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.
