Power System For Remote Base Stations Telecom Base Station

In other areas, where main high-voltage power grids are built, the power supply is not stable, and huge budget is needed to upgrade and reform the power grids. Fortunately, there are abundant renewable energy resources such as solar, wind and so on in many developing countries. It would be much more economic to widely apply power systems using renewable energy in the remote areas than construct large-area high-voltage power grids. In the regions rich in solar resources like Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, Australia, and Central America, solar power system is an ideal choice as it generates electricity to supply nearby areas and saves such costly equipment as high-voltage power grids, transformers, etc.

One of the key components of a cellular network is the base station. BSs are categorized according to their power consumption in descending order as: macro, micro, mini and femto. Among these, macro base stations are the primary ones in terms of deployment and have power consumption ranging from 0.5 to 2 kW. BSs consume around 60% of the

overall power consumption in cellular networks. Thus one of the most promising solutions for green cellular networks is BSs that are powered by solar energy. Base stations that are powered by energy harvested from solar radiation not only reduce the carbon footprint of cellular networks, they can also be implemented with lower capital cost as compared to those using grid or conventional sources of energy.

Generally speaking, remote area power system consists of electricity generation, energy store, energy conversion, and management equipment. Energy generation equipment includes diesel generator, photovoltaic array, wind generator and hydraulic generator. Storage equipment includes battery pack and energy storage bank. Energy conversion and management equipment comprises DC converter and inverter switch.

Diesel generator is the main power supply in remote areas. It is necessary to keep the load at 60-70% of rated capacity to maximize fuel efficiency and reduce maintenance. The wind generator can reach 250W-500kW output; however, steady wind fields are required. Likewise, suitable and stable river current is a must for hydraulic generator. Furthermore, the hydraulic generator is expensive even though the operating cost is relatively low.