Tower power lights up lives

Till a few years ago, Hardoi village, about 110 km from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, struggled to find enough electricity to light up bulbs after sunset. It plunged into darkness at nightfall, with all activities grinding to a halt. But if you happen to visit today, you will find Hardoi changed. The action in the local bazaar continues late into the night, children are found studying or watching television, and lack of power appears to be a distant worry.

The change dates back to 2012 when Bharti Infratel, the telecom tower subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, set up here a new model of mobile tower in partnership with renewable energy service provider Omnigrid Micropower Company (OMC). The partnership initially focused on telecom towers for areas with erratic or no power supply. Until then, most towers relied on diesel generator sets to keep mobile networks active in areas where the electricity grid could not be depended upon.

Under the pact, OMC’s 17 micro power plants in select locations would generate electricity from renewable sources like solar to run telecom tower operations. Soon, however, the power plants were generating more than what was needed by the towers.

This surplus power was distributed to local villages such as Hardoi. Each micro power plant can serve the needs of around 1,500 households after supplying the telecom towers. Additionally, by generating clean energy, each tower annually reduces carbon dioxide emission by 40-50 tonnes.

OMC takes the surplus power to the doorsteps of the local people in the form of charged LED lanterns and battery units (locally known as ‘bijli boxes’), that supply electricity to charge phones, and operate fans and lighting systems. A fully charged LED lantern glows for about six to eight hours.

“Our innovative RESCO model for powering towers with green energy offers multiple benefits and helps take telecom services deep into rural areas in off-grid locations,” says DS Rawat, MD and CEO, Bharti Infratel.

Currently, 10 per cent of the company’s telecom towers is in off-grid areas and close to 35 per cent in locations that have less than eight hours of power supply a day. The company is keen to extend its partnership model for mobile towers to more areas. “We look forward to having more entrepreneurs replicating this across the country. We stand committed to providing the anchor support to light up the lives of local communities,” Rawat says.

But there are several challenges along the way, starting with the money needed to set up power generating plants. A few years ago the Government had mandated all tower companies to power 50 per cent of rural towers and 20 per cent of urban towers through hybrid power (renewable energy + grid power) by 2015. At least 75 per cent of rural towers and 33 per cent of urban towers were targeted for hybrid power by 2020. Tower companies strongly opposed this as they needed ₹33,000 crore to achieve it. Even as the Government is exploring the way forward, individual success stories like the one in Hardoi shine a bright and cheery light on the issue of rural electrification.

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