will produce a best practice guide and case study which we hope will lead to widespread industry change as the industry follows Bharti Infratel’s lead.”

The GSMA’s Green Power for Mobile programme, supported by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) works to promote and institutionalise green power in a number of markets including India.

“The booming mobile broadband business presents challenges and intense competition for operators, particularly in urban areas where there is high energy consumption and little space for new equipment sites,” the firm said. “To address these challenges, Huawei developed a standard all-in-one cabinet solution that integrates four power supply units, a battery backup unit, a transmitter, a precision cooling storage system, intelligent cooling technology and a single controller. This solution can provide energy savings of more than 30% and allows for smooth evolution.”

In addition to the all in one site, Huawei also developed Mini-shelter – a range of outdoor all-in-one solutions that use an intelligent heat exchanger and other energy-saving and temperature control technologies to create a low carbon footprint and compact solution that occupies less than a square metre of space.

Due to its compact size, the solution could be set up on a rooftop or by the street, which further facilitates site acquisition, energy sourcing, and construction, Huawei said.

The research, conducted by AIRCOM International and Analysys Mason, explored the advantages of implementing SON on both UMTS and LTE networks over the course of the next three years. The calculations are based on SON deployments on existing UMTS with a scenario involving a 20% roll out of LTE on the network.

According to the researchers, more than 25% in savings – both CAPEX and OPEX – can be derived from the implementation of ‘hybrid’ SONs – SON technology that is implemented at the base stations as well as centralised management systems that configured capacity allocation.

In the span of the next three years, the study identified potential savings of more than US$3 billion for a large US operator, over US$1 billion in savings for a large European operator, and more than US$200 million in savings for a large APAC-based operators. The savings translate to an EBITDA gain of 5% for the operators, the study found.

Much of the savings come from network optimisation and what Steve Bowker, CTO at AIRCOM, calls, “sweating out” existing network assets. This, Bowker adds, allows operators to reduce CAPEX for new capacity, and to lower OPEX by automating network maintenance and capacity management.

On the CAPEX side, SON allows operators to re-dimension their existing network to support more capacity, hence deferring network spend to other areas – i.e. rolling out LTE. On the OPEX side, implementing the SON features can help operators automate functionality such as “Automated Neighbour Relating” detection, which are currently configured manually by network engineers. Further, related technologies such as remote antenna adjustments can be combined with SON to reduce cell site visits.

The study also compared the potential savings of deploying SON for both LTE and UMTS networks. Not surprisingly, the savings for UMTS is significantly higher than LTE due to the scale of networks in the field.

According to the research, implementing SON on an LTE network can yields savings of 19% on energy spend, but the same measurement for UMTS surges up to 45%, largely due to the older age of the equipment for UMTS.

As such, Mark Mortensen, principal analyst at Analysys Mason, recommends that operators should prioritise SON deployments on their existing networks. This way, they can reap the immediate cost savings benefits, which can in turn fuel their investment in LTE.