GSMA and Telenor work to set standards for operator energy efficiency

Today one of the first questions a person may ask when buying a car is “what kind of mileage does it get?” This measurement helps the potential buyer determine whether the vehicle is fuel efficient or a gas guzzler, thus influencing the purchasing decision. The GSM Association (GSMA), on behalf of the mobile industry, has been working to establish a similar standard to make operators more aware as to whether their networks, for example, are efficient or inefficient when it comes to energy consumption. But to do so, they needed some help.

Telenor and Green Power For Mobile

Harald Birkeland, International Energy Manager for Telenor Group, has been working with the GSMA on their Renewable Energy initiatives for the last 1.5 years, specifically supporting the “Green Power for Mobile” project that focuses on the use of renewable energy sources such as solar PV panels, wind and biomass. During this project, Birkeland and others expressed their desire to increase the scope of the initiative, to include energy efficiency across the board.

So when the GSMA established the Mobile Energy Efficiency network benchmark to help the mobile industry lower its annual energy bill, one of the first operators asked to join was Telenor, along with Telefónica and China Mobile. Birkeland was Telenor’s representative for this project, and since summer 2010 he has been feeding the GSMA with numbers on data traffic, voice traffic and selected network properties from all of Telenor’s mobile business units. The network data is used anonymously, so that no operator is privy to another operator’s data.

Benchmarking helps quantify possible energy savings

Through the Mobile Energy Efficiency service operators can benchmark their relative network energy performance. They can also get an indication of potential energy savings, which can result in reduced energy costs and CO2 emissions. The GSMA is now working with 19 mobile operators, representing some 140 networks, and encourages new participants to join.

“However, due to the lack of energy metering, the energy data doesn’t go into specifics, such as whether you’re using more energy for 2G versus 3G networks. For Telenor, this type of analysis will be our next step, as we need to be able to determine where our inefficiencies lie in order to remedy them,” said Birkeland, who also emphasized that the main focus should always be on obtaining the most cost efficient savings.

Finding cost efficient ways to reduce energy consumption

The Mobile Energy Efficiency service highlights which of Telenor’s business units are less efficient than the industry average.

“The benchmarking will continue with annual collection of data, in order to measure long-term improvements,” said Birkeland. “The most important thing is to find cost efficient ways to reduce our consumption. In this respect the varying energy unit price (per kWh) among the business units is a main differentiator. The benchmark results will be used as an indicator of which business unit we should look at more closely in terms of energy efficiency.”